Travels & Centres
Six hundred, odd centres and the driving between them. Phowa courses behind the Iron Curtain, the tours across Europe, Russia, South America and Asia, the 9,500-kilometre drives, and the local groups that grew from each visit.
Part of Lama Ole Nydahl
19 moments in this segment.
- - With Lopön Tsechu in the Himalayas. Lopön Tsechu Rinpoche with Hannah and Lama Ole Nydahl, their first teacher, met in Kathmandu, and a lifelong friend of the Nydahls.
- - Teaching in communist Poland. Under difficult circumstances, Lama Ole began in 1975 to teach and build centers in communist Poland, the start of the deep friendships and connections to the Eastern Bloc that would define so much of his life’s work.
- - A secret journey to East Tibet. In 1986 Lama Ole travelled with a small group of friends on a secret journey to Tibet, documented in the film "Secret Journey To East Tibet". (Photo: Lama Ole giving blessing in Tibet.)
- - The first center in the Soviet Union. In 1989, with the Kagyu Ngagdzö from Kontrul Rinpoche, Lama Ole founded the first Diamond Way Buddhist Center in what was then the Soviet Union. Diamond Way Buddhism was later officially recognised as a religion in Russia, and Lama Ole travelled the Trans-Siberian railway to Vladivostok with up to 200 students every year.
- - Lopön Tsechu in the former Soviet Union. Lama Ole brought his teachers into the freed East. (Photo from his site: Hannah and Lama Ole Nydahl with Lopön Tsechu Rinpoche in 1991 in the former Soviet Union.)
- - Lopön Tsechu invited to Kassel. Lama Ole Nydahl invited his first Buddhist teacher Lopön Tsechu Rinpoche to a Buddhist course in Kassel. (From the "East Meets West" gallery.)
- - With Lopön Tsechu in Kathmandu. Lama Ole Nydahl and Lopön Tsechu Rinpoche, his first Buddhist teacher, in Kathmandu, Nepal. (From the "East Meets West" gallery.)
- - Bhutan with 72 students. In 2003 Lama Ole travelled to Bhutan with 72 students from 36 countries, at the invitation of Lopön Tsechu Rinpoche, meeting Je Khenpo, the highest Buddhist dignitary in Bhutan, and a member of the royal family. (Photo: Lama Ole with the Princess of Bhutan.)
- - Giving blessing in Bhutan. Lama Ole Nydahl giving blessing after a lecture in Bhutan, 2003. (From the "East Meets West" gallery.)
- - Buddhist services at the Athens Olympics. In 2004 the Olympic Committee asked Lama Ole to provide the Buddhist services for top athletes at the Religious Service Center in the Olympic Village in Athens. An international team of Buddhist teachers speaking seven languages, selected by him, cared for the athletes. (Photo: Lama Ole in the Olympic Village.)
- - The Olympic Religious Service Center. Lama Ole Nydahl during the Olympic Games in Athens 2004, at the Olympic Religious Service Center, where the Diamond Way organisation was asked to care for the Buddhist athletes. (From the "East Meets West" gallery.)
- - Bhutan with the Queen Mother. In 2012 Lama Ole taught at the invitation of the Royal Family in Bhutan, meeting the Queen Mother of Bhutan and visiting a special Buddhist temple with her. (Photo: Lama Ole and the Queen Mother of Bhutan.)
- - Vietnamese practitioners in Vladivostok. (From the "East Meets West" gallery.)
- - A lecture in London. Lama Ole Nydahl lecturing in London, one of countless public talks across more than sixty countries. (Photo from his site.)
- - 75th birthday in Warsaw. On the night of his 75th birthday, 19 March 2016, Lama Ole gave teachings in Warsaw, where about 4,000 students congratulated him during the lecture. (Photo: 75th birthday at a meditation course in Warsaw, 19 March 2016.)
- - A life on the road. For nearly fifty years Lama Ole travelled around the world twice a year, teaching in over sixty countries and showing how to live Buddhism in daily life, until, around 2017, he began to reduce his relentless schedule for reasons of health. (Photo: Lama Ole working with his team.)
- - Film: 9500 km of Diamond Way. A documentary following Lama Ole’s legendary Trans-Siberian railway tour across Russia with his students.
- - Film: Transparent Lama from Bhutan. A film portrait from the Diamond Way archive, on Lama Ole and the lineage’s connection to Bhutan and Lopön Tsechu Rinpoche.
- - Film: Secret Journey to East Tibet. The documentary of Lama Ole’s 1986 secret journey into East Tibet with a small group of friends.
