Cradle of European Civilization—the Cradle of European Buddhism
The 16th Gyalwa Karmapa's first visit to his future European seat, 21 January 1975
During his stay with the De Swartes (see here), Karmapa received a call from the wealthy inventor Bernhard Benson, whom he had met briefly in Paris. Benson wanted to meet Karmapa to discuss the enormous donation of land he owned in the Dordogne. Benson was quite an extraordinary person, an inventor, who had developed a homing missile designed to prevent German planes from bombing London during World War Two. Some say he was almost a kind of genius. He had acquired the land in the Dordogne in 1961.
In the late 1960s he had traveled several times to India. Coming back from one of these trips, he told his family: “I have met the most wonderful person I have ever seen: Kangyur Rinpoche.”[1] At this moment something changed in him: He developed the idea of “establishing an international peace center, in particular, he wanted to help the Tibetan refugees save their wisdom, their knowledge and their culture.”[2]
His plans could never be realized, as they included the creation of a sovereign Tibetan enclave with its own passport and currency, something the local authorities were not at all enthusiastic about. In 1971 he offered a part of his properties to Dudjom Rinpoche, who was the first great lama who visited France.
A little later Benson arrived in the crowded house of the De Swartes with his wife and three young daughters and talked quite a while with His Holiness. Georgina de Swarte: “Benson left Karmapa’s room, very enthusiastic, as he was, and said: 'The Karmapa leaves for the Dordogne tomorrow, in the morning he will take an air taxi.”[3]
The land he wanted to offer Karmapa was in an area which gave its name to an entire epoch of human development in Europe.[4] Soon it would also become the cradle of European Buddhism.
Karmapa left the De Swartes’ idyllic country home the following day and flew to Brive-la-Gaillarde in the southwest of France. There Mr. and Mrs. Benson along with their family picked him up in his Rolly Royce and took him first to their château. Then, they all went together to the top of the Côte de Jor hill, which was part of the planned donation. Mrs. Benson found a prehistoric shell and when she offered it to the Karmapa some rainbows appeared in the sky.[5] His Holiness understood this as a very good sign—a similar shell had been found during construction of the Rumtek monastery. Conches represent the propagation of the Dharma.[6]
Karmapa wanted to raise some prayer flags on the land. What happened next was a strong positive sign of the Dharma’s integration into the new environment: Two gendarmes had noticed the group from a nearby road and stopped to see what was going on. Moments later, they found themselves helping the Karmapa raise the prayer flags—another example of the impact of Rigpe Dorje’s strong influence. Bruyat:
“Karmapa, who had a kind of completely natural authority—he was like an emperor—gave the gendarmes a sign to come—and they obeyed as though they were children. He said: ‘You hold the flagpole!’ and they did. That afternoon he explained the alignment of the monastery, pointing to the hill in front and explained: ‘You have to build it in the next few years, otherwise enormous obstacles will arise.’”[7]
Rain of Blessings
Before leaving, Karmapa asked Benson for an umbrella. Again Christian Bruyat: “Benson replied, ‘Today the weather is very beautiful, you do not need an umbrella.’ Nevertheless, Karmapa insisted: ‘Yes indeed, I do need an umbrella!’”
Just before blessing the site, Karmapa opened the umbrella, much to the surprise of the gendarmes, as the sky was blue and no clouds were visible. Elvira Benson, a five-year-old child at the time, still vividly remembers this moment: “They probably thought it was very strange to open an umbrella in such lovely weather.” But five minutes later, they understood: there was a light shower despite the bright weather.He wanted to mark the place of the future monastery. At the very moment when he blessed the place a slight rain fell from the blue sky, a “rain of blessing,” as he explained, “it rains flowers.”[8] Jigme Rinpoche explains this very special rain:
“Some people might not believe [what happened next], and others might, but just two meters above the ground the flowers disappeared. This happened only within a circumference of hundred square meters. For people who believe in symbolism and mysticism this is very important, people who are very intellectual might put a big question mark.”
In accordance with these auspicious occurrences and his impression of the place, His Holiness commented: “That’s exactly the right spot for the establishment of Dharma in Europe!”[9]
At this time, Benson had previously met Dudjom Rinpoche, then head of the Nyingma school, and had invited him to choose a portion of his land for his tradition.
Dudjom Rinpoche while still in Tibet had a vision of a region from where the Dharma would spread, but wasn’t aware where the region was situated. When he visited the Dordogne and the Côte de Jor for the first time he saw that this was the land his vision had revealed. Anne Benson:
“My father first offered all the land surrounding the castle to His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche in 1972 and later in 1975 when his root teacher Kangyur Rinpoche passed away, he wanted to offer the castle to Kangyur Rinpoche’s family, and half of the land to the Karmapa.”[10]
Benson hadn’t told Karmapa about this when he asked him to choose the land he wanted. Once more his actions have no logical explanation. In his immense clairvoyance—we do not know on what levels a Karmapa communicates with his equals—as Jigme Rinpoche remembers, “Karmapa only chose that part of the land which Dudjom Rinpoche had not taken.”[11] Benson’s land today accommodates two Nyingmapa centers, with their respective three-year retreat centers.
According to the journal Le Monde, Karmapa concluded his visit with the plan that the place will “become the center for the Dharma in the West,”[12] and indeed, Karmapa’s short visit to the Dordogne laid the foundation for his future European seat.
[1] Anne Benson in: Kim & Yeshe: Return to Gandhi Road. A feature documentary about the life of Kangyur Rinpoche, Vendetta Films 2020.
[2] Interview mit Anne Benson, 2014.
[3] Interview with G. and É. de Swarte, 2011.
[4] This is the Magdalenian, Microquian or Mousterian age. Not far away is the prehistoric cave Lascaux, which Karmapa visited in 1977.
[5] Jigme Rinpoche, Talk at the inauguration of the Institute in Dhagpo Kagyü Ling, June 2013.
[6] Account of Anne Benson.
[7] Interview with Christian Bruyat, Peyzac-le-Moustier, 2013. The construction of the monastery was, however, delayed and the predicted obstacles were not long in coming: Dhagpo Kagyü Ling did not obtain a building permit, and therefore in 1984 bought land in the Auvergne to build a temple, retreat centers and two monasteries under Gendün Rinpoche’s guidance. Numerous difficulties delayed the opening of the library, which the 16th Karmapa had wanted, until 2013.
[8] Interview with Christian Bruyat, Peyzac-le-Moustier, May 2012.
[9] Jigme Rinpoche, Talk at the inauguration ..., op. cit. Gendün Rinpoche later explained that the ability to perceive this fine rain of flowers depends on an individual’s openness or realization.
[10] Interview with Anne Benson, 2014.
[11] Jigme Rinpoche, Talk at the inauguration…, op. cit.
[12] Guillebaud, Jean-Claude: M. Benson met le Tibet en Périgord Le Monde, Nov. 20, 1976.
Le Sud Quest, 22nd of January 1975