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Tibetans plan enclave in UK

A small enclave to keep alive the traditional Tibetan culture and religion is to be set up in a lonely hilly section of Yorkshire, a northern English country. The Association for Tibetan Buddhism is to buy a house there to create a Samye-Ling monastic centre where Lamas headed by Trungpa Rinpoche and including British converts will live and work as though they were in the remoteness of Tibet.

In an appeal for funds, the Association says: “One of the great civilisations of our time is coming to an end and we are witness to it,” and goes on to point out that, with the exodus of the lamas from their homeland, “the inevitable will happen: through contact with entirely new influences, this previously isolated civilisation will lose its identity.”

The Association concludes that unless the English centre is created, Tibetan culture will be lost after a generation. Trungpa Rinpoche has been living in Oxford since he escaped from Tibet with a month-long trek over the Himalayas. He is currently writing a book about his homeland.

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