Tergar Shrine Hall veranda
1 March 2025

Each year, if Losar falls during the Arya Kshema Winter Gathering, nuns from Palmo Drubdey Chӧkyi Dingkhang, the late Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso’s nunnery in Bhutan, perform this ritual for the protector Sangharāma. Because Sangharāma is a mundane protector, the ritual cannot be performed in a sacred space so it is performed on the veranda outside the main entrance to Tergar Monastery Shrine Hall. This ritual, which used to be performed annually at Tsurphu Monastery in Tibet, was revived by the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa, who composed the melodies which the nuns sing. The Karmapa’s original compilation contains sections in Mandarin Chinese as well as Tibetan, but the nuns perform the ritual solely in Tibetan.

In the afternoon, thirty nuns wearing full ceremonial dress gathered either side of the altar bearing a statue of Sangharāma. The beat of a Chinese drum provided the rhythm, and the harmonies were punctuated by the clash of cymbals, and the ringing of a handbell.

In the final section of the puja, which focuses on the long-life prayer for the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa composed by the previous Bokar Rinpoche, multiple Chinese firecrackers were set off for auspiciousness!
For more information on Sangharama:

https://www.aryakshema.com/index.php/en/category-lists/en-articles/8th-arya-kshema/ritual-offering-to-the-tsurphu-protector-sangharama

https://kagyumonlam.org/en/component/content/article/losar-day-three-the-sangharama-ritual?catid=14&Itemid=111

You can watch the full ritual with both Chinese and Tibetan at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbFV8L8FANM

སྤྱི་ལོ་ ༢༠༢༥ ཟླ་ ༢ ཚེས་ ༢༨ དང་། བོད་རབ་བྱུང་ ༡༧ བོད་རྒྱལ་ལོ་ ༢༡༥༢ རབ་གནས་ཤིང་སྦྲུལ་ལོའི་གནམ་ལོ་གསར་བཞད་ཉིན་ལ་རྡོར་གདན་གཏེར་སྒར་རིག་འཛིན་མཁའ་སྤྱོད་དར་རྒྱས་གླིང་དུ། འཕགས་མ་བདེ་བྱེད་མའི་དཔྱིད་ཆོས་ཐེངས་དགུ་པའི་བཙུན་མ་རྣམས་ནས་སྔ་དྲོ་དུས་གསུམ་རྒྱལ་ཀུན་ཕྲིན་ལས་ཀྱི་བྱེད་པོ་དཔལ་༧རྒྱལ་དབང་༧ཀརྨ་པ་མཆོག་གི་གཟིམ་ཆུང་དུ་མཇལ་ཁ་དང་། དེ་རྗེས་གཏེར་སྒར་འདུ་ཁང་ནང་དུ་དཔྱིད་ཆོས་ཀྱི་བཙུན་མ་རྣམས་དང་དད་འདུས་སྟོང་ཚོ་འདུས་པའི་དབུས་སུ། རྩ་གསུམ་དྲིལ་སྒྲུབ་ཀྱི་ཆོ་གའི་སྒོ་ནས་སྐྱེ་དགུ་བདག་མོ་ཆོས་གླིང་བཤད་གྲྭའི་བཙུན་དགོན་གྱི་མཁན་པོ་དགའ་དབང་ནས་དཔལ་༧རྒྱལ་དབང་༧ཀརྨ་པ་མཆོག་གི་སྐུ་པར་མཐོང་གྲོལ་རིན་པོ་ཆེར་བརྟན་བཞུགས་འདེགས་འབུལ་དང་། ཀུན་ལ་རྟེན་འབྲེལ་གསོལ་ཇ་བཞེས་འབྲས་བསྟར། རིམ་བཞིན་མཁན་པོ་དང་སློབ་དཔོན་དང་བཙུན་མ་རྣམས་དང་དད་འདུས་ཀུན་ནས་བཞུགས་ཁྲི་རིན་པོ་ཆེར་དགུང་གསར་གྱི་མཇལ་དར་ཕུལ་ནས་འདི་ལོའི་ལོ་གསར་ཆོས་ཕྱོགས་ཁོ་ནའི་སྒོ་ནས་སྔ་དྲོའི་མཛད་རིམ་ལེགས་པར་གྲུབ་བོ། །

On the auspicious occasion of the first day of Tibetan Losar 2152, the Year of the Female Wood Snake, the first ceremony early in the morning, was held in the Simchung, the Gyalwang Karmapa’s living quarters on the top storey of Tergar Monastery. The khenpos, representatives of the nuns and Lama Choedrak, CEO of Kagyu Monlam, gathered there to offer prayers and katags, and celebrate the occasion with sweet rice and Tibetan butter tea.

Then, in the main shrine hall, all the khenpos and nuns who are attending the 9th Arya Kshema, Monlam staff, Labrang staff, staff from the Kagyu Monlam Animal Camp, monks from Tergar Monastery and lay devotees gathered to recite the Losar prayers and to offer a body, speech and mind mandala to the Gyalwang Karmapa. The mandala offering was led by Khenpo Gawang.
Once more, the occasion was celebrated with sweet rice and Tibetan butter tea.
Finally, everyone was able to offer a katag to the Gyalwang Karmapa, represented by his portrait placed on the throne on stage.

Tergar Shrine Hall,
27 February 2025

Today was the final day of the Tibetan Year of the Wood Dragon. Tomorrow will be Losar, the first day of the Year of the Female Wood Snake. After three days of the Mahakala ritual combined with Tseringma, the nuns met early in the morning to conclude the Gutor.

They offered a final Short Mahakala before the Ritual for Receiving Siddhis, when the great torma is taken around the congregation and everyone breaks off a small piece and eats it, receiving the blessings from the ritual.
They then performed the Sang or smoke offering “Cloudbanks of Amrita”; the ritual fire for the offerings burned on the path in front of Tergar Shrine Hall.

The Gutor was successfully concluded and everything made ready for the new year.

Tergar Shrine Hall, Bodhgaya,
24 – 26 February 2025 

In the days immediately preceding Losar, it is customary to offer a Mahakala ritual; this is known as the Gutor [དགུ་གཏོར་] in Tibetan because it concludes on the 29th day of the twelfth Tibetan month. Tergar Shrine Hall was freshly decorated with great garlands of marigolds and a shrine to Mahakala Bernakchen was set up in front of the stage to the left. The ritual is performed each year before Losar in order to purify any negativities collected during the year and to clear away obstacles in the year ahead. Mahakala Bernakchen, the two-armed Mahakala, is the special protector of the Karma Khamtsang, so this ritual is of particular significance to Karma Kagyu; however, the aim is to perform the ritual for the benefit of all sentient beings
This year the Short Mahakala Puja was combined with another ritual—Tseringma. This ritual, previously performed at Tsurphu in Tibet, is an offering to the five Tseringma –the five Long-Life Sisters who are protectors of the Kagyu lineage–and their connection with the Kagyu can be traced back to Milarepa, hence a statue of Milarepa crowned the shrine set up to the Tseringma to the right in front of the stage.
Tashi Tseringma is the principal deity of this group of female protectors who are known as the Tashi Tsering Chenga. 
In 2016 the 17th Karmapa expressed his hope that in the years to come, the nunneries would engage in the extensive practice of Tseringma every year and so it has become part of the Arya Kshema. 

For further information on Tseringma:
https://www.aryakshema.com/index.php/en/category-lists/en-articles/5th-arya-kshema/the-nuns-offer-two-rituals-dolkar-and-the-five-tseringma
https://www.aryakshema.com/index.php/en/category-lists/en-articles/5th-arya-kshema/the-nuns-offer-two-rituals-dolkar-and-the-five-tseringma