This altar is one of the few traditionally hand-carved Tibetan Buddhist altars of this magnitude, intricacy and beauty seen in North America.
This solid mahogany work of art measuring 20 feet wide and 16 feet high, represents over 24,000 hours of work by five full-time artists and a number of supporting artists and staff over a eighteen-month period beginning in May of 2009.
A hand-carved altar for supporting statues and dharma texts is an important and traditional feature of all prayer halls in the Tibetan tradition, and the completion of this altar furthers the hope of Drepung Loseling in Atlanta to truly be a local representative of this great and endangered tradition in the Southeast as a “little Tibet in the heart of Atlanta.” When His Holiness the Dalai Lama inaugurated and consecrated our new prayer hall during his October 2007 visit, he noted the absence the traditional Buddhist texts that would typically be housed in an altar in a Tibetan prayer hall. His Holiness quickly said he would donate a complete set of the Kangyur and Tengyur as well as the complete works of Je Tsongkhapa and his two principal disciples for our prayer hall – a collection comprising several hundred volumes. We are now so pleased we be able to have an altar to house these texts from His Holiness, and we are humbled and honored that His Holiness will himself consecrate the altar during his October visit.
Click Here to view images of the altar and its construction.
Drepung Loseling Monastery, Inc.
1781 Dresden Drive
Atlanta, GA 30319