Inta Mckimm, a Latvian refugee from the second world war, started LTC (then known as Chenrezig city centre) in the early eighties, after first meeting Lama Zopa Rinpoche at the famous diamond valley course in QLD in 1972. She ran the centre from her lounge, and financed it with her pension. Her bright dyed hair, elegant clothes and wild jewellery attracted a diverse group of students who found an oasis and spiritual home.
Rinpoche gave us a new name – Langri Tangpa Centre. Inta passed away from lung cancer, but it was a good death. She was genuinely curious about the experience, and her complete devotion to Rinpoche removed all fears. Her daughter Miffi left a costume business in Melbourne to run the centre and keep Inta’s life-work going. We went from running finances out of a biscuit tin, to an incorporated organisation. Geshe Tashi Tsering gave regular teachings, and the class sizes grew until we were bursting at the seams!
After four intensive years of searching we finally found a bigger premises at Camp Hill. On the strength of our 1-inch thick business plan, and Rinpoche’s advice to recite the Diamond Cutter Sutra many times, we received a donation of $600,000 from one of our students! The centre secured a loan just a few months before the GFC dried up all credit worldwide, we signed the papers, and the building was blessed by the great stupa holy relics tour within the first six months.
We celebrated our 30th anniversary in 2012, hosted by the youngest director within the FPMT, Jaimee Treloar. We received a new logo from Lama Zopa Rinpoche, and installed beautiful custom-made altar ready just one day before the anniversary celebrations. We catalogued our 2,700 library and put it online. We installed our life-size Buddha statue. Almost two decades later, and Eddie and Miffi are still leading classes at the centre! The program has steadily grown, thanks to an immense amount of help from LTC volunteers, LTC nuns, and visiting lamas from the FPMT. But most importantly, the centre has become the spiritual home of the students, the living embodiment of Lama Yeshe’s “pamily peeling”.
In the coming years we aim to become more involved in our wider community, with Sutra road trips to bless the environment and animal sanctuaries, refugee welcome and pride marches, Festival of Tibet, and more family orientated activities and celebrations. We would like to support our western Sangha, the LTC nuns, who lead many of our activities. Our online presence is growing, and we will be expanding our online soundfiles and teachings. We aim to support and and encourage all our students to attend teachings with HH the Dalai Lama, and with Lama Zopa Rinpoche in Bendigo, whenever they visit Australia…
[fts_facebook id=langritangpa album_id=496526867054727 posts=38 title=no description=no words=15 type=album_photos image_width=325px image_height=300px hide_date_likes_comments=no image_position_lr=0% image_position_top=0% popup=yes like_option_align=center slider=yes slider_speed=200 slider_controls_bar_color=#f2cc37 slider_timeout=3000 slider_controls_text_color=#FFF scrollhorz_or_carousel=carousel slider_spacing=1px hide_like_option=no show_follow_btn_where=above_title like_box_width=500px slider_controls=arrows_and_numbers_below_feed slider_controls_width=500px slider_margin=”0px auto 2px auto”]