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During the time that followed Gendune Rinpoche’s death in 1997, some of his disciples had started to work on a stupa meant to receive his ashes, as is traditionally done for a great lama. Some among those also wished fervently for a statue of this great lineage master to be made and presented someday to His Holiness the Gyalwa Karmapa. In that they were encouraged by Kunzig Shamar Rinpoche. These two projects therefore meant setting up a foundry worshop, right here in Kundreul Ling.
The Rinpoche statue’s project will be the out come of a whole apprentice ship whichs also holds at heart to perpetuate the founding tradition within our lineage. This tradition fall little by little into oblivion. As we start nearly from scratch, it is first of all necessary for us to gather knowledge and understand how relevant this is to the foundry domain.
For this reason Claire has followed a training course, in order to acquire the basis of workshop.
As it is carried on in the West. She’s the head of the foundry workshop and is already trained in modelling and has 12 years professional experience behind her (decoration, clay and plaster casting, etc…)
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Thanks to some people allowing us to use their personal equipment, she can practise working on pieces of the stupa and on lotus petals that are relatively easy to make. This allows her to develop observation, to experiment and to deepen her knowledge, so as to be able teach others.
Next spring she’s off to India and Sikkim to proceed with her training under the guidance of Indian and Tibetan artists. This will also be a good opportunity to collect documentation.
Indian artists excel in their art with relatively little means, compared to the on means we have here in the West. The idea would be to develop a combination of both, for we do not have here in Le Bost all the required equipment, and there’s still a lot of room for improuvement.
The Stupa
A previous stupa was made by Gérard Guinot, who built the large Shakyamuni Buddha statue in the greatTemple. Now the Lama Council has decided, along with aproval of the Gyalwa Karmapa, to have a larger one buit, and whose dimensions and proportions are found in a traditional texts written by Kakyab Dorje, the 15th Karmapa. This new stupa will be 1m x 1m at the base and 1,70 m in height, and will ornate the greatTemple of Le Bost.
It will be carried out in several steps:
- The structural work has been entrusted to Gérard Guinot. The main body of the stupa. The idea is to to reinforce with a copper framework, this to support the bronze spire on top and the mantra rolls that will fill it.
- The ornamentation will be made in Kundreul Ling, using bronze lax casting, and then added to the stupa.
- Then comes the finishing work, including bronze engraving, the setting of precious stones and the gilding.
- And finally, once the stupa has been filled up with different precious substances comes
- The consecration, for such a stupa is first and foremost the perfect medium for a great blessing
 Bumpa |
 Patra |
For now some parts have already been made by Gérard, i.e. the throne (the lower part with steps), the bumpa (the round upper part), the silicon casting of the lotus petals’ sculpture, of which a small number has been made entirely on the spot using bronze, and a patra sculpture made of clay (an ornamental pattern representing plant — like interlacing).
Rinpoche’s statue
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Lama Kunkyab has already made an original model of this statue, using clay reinforced with cotton wool (traditional eastern method). It is aproximatly 30 cms high.
During the winter 2000, exactly three years after Rinpoche’s passing, Lama Kunkyab entered retreat for a few weeks to make this statue, a job he had been entrusted with by the Sangha. He listened to different views from some of Guendune Rinpoche’s close disciples and most of all from Shamarpa, who wished to bring alterations, notably to the headdress and to the position of the hands.
The clay model has known no finish, as this operation is to be performed on a wax test drawn from the silicone casting of the statue. This castingshaving now been made, Lama Kunkyab and Claire should put the finishing touches to the wax test as time allows.
As we wish to achieve the utmost quality we come up against several technical difficulties, and the subject shows many unknowns. Moreover, owing to the small scale and the complexity of the piece, the extraction from the plaster moulding will turn out to be a very delicate process. The statue will be made of precious bronze, i.e. mixed with gold. It should also contain some of Guendune Rinpoche’s ashes.
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 Crown (bronze) |
Several copies of this statue willbe made for Lama Guendune Rinpoche’s large centres, but on a strictly limited scale and there will be no plaster copies at all.
As for now, only the headdress has been entirely finished.
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The Waxcasting Technic 1 — Making an original with wax: ° Either sculpting straight into wax (in that case losing the original) ° Or by duplication, having realized beforehand a casting of the original piece using an other material (this allows a other copies to be made).
3 — Casting the foundry mould onto the whole thing, with a mixture of plaster, crushed fire brick and horse manure (this to get a porous mould). 4 — Dewaxing: The upside down mould is submitted to very low heat in an oven, it is heated so that the wax melts, drains away from the mould and gets burned. The mould is now ready for casting. 5 — Metal casting: We bring the metal in a crucible to melting point in an oven. When temperature reaches 1150°C we then cast it into the mould.
6 — Cracking the mould: The whole thing is left to cool down for a days no, then we delicately break the mould apart using a hammer, and then finish cleaning the piece off with a pressurized jet of water. 7 — We free the piece from its casting ducts and spiracles by cutting them up with a cutting disc. 8 — The finishing: We can now start casting, and after that give a patina to the statue, or gild or paint it.
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