Have you ever passed the gate on Danby Road a few miles south of campus and wondered what was behind it?

The gate is the entrance to a Buddhist complex called Dü Khor Choe Ling, the Land of Kalachakra Study and Practice. The complex is run by the Namgyal Monastery in Ithaca, which is the North American seat of the Dalai Lama.

 Shrine Hall, the main temple at Dü Khor Choe Ling. Photos by Adam Baker.

Founded in 1992, the monastery offers Western students the opportunity to study authentic Tibetan Buddhism in a monastic setting. The 28-acre wooded lot on Danby Road contains a 13,000-square-foot set of buildings that resembles a mandala. The buildings house cabins for retreats, dormitory rooms, and private rooms, as well as housing for monks and a residence for the senior teacher and the Dalai Lama.

This sand mandala took four monks five days to complete, with monks working on it around the clock. 
 

View a video of a Kalachakra ritual ceremony in the new temple that took place in July 2015: