Visitor Highlights

2 October 2014 - 5:16pm Comments Off

Live, Pray, Love

Highlights and Facilities

Nature’s haven away from busy city streets
Welcomes all race, colour and creed
An oasis of peace, calm and tranquility
To be here right now and listen to the inner Me.

The Kechara Forest Retreat boasts extensive facilities, comfortable accommodation, and functional working environments for guests, events, teachings and retreats.

Wisdom Hall

This 11,000 sq. ft. meditation and teaching hall features minimalist architecture and floor-to-ceiling glass windows, offering near 360° views of the surrounding tropical beauty. The tranquil and peaceful surroundings create the ideal environment for meditations, retreats, teachings and even a wedding or two.

Wisdom Hall features a 13-foot indoor statue of Buddha Shakyamuni, the founder of Buddhism; an 24-foot Great Protecor Dorje Shugden, the largest Dorje Shugden statue in the world; and an 8-foot outdoor statue of Lama Tsongkhapa, the founder of the Gelug lineage, blessing all visitors and the environment.

A well-stocked souvenir shop is also available for visitors to invite Dharma items, Tibetan inspired trinkets or a keepsake of their visit.

Highlights/Facilities

Indoor Shakyamuni statue
Indoor Dorje Shugden statue
Outdoor Tsongkhapa statue
Tsem Rinpoche’s throne
Meditation Hall
Tsem Rinpoche’s audience room
Souvenir shop
Torma making
Pantry
Sound system and projector screens
Disabled access
Public toilets

The 24 feet Dorje Shugden statue

The Souvenir Shop

Outdoor Lama Tsongkhapa (Night)

Audience Room

Must Try

Making light offerings in front of Lama Tsongkhapa
Breathing meditation in the airy and spacious meditation hall
Retail therapy at the souvenir shop

Opening Hours

Tue–Sun: 9am-6pm (by appointment only)

Dukkar Apartments

Dukkar Apartments (Morning)

Dukkar Apartments (Night)

Step into Dukkar Aparments for a welcome change of pace. This home away from home offers open-plan container-style guest accommodation in the middle of the forest, featuring high ceilings, vast spaces and raw finishes. This is communal living with a unique twist, aimed at fostering mindfulness, civic consciousness and an awareness of others and their needs.

Highlights/Facilities

Each cabin is fully air-conditioned, carpeted and is furnished with wardrobes, worktables, chairs, bedside tables, ceiling fan and comfortable beds.
The Function Lounge seats 20 and is equipped with projector, large 12ft. screen, sound system, wireless microphone and DVD player.
The Dining Room offers scenic views of the lush, green surroundings. Ideal for hosting small scale meetings and functions of 10 to 30 people.
Other facilities available –
- Communal kitchens
- Communal dining areas
- Communal washrooms and bathrooms
- Communal library
- Art gallery and installations
- Chill-out upper deck
- Laundry room (washer and dryer)
- Thumbprint security
- CCTV
- Wifi
- Public computers
- Ample parking lots
- Printing and fax services (coming soon)

Guest dining area

Guest lounge

Communal lounge and dining area

Chill-out spaces at the upper deck

The Function lounge

The Dining Room

Manjushri Hill

4-armed Manjushri

Admin Office @ Manjushri Hill

Situated on a natural hilltop in the Kechara Forest Retreat, and named after the majestic stone statue of 4-armed Manjushri that looks over the entire valley, Manjushri Hill is where the administrative and creative offices are located. Visitors are welcome to walk up the hill to make offerings to the Buddha of Wisdom, Manjushri, and enjoy the spectacular views.

Must Try

Making light offerings to Wisdom Buddha Manjushri
Take in the breathtaking views from Manjushri Hill

Tsem Ladrang

Tsem Ladrang (Morning)

Tsem Ladrang (Night)

This H.E. Tsem Rinpoche’s official residence in the Kechara Forest Retreat where Rinpoche and his attendants and assistants live and work. The Ladrang also serves as the headquarters of the Kechara organisation. Visitors are welcome by appointment.

Tsem Ladrang also includes the 5,881sqft gift building adjoining Wisdom Hall, which serves as a functional display and storage space for the gift section. This is where Tsem Rinpoche chooses and blesses gifts and writes letters for lucky recipients around the world. The gift building also plays host to the Flea Market, where many Dharma items donated by Tsem Rinpoche are available at very affordable prices.

Highlights/Facilities

Audience room
Guest rooms
Staff rooms
Waiting area
Dining area
Fully equipped kitchen and pantry
Offices
Gift building
Zen garden
Flea market
Landscaped gardens
Dog-friendly areas
The Aviary
Sangpor (traditional Tibetan incense burner)

Office area for Tsem Ladrang staff

Waiting lounge

Kitchen and dining area

The Audience Room in Tsem Ladrang

Dogs are welcome at Tsem Ladrang

Must Try

Making incense offerings at the Sangpor
Reflexology walk at the Zen garden
Grab a bargain at the flea market

Opening Hours

By appointment only

Tsem Rinpoche’s Cabin and The Holy Bodhi Tree

Make prayers and light offerings at this powerful pilgrimage site

Visitors to the Kechara Forest Retreat are welcome to visit the original cabin where H.E. Tsem Rinpoche lived, worked and conceptualised each and every step of the Kechara Forest Retreat’s development. It is also here that Rinpoche did his daily practices, rituals and pujas to consecrate and bless the land, making the cabin a repository of spiritual energy and a powerful place of pilgrimage.

Originally located on the site of what is now Dukkar apartments, Rinpoche’s cabin was relocated to its present location in November 2013. The interior of the cabin has been preserved exactly as it was when Rinpoche lived here from May 2012 to April 2013. Visitors are welcome to make aspirational prayers, offerings, meditations and circumambulations at this holy site.

A short distance away from the cabin is the Holy Bodhi Tree, a sapling from the original miraculous Bodhi Tree that spontaneously grew in Tsem Ladrang, Kuala Lumpur. Bodhi Trees represent Enlightenment and have tremendous significance for Buddhists of all traditions. Hence, the self-arising tree was a very auspicious sign, symbolizing the eventual fruition of Tsem Rinpoche’s Dharma work in this region.

Interior of Tsem Rinpoche’s cabin

Exterior of Tsem Rinpoche’s cabin

Must Try

Circumambulate and offer light at Rinpoche’s cabin
See the holy bodhi tree

The Aviary

The Aviary (Interior)

One of the rescued birds

Animals have a very special place in Tsem Rinpoche’s heart and every effort is made to feed, care and provide for our furry and feathered friends wherever Rinpoche lives. The Kechara Forest Retreat features a spacious, purpose-built walk-in aviary adjacent to Tsem Ladrang, which is home to a large flock of rescued birds and a pair of tortoises who have been nursed back to full health by Rinpoche and his students.

Visitors are welcome by prior appointment, to feed and learn how to care for the various species in our care, including cockatoos, African Greys, cockatiels and budgerigars, and enjoy watching their amusing antics.

Must Try

Talk to our birds and hear them talk back!
Feeding the birds and tortoises (by appointment only)
Learn how to clean the aviary (by appointment only)

The Organic Farm and Herbs Garden

The Organic Farm

One of the core pillars of conscious living at the Kechara Forest Retreat is to embrace and live in harmony with nature. Visitors and residents are invited dive into the breathtaking abundance of our earth through green programmes held all year round, and to partake of the bounteous harvest from our organic farm and herb gardens.

Highlights/Facilities

Fruit orchards
Herb garden
Nursery
Organic Farm

Must Try (by appointment only)

Weeding
Pruning
Planting

Green Programmes – Learning

Green Programmes – Healing

The Herbs Garden

Organic Produce – Passion fruit

Vajrayogini Stupa

Vajrayogini Stupa located next to Wisdom Hall

Vajrayogini Stupa at night

A stupa is the most sacred monument in the Buddhist world, symbolising the fully Enlightened mind and the path to Enlightenment. The 15-ft. traditional Vajrayogini stupa is filled with billions of sacred Vajrayogini images, scriptures, mantras and holy items, constructed by Himalayan artisans, and consecrated with authentic rituals and prayers by senior Tibetan lamas from Gaden Monastery. To read more, click here.

Highlights/Facilities

Authentic traditional Tibetan stupa
Holy Vajrayogini Statue
Walking and circumambulation path

Must Try

Circumambulation of the stupa while reciting mantra
Pay homage to holy image of Lady Vajrayogini

Gyenze Chapel

Gyenze – Increasing Form of Dorje Shugden

Conceptualized by H.E. Tsem Rinpoche, the Gyenze Chapel is located at the external perimeters of Kechara Forest Retreat. It is open to the public 24 hours daily, allowing visitors and practitioners alike to visit at their convenience. There are various offering items made available including various sized candles, and incense. A video is continuously played at the chapel, explaining Dorje Shugden’s history, practice and iconography. For those interested in learning more, educational and praying materials are provided for people to invite home. To read more, click here.

Highlights/Facilities

Gyenze Statue
TV explaining Dorje Shugden and His practice
Various free educational materials

Must Try (by appointment only)

Making incense offerings
Lighting candle offerings

Education Section

Chapel – External Perimeters

Fish Pond

Over two decades ago, when H.E. Tsem Rinpoche was in Gaden Shartse Monastery and he had a vivid dream. He dreamt of a rare form of Lord Manjushri which was in recorded in a Tibetan text, and a 9ft statue of ‘Dream’ Manjushri was commissioned and arrived in Fish Pond to bless all beings around. There are many koi fish and green plants in the fish pond. Rinpoche always loves and cares about animals, and fish pond is one of the way to express Rinpoche’s loves and cares about animals and fish. To know more about Dream Manjushri please click here and about Fish Pond here.