His Holiness Rabjam Rinpoche, and Tulku Sangak Rinpoche, perform ceremonies and rituals in the meditation hall at Bodhi House.
Photos by: Green Door Photography

In early 2024 construction will begin on the Namchak Retreat Ranch’s three-year retreat center in Hot Springs, Montana. When complete it will be one of just a few such facilities in the U.S. West.

During a three-year retreat, participants will practice shamata, vipassana, Ngöndro, deity practice, Dzogchen, and deeper practices, which can lead students to enlightenment. Such retreats are crucial for establishing the Namchak lineage in the West.

Slated for completion in 2025, the three-year facility will have six cabins, each with 10 rooms, a patio area, and a ceremony space. Each room will have a deck facing the Mission Mountains. Surrounded by vast Montana skies and breathtaking mountain ranges, the 9.000-acre sacred property lends itself to contemplation.

Long ago Lama Tsomo, and her teacher Tulku Sangak Rinpoche, set this land aside to become a major three-year retreat center. Thus they are fulfilling their mission of providing a path to enlightenment through the practices of the Namchak lineage.

This vision really came to life in October, 2023, when His Holiness Rabjam Rinpoche, world-renowned leader of the Nyingma school (like the pope is to the Catholics), visited the ranch to consecrate the site of our three-year retreat facility. As one staff member said, this blessing was “a sign of good things to come.”

Stephen Small Salmon, a Pend d’Oreille tribal member, at the same time blessed the ranch from his lineage.

During the visit H.H. Rabjam Rinpoche taught on Ambrosia for the Mind, a text close to his heart and important to the Khyentse lineage, and within the greater Nyingma lineage. This text is a prayer for all the Seven Points of Mind Training qualities to arise in our mind streams.

Now, with the land consecration accomplished and construction plans underway, all of us at Namchak are looking to the future. If you want to receive three-year retreat center updates, please email us at info@namchak.org.

While the ultimate purpose of the Namchak Retreat Ranch is to hold three-year retreats, we serve students at all points along the path to enlightenment. A separate facility for shorter and more introductory retreats, the Bodhi House, is in a valley six miles from the three-year retreat center site. Completed in July 2023, it can accommodate 28 students and two teachers, and features a full kitchen and a meditation hall.

After its completion we hosted our first retreat, the Summer Immersion Program, where students spent four weeks studying Buddhism, meditating, and taking part in land stewardship. Later we hosted the final retreat of a more advanced three-year program.

 In both cases the students spoke of how transformative the practices and experiences were, and how important a factor was the crucible of that place.

Upcoming construction will include a “Welcome Park” decorated with statues of Guru Padmasambhava (Guru Rinpoche), Yeshe Tsogyal, Mandāravā, and Buddha Shakyamuni, The park will also include flowers, walking paths, greenhouses, and permaculture-based landscaping.

It’s important to acknowledge that the Namchak Retreat Ranch lies in the homelands of the Séliš (Salish), Kootenai, and Ql̓ispé (Kalispel) people. We offer our respect for their history and culture, for their ancient and continuing presence in this landscape, and for the path they have shown us in caring for this place for the generations to come. Years ago, after Namchak acquired the land, we held a joint land blessing in the Tibetan tradition and the Pend d’Orielle tradition, thanks to our longtime friend Stephen Small Salmon.

Our commitment to sustainability and the environment is a prime consideration during all construction phases. We have implemented comprehensive ongoing management strategies, including wetland restoration, noxious weed removal, native reseeding, fence removal, replacement of barbed wire with wildlife-friendly fencing, and a permaculture program.

We’re also building for the long term. Whenever possible, we select efficient and sustainable materials designed to last 200 years. We minimize plastics and maximize our use of solar energy and ground source heating and cooling. We will use composting toilets for the three-year retreat site, and for other locations on the ranch.

By involving students in sustainability and permaculture practices at the ranch, we provide a physical space to foster “engaged Buddhism.” Even before we had space to practice this, we aimed to help humans live meaningful lives in three areas: personal, community, and the world.

In addition to the traditional Buddhist practices, we offer “sangha skills,” or best practices for cultivating connection with others. The Buddha spoke of the three jewels: Buddha, dharma, and sangha. He intended that we practice “beloved community,” as Rev. Martin Luther King called it, so we have made that pursuit a strong thread throughout our programs.

Since 2016, we have offered online and in-person programs. In the future we will offer everything from introductory retreats to Dzogchen, or dark retreat, the most profound practice in our tradition, with durations including weekend retreats and traditional three-year retreat. Students will learn from Tibetan and Western teachers, and will receive support from a vibrant community.

One of our favorite offerings is a yearlong program for young people, including a summer intensive.

Tulku Sangak Rinpoche is the world lineage holder of the Namchak lineage, and spiritual director of the Namchak Foundation. He specializes in advanced practices like Dzogchen and dark retreat. Lama Tsomo, a Westerner ordained by Rinpoche, is a co-founder of the Namchak Foundation. She is also a teacher, author, psychotherapist, and visionary leader in our projects.

She and Tulku Sangak Rinpoche have captained the plans and ideas for manifesting the Namchak Retreat Ranch. Another leader is Namchak Khen Rinpoche, Tulku Sangak Rinpoche’s brother and dharma heir, who is a Tibetan-born scholar and a deeply practiced teacher, who teaches students at all levels.

Namchak refers to a small lineage within the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism, which follows the Vajrayana path. The transmissions of this lineage can be traced in an unbroken line back to the Buddha Shakyamuni, the historical Buddha. The transmissions are some of the oldest forms of Tibetan Buddhist practice.

As Lama Tsomo said, “Early in my studies with Rinpoche, he clarified a foundational point to me. He told me that what he was teaching me was not a religion but a set of highly effective, proven methods for improving my mind. Eventually, if I followed them and succeeded, they would lead me to full enlightenment.”

 As we look at the world today, we see these ancient practices as the right medicine to share with Westerners. And now, we are fortunate enough to share them in an idyllic and inspiring setting.

In this time when “me first” and “us/them” thinking is destroying the world, the Namchak Retreat Ranch and its wide-open Montana skies serve as a beacon: a powerful tool for waking up to true reality. From here, may clarity and wisdom roll out in all directions, supporting many to live better, happier, more meaningful lives.

Do you wish to receive email updates on our programs and construction? Please email us at info@namchak.org.