Visiting teacher Lama Padma and sangha after Riwo Sangchod, a traditional purifying smoke offering practice, on Grey Mountain.
Photos by: Cheryl Buchanan, Rich Buchanan, Danièle Héon

Forty years after its founding, Vajra North, among the most northerly dharma groups in North America, is rebounding from various challenges with renewed vigor and dharma offerings.

Most of our members live near Whitehorse, the capital of Canada’s Yukon Territory, at about the same latitude as Anchorage, Alaska.

Tibetan Buddhist Master Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche established numerous centers of Vajrayana practice of the Nyingma, or “old school” lineage of Tibetan Buddhism in North America. He established Vajra North—formally called Rigdrol Dechen Ling—in 1984. So far we are the only Chagdud Gonpa practice group in Canada.

At its peak Vajra North counted up to 40 members and held up to seven events per year. Membership dropped in recent years due to various circumstances, of which the pandemic was one factor. Dharma teachings by visiting lamas (authorized dharma teachers and spiritual guides) were cancelled then paused for a few years, due to restrictions on travel and in-person gatherings.

Nonetheless, our small core group maintained steadfast commitment to the practices. Now as a result of resuming our dharma activities post pandemic, we are currently buoyed by renewed interest and enthusiasm from existing and new members.

Our activities first resumed by offering one monthly meditation practice session using Zoom. In early 2023 our activities gained momentum by adding weekly in-person meditation sessions, held either in a classroom at Yukon University, in the sacred space of the Kwanlin Dun Cultural Centre, (graciously offered free of charge by a local indigenous group), or in a room at the public library.

During the summer and in partnership with another sangha, one weekly gathering per month is held at a forested site north of town. There we do a self-guided half-day retreat.

In the summer of 2023 we launched a wonderful new website, which has been very effective in reaching the community of meditation practitioners, both locally and abroad. This active online presence communicates effectively our various dharma offerings, and has led to a gradual but steady increase in regular members who show enthusiasm and commitment to dharma practice.

In April 2024, we were delighted to once again invite one of our Chagdud Gonpa lamas for an inspiring weekend of dharma teaching. We are hoping to hold more teaching events in the coming year.

In late March of 2025, a travelling Theravada monk, Gunavaddho Bhikkhu, came to our community on a quest. He was interested in how a small, relatively isolated group like ours in a non-Buddhist culture keeps going in our practice of the dharma. He found us through our website.

Gunavaddho Bhikkhu wanted to learn in order to bring our perspectives back to his own community of monks and practitioners in Thailand, to inspire them to keep going. Interestingly, “Keep Going” was one pith instruction of our main teacher, Chagdud Rinpoche!

Gunavaddho Bhikkhu was surprised to learn that that the roots of the Buddhadharma were first established in the 1970s here in the Yukon, by the arrival of His Holiness the 16^th Karmapa and entourage.  Over nearly 50 years we’ve had extraordinary visits by a wide range of very accomplished Buddhist teachers, who planted seeds of dharma in our community that have subsequently born fruit for many practitioners. 

The parting words of our distinguished bhikkhu visitor were, “Keep watering those seeds of dharma, and continue to grow.”

Chagdud Rinpoche named this land Rigdrol Dechen Ling, which in Tibetan means “The Place of Liberating Awareness and Great Bliss.”

The Place of Liberating Awareness and Great Bliss
(Rigdrol Dechen Ling)

The view of unwavering, self-arising awareness is the foundation.
Meditating by letting the mind rest in its true nature,
Uncontrived and self-liberated, is the path.
Effortlessly expressing one’s true nature is the blissful fruit.
May this precious place of happiness and benefit to self and others expand and increase.

Following are comments from various members of our Yukon sangha, who chose to remain anonymous. These words express their personal experience, of what “keeps them going” in their practice:

• “Living here in this beautiful, wild country is very conducive to practice. Many of the great teachers of the past encouraged their students or would-be yogis to take to the mountains or live in the forest. And here we are! We are nourished and fed in our practice through this immersion with the natural world. … Sitting by a stream, a lake, or a campfire quiets the mind and naturally takes you out of the frenzy of tick-tock time. We can rest with the timelessness of birdsong, wind through the trees, the changing light, falling snow, the sounds of a burbling creek, the smell of woodsmoke.”

• “Chagdud Rinpoche’s vision for the north, as expressed in the profound prayer he wrote for us, is what sustains me. It is a sacred trust to preserve and uphold the dharma here in the far north for the benefit of ourselves and other sentient beings.  It is why he travelled all the way here to bring the dharma to us.”

• “Continuing to practice is what we can do during difficult times. We can be helpful to ourselves and others, by doing dharma practice.”

Please visit our website, to learn more about what we do and to see photos of past events. We invite you to visit the Yukon one day, and experience firsthand what keeps us going!