Dear Dharma brothers and sister,
I am writing to share with you how our upcoming Summer Retreat also known as Yarney, relates to the importance of preserving and continuing the ancient rituals and specifically the teachings of our Tibetan monastery. Despite the challenges faced during and after the Tibetan revolution and exodus, we have diligently worked to uphold these sacred practices.
Our annual Sgrub Mchods rituals, which have been deeply rooted in the traditions of our monastery since the 15th century, are conducted with faithful devotion, upholding the monastic vows and commitments.
During the Summer Retreat, in accordance with the Buddha’s command, we seize the opportunity to engage in these special rituals that have been orally transmitted from teacher to disciple for generations. These efforts are a continuation of the hard work and dedication of our Venerable Abbots, who strived to maintain and restore the monastery’s activities here in Nepal.
We are committed to furthering these precious rituals, ensuring that the teachings, particularly the oral instructions of Lama Tsongkhapa (Jamgon Snyan Rgyud), are preserved, continue to be passed down to our current and future monks, and spread throughout this world.
We pray for the long life of all pure Dharma holders, the well-being of our sponsors, and the liberation of all sentient beings from diseases, wars, stress, and all conditions of degenerate times.
May they attain both temporary and ultimate happiness forever.
Your support is crucial in fulfilling these noble wishes. Thank you for your continued generosity and dedication.
#segyumonastery # summerretreat #yarney #vassana #vassa #rainretreat
Sincerely Yours,
H.E. Kyabje Khen Rinpoche Jetsun Lobsang Rabten
Abbot, Segyu Gaden Phodrang Monastery, Nepal
Direct call: +9779810186962 (Lobsang Jorden Sherpa Nepal)
WhatsApp +9779808323948 (Lobsang Nyingjay Tamang Nepal)
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Opportunity to Support Our Summer Retreat
As the warm embrace of summer envelops us, Segyu Gaden Phodrang is preparing for our annual summer retreat—a time-honoured tradition devoted to preserving and continuing our rich monastic rituals and teachings.
This retreat is not only a period of deep spiritual practice for our monks but also a vital time to uphold and sustain the spiritual heritage passed down through generations.
We humbly invite you, our cherished community, to take part in this meaningful endeavour. Your heartfelt support and offerings will directly benefit the 130 monks participating in the retreat at our monastery.
Click on the button below to check out our new donation page.
The 2026 Summer Rain Retreat — also known as Yarney (དབྱར་ཆོས་ཆེན་མོ།) — at Segyu Gaden Phodrang Monastery is an intensive ~46-day period of spiritual practice and sacred ceremonies, scheduled from July 27 to September 11, 2026 (Fire Horse Year 2153). Below is a summary of the key events:
Phase 1 – Opening & Guhyasamaja Intensive (July 27–31)
July 27: Yarney Preparation Commencement (དབྱར་ཆོས་ཆེན་མོའི་གྲ་སྒྲིག་དབུ་འཛུགས།) — retreat preparation begins, with the Sojong (monastic confession) ceremony.
July 28: Yarney Commitment (དབྱར་ཞལ་བཞེས།) — the formal taking of the retreat vow, followed by the 4-day Guhyasamaja Intensive Sadhana and Root Tantra reading (Full Moon).
Phase 2 – Heruka Luipa Intensive (August 4–7)
August 4–7: Heruka Luipa Intensive Sadhana (བདེ་མཆོག་ལཱུཨི་པའི་སྒྲུབ་མཆོད།) — a 4-day intensive with empowerment.
August 7: Self-Initiations (མར་ངོས་ཚེས་བཅུའི་བདག་འཇུག) — waning 10th day.
Phase 3 – Kangyur/Tengyur & Sand Mandala (August 8–12)
August 8: Commencement of the Kangyur & Tengyur scripture reading (བཀའ་འགྱུར་བསྟན་འགྱུར་གསུང་སྒྲོག).
August 11: Yamantaka 13-Deity Sand Mandala (འཇིགས་བྱེད་ལྷ་བཅུ་གསུམ་མ།) — ground consecration, the Sengge Dra Naga ritual, Sojong, and the Protectors’ Kangso.
August 12: Tara Four Mandala Offering (སྒྲོལ་མ་མཎྜལ་བཞི་ཆོག) — New Moon.
Phase 4 – Rabney Consecration (August 19–24)
August 19: Rabney Consecration Ceremony — main day (རབ་གནས་དངོས་གཞི།).
August 20: Rabney — Protectors’ day (རབ་གནས་སྟ་མགོན།).
August 21: Great Yang-drub prosperity ritual preparation (གཡང་སྒྲུབ་ཆེན་མོ་གྲ་སྒྲིག).
August 22: Self-Initiations (ཡར་ངོས་ཚེས་བཅུ་བདག་འཇུག) — waxing 10th day.
August 24: International Dorje Shugden Day & completion of the Rabney, with the White Mahakala Yang-drub (མགོན་དཀར་གཡང་སྒྲུབ།).
Phase 5 – Great Kangso (August 25 – September 3)
August 25: Great Kangso preparation (བསྐང་གསོ་ཆེན་མོ་གྲ་སྒྲིག).
August 26–27: Guhyasamaja Root Tantra reading — Chapter 17 (གསང་འདུས་རྩ་རྒྱུད་ལེའུ་༡༧) and the full Root Tantra (གསང་འདུས་རྩ་རྒྱུད།), with Sojong (Full Moon, August 27).
August 30 – September 3: Great Kangso (བསྐང་གསོ་ཆེན་མོ།) — four days of fulfillment offerings to the Dharma protectors.
Phase 6 – White Umbrella (Sitapatra) Ritual & Closing (September 4–11)
September 4: Great White Umbrella (Sitapatra) Torma ritual preparation (གདུགས་དཀར་གཏོར་བཟློག་ཆེན་མོ་གྲ་སྒྲིག།).
September 5: Self-Initiations (མར་ངོས་ཚེས་བཅུའི་བདག་འཇུག).
September 7–8: White Umbrella ritual (གདུགས་དཀར།) — the obstacle-eliminating practice.
September 9: White Umbrella Torma Firing (གདུགས་དཀར་གཏོར་རྒྱག་དངོས།) — with Sojong and the Protectors’ Kangso.
September 10: Tara Four Mandala Offering (སྒྲོལ་མ་མཎྜལ་བཞི་ཆོག) — New Moon.
September 11: Yarney Conclusion (ཆབ་ཞུགས་དགག་དབྱེ།) — the formal lifting of the Summer Rain Retreat.
Throughout the retreat the monks observe Sojong (confession) on the 14th and 29th of each Tibetan month and perform self-initiations on the 10th and 25th. This retreat is a period of deep spiritual engagement through sacred ceremonies and practices, offering profound opportunities for merit, growth, and reflection.