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THARPA CHOELINGThe following account is extracted from preliminary drafts of Schettini's memoir, The Novice. In the early 1970s, at the Dalai Lama’s request, Geshé Rabten started training westerners in Switzerland to become teachers. Among them, a handful of monks lived in a rented house in the tiny hamlet of Schwendi, about four kilometres from Rikon monastery in Tösstal. I was one of them. We all studied hard, enthused with our path and excited to have Geshé Rabten. About a year and a half later the monks moved into a large property in Mont Pélérin, and we became an institution. The purchase of Le Colibri was arranged and financed by a Geneva group led by Anne Ansermet – daughter of the famous Swiss conductor Ernest. She’d grown up privileged, knew the back rooms of power and could get things done. Drawn to Buddhism at the age of seventy, she’d traveled to India and been ordained by the Dalai Lama himself – no one else would do. Other members of the fundraising group were business people and industrialists. It can’t have been a simple matter in the staid canton of Vaud to set up a Tibetan Buddhist monastery for foreign ex-hippies with no income. In time, our neighbors accepted us, especially once they realized we weren’t dangerous fanatics. We were generally referred to as ‘Le culte.’
Anne Ansermet was an energetic, imperious force to whom we owed the privilege of our unfettered lifestyle. The Geneva Group put a roof over our heads and visas in our passports. Individual sponsors provided sufficient funds for food and books, and we gave ourselves up to a life of study and contemplation without the slightest material worry. Our sponsors looked upon our efforts approvingly, confident their money and time were well spent. Lay people of our own age and enthusiasm moved nearby. Veterans from India and new recruits alike, those with families and those without, honed in on our community and its local satellites. Everyone found ways to express their own commitment. Some studied, others helped in the administration or financing, some worked in the kitchen or garden. Everyone contributed to the growth of a community, and the glue at the hub of this wheel was Geshé Rabten. The monks encircling him had a lesser but more personal attraction for lay people from all walks of life. Most respected of all were the studious, and the core group from Schwendi were the stars. Our days of splendid isolation were over. After Geshé Rabten’s death in 1986, Tharpa Choeling was renamed Rabten Choeling. Today, it’s led by Gonsar Rinpoché, who has taken charge of Tenzin Rabgye Rinpoche, Geshé Rabten’s recognized Tulku.
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