Stupa of Namu-Amida-Butsu

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Chanting and Talks in audio and text format + Gallery of 8 images

Brookwood Cemetery, Woking, Surrey.Sunday 7 October 2007.
The Stupa project originated in a bequest by Reverend Zenko, a Zen Priest who died on 19 February 2007. The Venerable Chimyo Takehara, Head Priest of Shogyoji Temple in Japan (Reverend Sato's Master) decided that the best way to use the bequest was to build a Stupa; an idea that Reverend Zenko warmly welcomed and endorsed before he died.

The Stupa is located in plot 36 and is close to the graves of four Japanese students who died in London about 140 years ago. For the Three Wheels Samgha this site represents an enduring symbol of Anglo-Japanese friendship.

Click here for the Three Wheels website page detailing the relationship between UniversityColledge, London (UCL) and themselves.You can also download a PDF copy of the Three Wheels News, which includes a fuller account of the ceremony.
www.brookwoodcemetery.com

Constructed under the supervision of Masayuki Ogawa, the Stupa is designed to contain the ashes of departed Buddhists.

In the summer of that year, Mr Masayuki Ogawa, a Japanese garden designer from Kyoto, and six other Dharma friends flew to London to start work on the site. The central granite monument was carved in Kyoto by Mr Kinzo Nishimura, the best stonemason in Japan. The beautiful calligraphy inscribed on the granite was executed by the Venerable Chimyo Takehara, modelled on Shinran Shonin's own writing of Namu-Amdia-butsu.

Under the Stupa is a rectangular space surrounded by panels of grey granite where the ashes of the deceased can be placed. The names of the deceased will be set down on a traditional Japanese scroll by means of the ancient craft of kirikane.

Guests then moved on to the graves of the four Japanese students (now within the Serbian Cemetery) and went on to visit the grave of Professor Alexander Williamson (1824-1904) of University College London who did so much to promote the wellbeing and welfare of these students.