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Building History

On on 08/09/1975, construction began on the Odiyan Retreat Center's hilly parcel of land nearly one thousand acres in size in rural Sonoma County. According to the temple's web site, "Since the formation of the non-profit Tibetan Nyingma Meditation Centers in 1969 Tarthang Rinpoche always had a vision of a country center as part of the mandala of organizations working to preserve and transmit the Dharma to the West." (See Odiyan Retreat Center, "History," accessed 09/14/2017.) Tibetan-born monk, Rinpoche (b. 1934) served as the conduit establishing the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism to the US. He scoured the country for five years looking for the right place to build his spiritual center, and located it in the logged-out and over-grazed hills of Cazanero.

The whole temple complex was organized according to a Tibetan Buddhist mandala pattern, and consisted of various components including gardens, stupas and other temples. At the heart of the spiritual community was the Copper Mountain Temple, whose exterior was completed in 1983, and its interior five years later. It comprised a three-dimensional mandala in itself. A moat surrounded the Copper Mountain Temple, within which a square band of vegetation sheltered a fenced enclosure. At the enclosure's center, stood an 85-foot pagoda-roofed structure, surrounded by lower, domed gateways above four entry points. The Enlightenment Stupa, standing 113-feet tall, occupied the eastern side of the mandala and was done by 1980, after only three months of labor. The 108-foot-high Vajra Temple stood on the mandala's west and was finished by 01/01/1996. Octaganol in shape and covered by a succession of three pagoda roofs, it sheltered 108,000 golden Padmasambhava statues, each 10-inches high. This lantern-like building, able to be seen from the 50 miles out in the Pacific Ocean, was built in seven years between 1987 and 1994. Following the Vajra Temple's construction, one-hundred-thirty-six Leyland Cypress were positioned to provide a windbreak on the west, and incense cedar trees were planted on the lands surrounding the temple's octagonal walls.

Residents of the center completed the extensive 140-foot-tall Cintamani Temple in 2008 on themandala's southern frontier. This domed monument, topped by a stupa and built of completely of bronze, needed to survive 1,000 years, and was surrounded by a protective, rectangular fence. Sculptures depicting Buddhas and bodhisatvas ranging in scale from 15 to 35 feet tall, ornamented the temple's exterior. In its interior, the temple sheltered a 35-foot-tall, "fully empowered" sculpture of the Buddha. (See Odiyan Retreat Center, "Cintamani Temple," accessed 09/14/2017.) After the Cintamani Temple's completion, residents focused on landscaping work of the mandala's Vairocana Garden. This garden was done by 2010.

Building Notes

San Francisco architect Paul Holt (1952-2002) was involved with the design of the immense Cintamani Temple in the early 2000s.

PCAD id: 21464