His Eminence the Leytshog Lopen Sangay Dorji, Chairman of the Council for Administration and Development Affairs of Bhutan’s Central Monastic Body (CMB), returned to the Himalayan kingdom after an enriching and productive visit to Hong Kong this month. The SAR is a rather different city and society to the constitutional monarchy, but it is well-known that there are plenty of Hongkong Chinese who are devoted followers of Bhutanese lamas and masters. The Leytshog Lopen was in Hong Kong to hold an Amitabha empowerment and teaching, but allowed us time to introduce him to some new friends and institutions.
One of these was Ven. Prof. Dhammajoti of the Buddha-Dharma Centre of Hong Kong. Ven. Dhammajoti had much to compliment Bhutan about, especially its stewardship of cultural continuity and traditional Buddhist values. Meanwhile, Ven. Sangay Dorji was deeply impressed by Ven. Dhammajoti’s lifelong devotion to scholarship. He also visited the artistic Sun Museum, where he was taken around the current exhibit of Jao Tsung-I’s calligraphy and Heart Sutra forest.
Shortly after his return, Ven. Sangay Dorji visited Kuenselphodrang to oversee the ongoing preparations for the Jabzhi Dhoechog. This is an important part of the Global Peace Prayer Festival, scheduled to take place from 4th to 10th November 2025. According to the CMB’s Facebook page, His Eminence met with the busy volunteers who have been hard at work, and conveyed his heartfelt appreciation for their devoted efforts and selfless contributions toward this sacred and historic event. The CMB noted that preparations are now 95 per cent complete, with all teams “diligently working to ensure timely and successful completion.” (Facebook)
The Festival is a massive event in itself, but it is actually a prelude to the scale and ambition of Gelephu Mindfulness City (GMC), the great project that promises to transform Bhutan’s economy and pilgrimage-tourism circuit, is slated to be an SAR much like our beloved Fragrant Harbor, with Bhutan possibly adopting a One Country, Two Systems configuration that allows for international investment, crypto-friendly transactions, and tax exemptions that will be unique to GMC, making it an attractive destination while maintaining Bhutan’s sustainability and GNH goals.
Meanwhile, the CMB goes from strength to strength, in this instance in collaboration with the Loden Foundation. In a major archival milestone, the Foundation handed over 4.5 terabytes of digital data containing rare manuscripts from 31 remote temples across Bhutan to CMB’s Tenzum Office. The handover ceremony took place on 24 October, presided over by His Eminence Tsuglag Lopon Rinpoche, another high official of the CMB.
Of the 31 archives, 24 were already digitized from 2022–24 with funding support from the Endangered Archives Programme (EAP) of the British Library, while the remaining archives were digitized the following year by the Loden Foundation. Currently, the Foundation has now successfully digitized 75 archive centers across the kingdom, producing over five million digital copies of Bhutan’s priceless cultural heritage. At the handover ceremony, the Loden Foundation expressed gratitude to the CMB for allowing it to undertake the documentation of sacred manuscripts across many temples. Meanwhile, the Loden Foundation and the Tenzum Office held discussions on future ideas to collaboratively reinforce the preservation and accessibility of the monastic archives in Bhutanese temples.
From reinforcing the global network of followers, to overseeing the final stages of preparation for the Festival, to uniting burning hope for the future with a fierce protectiveness of the past, the Central Monastic Body is pushing new frontiers as the organizers of the Global Peace Prayer. His Eminence Sangay Dorji is one of the trailblazers, and the land of the thunder dragon is positioning itself to be a truly international Dharma hub. . . the new Shambhala of the 21st century.
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