Largest Buddhist monastery in Nordics consecrated in Finland

By admin On Jul 31, 2025

Photo: ICPonline

A former machine shop in Jokioinen has become the Nordic region’s largest Tibetan Buddhist monastery, following the completion of a sacred stupa and the steady growth of the Danakosha Ling community.

In August, around 300 guests, including monks, lamas and twenty nuns, are expected to attend the stupa’s consecration ceremony. The event will be led by Jetsun Khandro Rinpoche, a senior teacher from the Mindrolling Monastery in India.

The stupa, a symbolic structure central to Buddhist practice, is the largest of its kind in Finland. It contains over 100,000 mantras, sacred scriptures, relics and ritual offerings. Four series of relics were embedded inside during construction, with contributions ranging from strands of hair to symbolic weapons such as knives and guns.

According to Tulku Dakpa Rinpoche, the monastery’s spiritual leader, the stupa was built in accordance with strict Tibetan ritual specifications. “If there is an authentic stupa in a country, it brings benefits. It brings peace, wisdom and prosperity,” he said.

Fifteen monks travelled from India to oversee the process, which followed traditional requirements from base to spire. Ritual items placed inside included offerings of tea, seeds and food. The stupa also features the snow lion, a sacred animal in Tibetan iconography, and is designed to rotate clockwise. It is open to the public.

The Jokioinen monastery has developed steadily since 2016, when the Buddhist community moved to the site. It formally became a monastery in 2022 and now serves as a hub for Finnish and international practitioners. The Danakosha Ling community includes around 150 active members and regularly receives visitors from abroad.

Tulku Dakpa Rinpoche, the first Tibetan Buddhist to receive Finnish citizenship, leads the monastery’s spiritual activities. He has gained a following in Finland and beyond, with students and volunteers frequently visiting the site for study and retreat.

Researcher Johannes Cairns, who has studied Finnish Buddhism, said the number of Buddhists in Finland with immigrant backgrounds has more than doubled over the past decade, reaching over 20,000. He attributes the growth to both immigration and an increasing domestic interest in spiritual practices such as meditation and mindfulness.

According to Cairns, Buddhism in Finland is evolving. One development is the rise of socially engaged Buddhism, which connects spiritual values to current issues such as mental health and environmental change. “In Finland, people are connecting Buddhism to challenges like the welfare crisis and environmental change,” Cairns said.

Another emerging area is the changing role of immigrant communities. Second- and third-generation Buddhists are navigating their relationships with institutions originally founded by their parents. Cairns said these generational shifts may influence the future structure and tone of Buddhist practice in Finland.

Mitra Härkönen, a researcher at the University of Helsinki, has focused on the contribution of Thai women to Buddhist communities. She noted that many Thai women married to Finnish men play central roles in temple life. They have established and maintained Buddhist temples in cities such as Nurmijärvi, Turku, Lohja and Tampere. Responsibilities often include fundraising, managing temple affairs and organising monastic visits.

Härkönen and Cairns both warned that as Buddhism spreads in Finland, it may encounter cultural tensions. These include the risk of religious appropriation and the need for communities to adjust hierarchical structures to fit local expectations.

Despite these challenges, Jokioinen’s new monastery signals a broader trend: the establishment of permanent and diverse Buddhist institutions across Finland. With the consecration of its first full-scale stupa, the country joins a growing list of nations hosting authentic structures designed according to centuries-old traditions.

Source: www.helsinkitimes.fi