Vajradhatu
| Successor | Shambhala International |
|---|---|
| Formation | 1973 |
| Founder | Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche |
| Extinction | February 2000 |
Vajradhatu was the name of the umbrella organization of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, one of the first Tibetan Buddhist lamas to visit and teach in the West. It served as the vehicle for the promulgation of his Buddhist teachings, and was also the name by which his community was known from 1973 until 1990. Starting in 1976 it was paralleled by a governmental structure for establishing the non-denominational enlightened society of Shambhala Kingdom, which included Shambhala Training among many other activities. Eventually, the Vajradhatu organization was renamed Shambhala International by Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche.
The community of Chögyam Trungpa originated in 1970 with his arrival in North America from Scotland. The first established center of his teachings was "Tail of the Tiger" in Barnet, Vermont (now Karmê Chöling). When Rinpoche began teaching at the University of Colorado in 1971, a second branch of the community began to form there. When Vajradhatu was incorporated in Colorado in 1973, it consolidated Tail of the Tiger, Rocky Mountain Dharma Center, a retreat facility in the Rocky Mountains in Colorado; and Karma Dzong, an urban meditation center in Boulder, Colorado. The organization grew to include the Gampo Abbey in Nova Scotia; and dozens of smaller meditation centers called "Dharmadhatus," in cities around the US, Canada and later in Europe.
In the early 1970s the community grew rapidly and attracted the involvement of such notables as Allen Ginsberg, Anne Waldman, and many others. As the decade wore on, the hippies and sixties counterculture members who comprised the large part of the membership were asked by Trungpa to experiment with more formal modes of behavior, attire, address, and societal expressions in general.
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