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	On April 4, 1987 Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche, widely credited with helping to bring the teachings of Tibetan Buddhism to the West, "passed into Parinirvana." A year later his students began The Great Stupa Project. Stupas are actually older than Buddhist tradition. In prehistoric times they were just a mound, tumuli (Skt.) - a place to bury important kings away from the village. Twenty-five hundred years ago the Buddha requested that his relics be placed in a familiar stupa, but with a shift in emphasis. Instead of being just a place of honor where the bones or relics of a cremated king were placed, the stupa was to remind people of the awakened state of mind. Stupas are designed to arrest people's thinking. To call upon a viewer and remind him or her that the path to enlightenment waits for them.

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