On Sunday, April 16, there was a gathering and ceremony at Green Gulch Farm to dedicate the new bell tower. Photos by Judith Keenan and Sara Tashker.

Photo by Judith Keenan.

The assembly witnessed the offerings and chanted the “Verse of Practice Place Purification” and the “Sho Sai Myo Kichijo Dharani.” The bell tower was designed by Ryosei Kaneko and built by master carpenters Ryosei Kaneko and Mike Laine, with their crew Owen Laine and Ensei Kaneko, in the Japanese joinery style. It now houses the Green Dragon Temple Obonsho bell which was cast in Japan and sent to Green Gulch Farm in 1975.

Ryosei Kaneko, Meiya Wender, Mike Laine, and Ensei Kaneko. Photo by Judith Keenan.

Abbess Furyu Schroeder delivered this formal statement as part of the ceremony:

Homage to the builders, the dreamers, the donors, and the bell ringers;
Homage to the trees that have held the great bell, and to their release;
Homage to this gathering of trees fashioned together by skillful hands;
Homage to the sun, the fog, the winds, and the blessed rains;
Homage to the mingling sounds of ocean waves and the pre-dawn bell;
Homage to the ancestors who called us to gather here;
Homage to our great original teacher Shakyamuni Buddha, who started it all with the sound of a Lion’s Roar.

The new bell tower. Photo by Sara Tashker.

Procession from former bell site to the new bell tower. Photo by Sara Tashker.