Follow the light to the Triskel

A powerful feature documentary detailing the construction journey of Ireland’s first Tibetan Buddhist temple in West Cork is to be shown in Cork city.

With shows starting this Sunday at Triskel Arts Centre, ‘Chasing the Light’ follows the story of Dzogchen Beara, a Buddhist community in West Cork, in its ambitious bid to build a temple on a remote clifftop on the Beara Peninsula.

Dzogchen Beara dates back to 1973 when Peter and Harriet Cornish bought 150 acres of rugged clifftop farmland with a wish to create a place that would offer a spiritual home to people of all traditions.

In 1992 they gifted the land and buildings to a charitable trust under the spiritual guidance of Sogyal Rinpoche, founder of Rigpa, an international network of Buddhist centres and groups. In 1993 Harriet died of cancer at the age of 44. Her peaceful death and the care she received inspired the building of the Spiritual Care Centre which was opened by then President of Ireland, Mary McAleese, in 2007.

It had always been Peter and Harriet’s dream to build an authentic Tibetan Buddhist temple at the site, something its trustees never forgot, and although it took almost a decade of staggered progress overall, Ireland’s first Buddhist temple opened its doors in Cork in July 2024.

With its construction entirely funded by donations, the Dzogchen Beara Temple is built in the style of a traditional Tibetan monastery with floor-to-ceiling windows taking in the expansive Atlantic Ocean views. With its beautiful salt resistant copper alloy roofs, the temple is built to a monumental standard and will stand proud on Cork’s coastline for centuries.

The temple site and building has been blessed by many great Tibetan Buddhist masters over the years. In 2015 when at Dzogchen Beara to bless the site of the Temple, Tibetan Buddhist lama Orgyen Tobgyal Rinpoche said that according to the ancient art of geomancy, its location at the south-western tip of Europe is a “power place” and building a temple here, at this specific time, will bring renewal and healing to Ireland as well as benefitting the whole world.

He said: “If you build this temple here in Dzogchen Beara, and inside erect representations of the enlightened body, speech and mind, and have practitioners practise there, then this will be the cause for the teachings of the Buddha to remain for long and will have enormous benefit for the world at large; protecting against famine, against war and epidemics and so on.”

Directed by Maurice O’Brien and produced by Clare Stronge, ‘Chasing the Light’ is a powerful 88 minute journey of enlightenment, perseverance, and faith. The documentary will show at Triskel Arts Centre at 4.15pm this Sunday and at 8.05pm from Monday to Wednesday next week.

Tickets cost €7.50 on Sunday and €10.50 for the three weekday showings. For bookings, visit triskelartscentre.ie.