kalpa – [Sanskrit] an aeon; a vast period of time
in the universe’s cosmic cycle of creation
and dissolution.

The Kalpa Group is an independent organisation that supports the work of individual scholars and professionals across a wide spectrum. It helps to explore innovative ideas and harness their full business, academic and cultural potential, facilitating a rich, interdisciplinary collaboration between specialists in diverse fields. With the freedom and resources to choose quickly and fund flexibly, the Kalpa Group is able to provide funding for innovative projects that fall beyond the scope of more conventional sources of support for research.

January 2021 will see the publication of a new edition of Rainbow Body, by Loel Guinness. The original work, published in 2018, was the outcome of several years of scholarly research and an even longer period of personal experiential engagement on the part of the author, an individual who has dedicated his life to exploration beyond the conventional limits.

This book, the latest in a series supported by the Kalpa Group, tells the life story of one of Tibet’s most remarkable spiritual masters. From his early childhood in East Tibet, the boy who would later come to be known as Yongdzin Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche wanted nothing more than to devote his life to meditation and spiritual discovery, and to learn the ancient wisdom of Bon from Tibet’s greatest masters.

In 1481, Leonardo da Vinci was commissioned to paint a huge altarpiece for a monastery near Florence. This commission came at an early stage in his career, and although he was rapidly becoming acknowledged as an unusually talented painter, his major masterpieces, such as the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, still lay before him. 

On 29 June 1440, two armies joined battle near the town of Anghiari in Tuscany. On one side was the larger force of Duke Filippo Maria Visconti of Milan, and on the other the army of the Italian League, led by the Florentine Republic.

In 2008, Loel Guinness completed a Masters dissertation at the University of Oxford on the subject of “Rainbow Body” (jalü), one of the most esoteric aspects of the Bön religion. He later expanded this preliminary study into a much more substantial work, and the final result was published in 2018 under the title Rainbow Body (Chicago, Serindia Publications, 2018)

Until relatively recent times the Bon religion of Tibet was poorly understood by the majority of Tibetans and Westerners alike. Although our general knowledge has advanced greatly in the past few decades thanks to the work of a few pioneering scholars, misconceptions still abound, and many areas of this fascinating religion remain obscure.

In conformity with its holistic approach to research, the Kalpa Group’s engagement with Bon has proceeded along a number of clearly-defined but intersecting lines. The year 2002 saw the opening of Chasey Kengtse hostel, which is associated with the government school in Lubrak. Prior to this, there had been no school in Nepal where children of Bonpo families could receive a non-monastic education and also learn about their own religious tradition.