www.Garuda Trading.com
established 1998
"The Garuda is outrageous, because the Garuda has gone beyond the conventional way of doing things, which is to be totally fixated, totally attached. It is outrageous. The most outrageous thing you could do in this world is to have wisdom-prajna-and to have contentment. The Garuda is wise and therefore able to expand in all areas. There is nothing that Garuda does not know. The principle of Garuda, which is in all of us, can understand reality, understand emptiness, understand the notion of selflessness. Most of us tend not to have contentment. If we do not have contentment, satisfaction, we will never be happy"
Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche
"Garuda 'the devourer' is the mythical 'Lord of the Birds' in both the Hindu and Buddhist traditions. In the Hindu Puranic legends Garuda is the son of Kashyapa and Vinata, who after five hundred years' incubation hatched fully grown from an egg. As soon as he emerged from the egg his vast form filled the skies, the hurricane from his beating wings shook the earth, and the unbearable luminosity emanating from his golden body caused even the gods to mistake him for Agni, the god of fire.
The Garuda appears in many forms according to different Tibetan traditions and lineages, perhaps assuming the greatest prominence in the Dzogchen transmissions of the Nyingma tradition. In the lineage of the Nyingmapas he personifies certain wrathful forms of Guru Rinpoche and in the hidden treasures tradition he is often known as the guardian of treasures. His emergence fully-fledged from the egg symbolises the birth of great spontaneous awareness"
from The Encyclopedia of Tibetan Symbols and Motifs by Robert Beer.
Garuda Trading was established in 1998. This was the fruition of a seed planted during my time as an ordained monk at Kagyu Samye Ling Monastery. As a practicing buddhist, the view of right livelihood is extremely important to me and everyone who is involved with Garuda Trading. I am very excited about the future of our activity and feel privileged that I am able to supply our customers with genuine buddhist items.
Due to the very detailed nature of buddhist iconography and the importance of the underlying symbology it is important to thoroughly check that the quality and details of each item are correct. So I have tried to uphold this to the best of my capabilities.
Over the years, Nepal and India have started to produce vast quantities of poorly made dharma goods to cope with increasing demand and as a result, these lesser quality goods are now appearing in New Age/Ethnic shops and meditation centres throughout the west. These goods are often made by non buddhists for a quick turnover and therefore the respect and understanding required to undertake this kind of work may be missing.
I have gone to great efforts to bring you items of exceptional quality. Our Dharma goods are purchased from highly skilled Tibetan, Nepalese, Bhutanese and Indian artisans with established workshops and contacts in the Kathmandu Valley. These workshops are always small family run business's with no child exploitation. Wherever possible we try to guarantee continued trade with the same suppliers so that they have a reliable income. Our recent involvement has been buying from a community trade project in Nepal, which was established by a core group of 35 artists. They are able to support their families and to re-invest into the local community in providing food, clothing, education, medicine and donations to monasteries. We are also able (thanks to your support) to help Rokpa Trust which has many projects in Nepal, Tibet and here in the west. We also fully realise the importance of fair trade and will continue to increase our own awareness in this area whilst constantly looking to improve on the quality of the goods we are providing.
We hope this gives you some understanding of our underlying motivation in providing you with quality items from a pure source.
Aside from Garuda Trading I have been responsible for establishing and facilitating Kagyu Samye Dzong Cornwall. Our aim is to build a centre and place of retreat in the South West of England and to hold regular events for practicing Buddhists. This is being accomplished under the direct spiritual guidance of Dr. Akong Tulku Rinpoche and Lama Yeshe Losal Rinpoche. Great interest and support has been shown since establishing Kagyu Samye Dzong Cornwall, however, this project is very much in its early stages and will require commitment from practitioners and financial donations to see it come to fruition (In the meantime we have a regular group that meets for meditation, discussion and Chenrezig puja). I hope that Garuda Trading will also be instrumental in seeing this come to fruition and welcome any support you would like to offer.
If you have any queries or suggestions then please do contact us. We have a dedicated team and even if we can't help we may be able to point you in the right direction to someone who can. If you need something that we do not have on our website or in the catalogue, then we may have it in our inventory that has yet to be posted. We regularly visit Nepal and would be happy to hunt down any specialist item that you require. You may be a school that would like study aids and we are currently working on producing a school pack.
If you are a shop that would like to stock any of our goods then please contact us for a chat. We have some fantastic lines and would be happy to discuss our wholesale prices. Our incense range is a proven winner for any alternative shop and we will be continuing to expand our already large stock to include hand-rolled Tibetan, finest Bhutanese, Nepalese, Indian and Japanese brands.
We will be constantly updating our stock so please continue to check our website for new additions and changes. If there are any learned buddhists out there that find mistakes on our website then we welcome your help in putting us right. I therefore apologise in advance for any errors we may have made.
Thank you for the time you have taken in reading this. I hope it has given you more of an understanding about Garuda Trading and our motivation. Enjoy looking through our website.
Sarva Mangalam!
James Wainwright
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