Amitabha Stupa

Built from the vision of Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo Rinpoche

The Amitabha Stupa and Peace Park came from the vision of Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo Rinpoche, a recognized reincarnate bodhisattva (Tulku) and lineage holder in the Nyingma tradition, who resided in Sedona for about ten years before relocating to her main temple in Poolesville, Maryland [tara.org]. Building the 36-foot Amitabha Stupa took about 18 months, led by Tulku Sang-ngag Rinpoche, a Tibetan lama and master stupa builder, with most of the labor performed by volunteers who traveled from around the world to work on it, maintaining a strict daily schedule of practice and diet throughout the project.

Consecrated in August 2004

The stupa is hollow and filled with offerings blessed in ceremonies before installation and again in a three-day consecration in August 2004: hundreds of millions of written prayers, 3,600 handmade miniature stupas called tsa-tsas, offerings from every continent, and relics attributed to past Buddhas and enlightened masters, alongside food as an antidote to hunger and traditional medicines as an antidote to illness [tara.org]. Fewer than 100 stupas exist in the Western Hemisphere, and 27 of them, including both stupas on this property, were built by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo and her temple.

The wooden Buddha statue and the medicine wheel

A mahogany statue of Shakyamuni Buddha, a gift from a local gallery owner and carved from a single piece of Balinese mahogany, sits above the Amitabha Stupa. Nearby, a Native American medicine wheel honors a Tibetan prophecy from the 7th century about a connection between Tibetans and Native Americans, matched by a corresponding Hopi tradition [tara.org].

Who actually maintains the grounds

Kunzang Palyul Choling is a Buddhist organization built around compassionate outreach as much as the stupa itself; the local Arizona community holds regular practices at the site and offers presentations on the 2,500-year history of stupas in general and this one specifically, on a schedule that changes with the season and weather. The property is privately owned by the organization, not a city or state park, which is why the etiquette above comes from the community directly rather than from a Forest Service or state parks sign.

Many visitors ask, and the community that built and runs the property answers directly on its own site: "A Stupa is NOT a vortex. While there is certainly vortex energy on the Stupa land, it's not correct to describe the Stupa as a vortex" [tara.org]. That is the property's own distinction, not ours to soften or overstate in either direction.

What the community does claim is a Buddhist framework: a consecrated stupa is described as a spiritual generator whose power comes from how it was built, its location and its contents, working, in that description, for visitors of any faith. None of that is a measurable claim any agency certifies, and this page repeats it as the community's own stated belief, not as fact.

Circumambulate clockwise

Traditionally, visitors prostrate, pray, meditate, make offerings and walk around a stupa in a clockwise direction; many recite the mantra Om Mani Padme Hung while walking, though the community says any prayer from any tradition works the same way [tara.org]. At the end of a visit, the community suggests dedicating whatever positive intention the visit created to the benefit of others, using your own words or the community's own dedication prayer.

Do not climb or mark the Stupa

Visitors are asked not to climb on the stupa, mark it in any way, or place anything directly on it; an offering goes on the altar in front of it instead. The bowls of water on the altar represent pure offerings and are filled each morning and emptied each evening by a volunteer; nothing, including fingers, should go into them.

Quiet voices, and where drumming is allowed

Many visitors come specifically to meditate, so the community asks for quiet voices throughout. Flutes and singing bowls are permitted but not directly at the Amitabha Stupa; drumming is allowed only at the medicine wheel.

The medicine wheel is shared, first come first served

No visitor or group has priority at the medicine wheel, including tour guides and practitioners. If another group is using it when you arrive, the community asks visitors to wait respectfully; if you are using it and a new group arrives, the guideline is not to make them wait more than 15 minutes and to tell them when you expect to finish. A private or secret ritual is not grounds to send another group away; the wheel is for everyone.

Prayer flags, allowed; cairns and rock piles, not

Prayer flags are welcome and can be hung in the trees around the property; the community asks visitors not to add their own statues, rock piles or other decorations, and specifically not to build cairns on the stupa land.

Leave No Trace, on a wildlife sanctuary

The 14 acres the stupa sits on are a wildlife sanctuary, and the community asks visitors to follow the Leave No Trace guidelines posted on site signs. Leashed pets are welcome if you pick up after them, and all trash should go back to the bin in the parking lot rather than left on the grounds.

Group visits and accessibility need advance contact

A group presentation about the stupa's history, or arrangements for handicapped access, both need to be set up ahead of time by phone or email rather than requested on arrival; the community lists this specifically alongside the general visiting guidelines, which suggests groups showing up unannounced are the more common source of friction on a property this size.

The Amitabha Stupa and the Tara Stupa

The 36-foot Amitabha Stupa is the centerpiece; the smaller Tara Stupa sits about 100 feet east of it, built in 1999 and dedicated to the long life of the Venerable Gyaltrul Rinpoche, whose temple is in Ashland, Oregon. He was 73 and in poor health when it was built; he died in April 2023 [tara.org]. The female deity Tara, honored by the second stupa, holds the mothering and compassionate energies of the Buddhas in the community's tradition, and a Tara stupa is considered a long-life stupa.

Prayer flags and their five colors

The flags strung around the property carry printed mantras in Tibetan and Sanskrit script; the community's belief is that wind moving across the letters sends the prayer outward. The five colors each correspond to an element and a transformed state: blue for space and mirror-like wisdom, white for air and the wisdom of reality, yellow for earth and the wisdom of equanimity, green for water and all-accomplishing wisdom, red for fire and the wisdom of discernment [tara.org].

Prayer wheels

The prayer wheels on the property each hold an estimated two million printed repetitions of the mantra Om Mani Padme Hung; the community's belief is that spinning one clockwise while saying your own prayer sends both across the land. They are typically metal, wood or cloth, with the mantra written on paper, inscribed on metal or embossed into the wheel itself.

Trails and what is not here

Walking trails and informational signs cross the 14 acres, and there are numerous quiet spots for meditation or quiet conversation. There are no picnic facilities and no recreational activities beyond walking and hiking; a porta-john sits near the Amitabha Stupa, and that is the extent of the on-site amenities.

The variable that decides your routing is whether you are here for a quick photo stop or an actual sit.

- The community that runs it says outright that the Stupa is not a vortex, even though vortex energy is said to exist on the land around it [tara.org]. - There are two stupas on the property, not one. The smaller Tara Stupa, built in 1999, sits about 100 feet east of the main Amitabha Stupa and honors a different teacher entirely [tara.org]. - No buses, RVs or vehicles over 20 feet are allowed on the property at all; the trails and parking were never built to that scale, and the community states it is not liable for damage to or from an oversized vehicle that tries anyway [tara.org]. - The medicine wheel has no priority system, not even for authorized tour guides; it runs strictly first come, first served, with a 15-minute courtesy limit if another group is waiting [tara.org]. - Access after dark is a zero-tolerance rule, not a suggestion; the community states this directly rather than leaving it as an unwritten norm [tara.org].

The Stupa is located at 2650 Pueblo Drive in the heart of West Sedona. From SR 89A, take Andante north, then turn left onto Pueblo Drive to reach 2650. If the property gate is open, turn immediately right onto the stupa land and use one of the two parking areas; if the gate is closed, park on Pueblo Drive itself, since the stupa is only a five-minute walk in on well-marked trails from there [tara.org]. Group visits, a presentation for your group, or arrangements for handicapped access all need advance contact, by phone at 877-788-7229 or email at [email protected].

The stupa sits inside a residential neighborhood, not a standalone tourist lot off a highway, and that shapes how you should park. The two on-site lots absorb visitor traffic when the gate is open specifically so cars do not spill onto Pueblo Drive in front of neighbors' homes; when the gate is closed and you do park on the street, park considerately and keep the walk to the five-minute marked trail rather than cutting across private yards. The community's zero-tolerance after-dark rule exists for the same reason as much as for the stupa's own hours: a quiet residential street after sunset is not the place for a parked car and a late visitor.

Go at opening for the quietest visit; tour vans and the guided e-bike route that also stops here tend to arrive midday. It sits close to Soldier Pass Trail and Devil's Bridge, both about a five- to ten-minute drive away, so it pairs naturally with a West Sedona hiking morning as a free, shaded, unhurried stop, or a Red Rock Pass is not needed here the way it is at those trailheads, the pass and its rules are on the Red Rock Pass page. The rest of the things to do in Sedona list ranks every stop, free and paid, by time needed.