The Story of Mighty

Once upon a time, there was a small village far, far away. In the middle of the village was a temple with a beautiful wooden statue of Buddha. Every day people would come to the temple to pray and sit in silence with the Buddha. The Buddha had sat there for a long, long time - so long, that no one could remember when the Buddha first came.

One day, a big typhoon came and destroyed the village and the temple. The people in the village all ran away, leaving the Buddha alone in the temple. The temple roof had fallen in on the Buddha's head and rain and wind blew into the building. 

Then one day a man from a foreign land came to the village.  He had come as a merchant to bring statues and wares and beautiful things back to his country. But he saw the village had been destroyed. He found some of the villagers nearby and they asked the man to please take their Buddha back with him. Their temple was destroyed and they had no way to fix it and they wanted their Buddha to be out of the rain and the wind. So the man agreed and brought the Buddha back to his country. The Buddha was put on a big ship and went on a journey across the ocean to the other side of the world.

Mighty the Buddha in Darren's warehouse

 The Buddha stayed with the man for many years in his warehouse. He sat on a wheeled dolly and they named him 'Mighty.' Mighty watched over the man and his workers in his business until one day, the man needed to sell his business. He wanted to find a good home for Mighty, so he put him up for sale.












 Some people in Iowa saw a picture of Mighty and wanted to bring him back to Iowa to watch over their new Dharma center. So they bought Mighty from the man and Mighty went on a big truck all the way to Northeast Iowa. Mighty spent cold winter months in a storage barn while the people decided what to do.

Fall 2008 - Loading the Buddha statue from the truck into storage.

Lama Dawa Rinpoche checks the statue after arrival.

The statue is made of solid wood and weighs over a ton.

The people made a plan to build a special temple for Mighty the Buddha. They choose the perfect site on property overlooking the Mississippi river. The Temple would be placed at the entryway and would greet visitors as they arrived.

Lama Dawa Rinpoche and Lama Pema Dorje Rinpoche choose the site of the Buddha Temple. April 2009. Lama Pema Dorje draws an initial sketch of the Temple design, based on South Asian styles.