KALAPA CARE — Volunteering Week
We are renovating and beautifying the Retreat Center, and you are very welcome to join us! Come join us to make merit and offer service to the community at Kalapa for a few days or for the entire volunteering period!
All Kalapa Care Weeks 2026: April 2 — 6 | April 30 — May 4 | May 21 — 25
To join for Kalapa Care Volunteering Week, please refer to the Dzokden Kalapa website here.
We invite you to come to Kalapa to volunteer for a wide variety of activities, ranging from deep cleaning, gardening, cooking, and driving, to painting, arts and crafts, decoration, care and maintenance of the stūpa and temple, sacred art, wall painting, carpentry work, repairs, renovation, construction, and so forth. You can start with activities with which you feel most comfortable, and learn new ones over time.
Volunteering for the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha is a precious way of accumulating merit to support your spiritual progress. Our spiritual director, the Tibetan monk and Vajra Master Shar Khentrul Rinpoche, strongly encourages us to contribute in any form they feel inclined to, whether or not they are specialists in any given activity. Altruistic motivation and a proper mindset are the most important things.
In the evenings, free time is set aside for volunteers to rest and reflect or focus on individual meditation practice or Dharma study. Depending on the schedule for each Kalapa Care volunteering event and the wishes of the participants, we can also set aside some time to meditate together or explore the beautiful surrounding natural environment. These additional activities are entirely optional. You can focus only on volunteering if you so prefer.
EAP — If you are participating in the EAP (Enlightened Activities Program), by participating in a full Kalapa Care event throughout the entire 5-day period (both morning and afternoon), you will accumulate around 35 — 40 EAP hours.
«This experience was very helpful and deep, and I feel so grateful that Kalapa Retreat Center offers such a precious space — both for community and for inner practice. With love and appreciation.” (Alena Chöyang Lhamo, Kalapa Care participant)
Accommodation and Food
Thanks to the generosity of our sponsors, we are able to provide free accommodations and three complimentary vegetarian meals a day for all participants who commit to volunteering daily for at least seven to eight hours. The registration is free.
Alternative: If volunteering full-time is too much for you and you would prefer to volunteer only half a day (4 hours), the option «visitor-volunteer» may be a better choice for you (in this alternative option, there is a cost of 30,- Euro per day for the stay, meals are provided free of charge) — if this is your preference, just let us by e-mail so that we can plan in advance.
We can host the volunteers in our dormitories. However, you do not necessarily need to stay overnight inside the retreat center. If you prefer to stay outside, please feel free to bring your own tent and enjoy camping near the blessed Kālachakra Stūpa. There are also some guest houses around the local area, which you can simply book yourself if you have access to a vehicle to reach the center.
We can also offer access to our internet for Dharma study or Dharma work purposes only. Owing to technical and time limitations, in general, we are not able to pick up participants from the train station. However, transportation to the retreat center is relatively inexpensive; please see the information below.
If you have further questions, please email [email protected] or call us at +43 676 395 8898. We can currently answer questions in English, German, Portuguese, Russian, Ukrainian, and French.
How to get to Kalapa?
How to get to Kalapa? Dzokden Kalapa Retreat Center, Garanas 41, Bad Schwanberg, zip code 8541, Austria, Südweststeiermark. The nearest airport is in Graz, Austria.
By train: To travel to Kalapa by train, start at the main train station in Graz. From there, take the S6 or S61 S-Bahn towards Wies-Eibiswald for about an hour to the Bad Schwanberg station. (timetable information) To travel from the Bad Schwanberg train station to the retreat center, a relatively inexpensive taxi service sponsored by the government is available that will take you directly to the Retreat Center, which is referred to as “Buddhistisches Zentrum” by this taxi service. The taxi must be ordered at least one hour in advance, but participants are recommended to do so much earlier or on the day before they intend to arrive. On weekdays, this taxi service operates between 06.00 and 20.00. On weekends, it does not operate after 18:00. As the journey is quite long (about 20 minutes), the service should be scheduled at least half an hour before the closing hours provided above. For trips on Sundays or public holidays, make sure to book it by 17:00 on the day before.
To order: +43 (0)50 16 17 18 (the Call Center speaks basic English) Cost: €7.00 total, regardless of how many people are taking the taxi. Alternatively, you can book a normal taxi service or similar — e.g., the «Wein Mobil» taxi for €37.50. Opening hours from 10:00 to 23:30. In this case, our station number is D927. The reservation is made under the same number as above.
By car: From the Graz-West motorway junction (A2/A9), get on the A2 towards Klagenfurt/Italy and take the Lieboch exit. Then, continue on Federal Road 76 towards Eibiswald. After about 30 km, you will reach Schwanberg. At the end of the main square in Schwanberg, turn left towards Garanas. After the bridge, turn right towards Garanas and follow the signs to “Kalachakra Kalapa Center” uphill for about 8 km to reach the center.
