In 2004, Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche requested that a structure be built for the lineage of Sakyongs in Kalapa Valley to be used for the retreat described by his father the Druk Sakyong, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, in the Scorpion Seal of the Golden Sun root text. The text is considered one of the most profound of the Druk Sakyong’s Shambhala teachings, and is the basis for the Werma Sadhana, a central practice for advanced students within the Shambhala community. Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche was to be the first person to do the Scorpion Seal retreat.

The design for the Scorpion Seal retreat building, also referred to as the Tenno Retreat building, was conceived by designer, architect, and feng shui consultant Gina Stick as

a marriage of k’an-yu or feng shui with a Shambhala inspired sacred architecture. The building was strategically designed to gather and focus the land potential of the valley into the retreat building. Sacred architecture derives much of its power from the surrounding landform, accessed through strategic site selection and placement, and building design.

The design concept for the building was inspired by the Great Eastern Sun Vajra Assembly talks of the Druk Sakyong in which he describes the Seat of the Universal Monarch and the dawning of the Great Eastern Sun. Architecturally it was developed to invite the primal simplicity of the central drala or energy invoked in the Werma Sadhana, Shiwa Okar, and to empower the practitioner with the enriching stability of the Rigden King, an expression of Universal Monarch within the Shambhala Buddhist lineage.

In 2005 the first phase construction of the building was completed, and the Sakyong entered his Scorpion Seat retreat. The Sakyong communicated that he considered the structure - though unfinished - to be our first truly Shambhalian building, and that the final elements of the Rigden Abhisheka transmission arose auspiciously from that retreat.

In October 2008, the Sakyong hosted a powerful retreat gathering of acharyas at Kalapa Valley to further teach on the Scorpion Seal retreat in preparation for Scorpion Seal Assemblies to be offered to the community. In preparation for the Acharaya retreat, a second phase of construction was initiated, and some of the exterior siding of the building was installed.

The balance of the exterior is still incomplete and in danger of decay. The entry system - stairs and veranda - are not yet built. Heraldry for the building - designed as armor and to reflect and enhance the luminosity of the Great Eastern Sun - is in a schematic phase. The site needs substantial clean up from construction; grading; and finish landscaping to restore it to a natural state.