Lama Foundation
San Cristobal, New Mexico
The intentional community above San Cristobal, New Mexico, where Ram Dass retreated after Be Here Now's publication and where the book's first edition was assembled, now closed to visitors until spring 2027.
Lama Foundation was founded in 1968 by Ram Dass and his guru's students on the western slope above San Cristobal, and it became one of the seminal communes of the era: the hand-set first edition of Be Here Now was produced in its dome, and Ram Dass lived and taught there in the years the book made him famous. The community has persisted for over fifty years on a steep mountainside at 8,000 feet, its buildings partly famous in their own right, and its practice has always braided Hindu bhakti, contemplative practice, and the back-to-the-land ethos of its founding era.
The foundation announced a closure to visitors running until spring 2027, an operational reset that the entry records as its current fact: the place exists, the lineage is real, and the gate is shut for now. What it will look like on reopening is the foundation's question to answer.
Visiting
The Lama Foundation's own site carries the visitor announcement and the community's programs; check it directly, as the closure through 2027 means no drop-in visits are possible now.
Photo: [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sunset_with_Lama_Prayer_Flags.jpg), CC BY-SA 4.0.
Associated traditions & practices
Visitor stories