Tārāvana is a Buddhist center and seminar house with a focus on physical and mental health. The timeless teachings of the Buddha on mindfulness, compassion, love (for oneself and others) and inner and outer peace form the foundation of our offerings. But this place is not just for Buddhists: it is open to anyone who wants to find peace, recharge their batteries and grow on various levels. Here, in the middle of the beautiful countryside on the edge of the Windecker Ländchen, there is space for short and longer moments of silence, contemplation and meditative reflection, but also for movement, creativity, transformation processes and exchange with other people in an inspiring community.
Tārāvana began when Ingrid Hufen-Röck bought a former farm on the Kuppen hill in Halscheid in 2006. The connection to Halscheid is even older, as Ingrid and her daughter Rebecca had already taken part in courses and retreats at the Halscheid retreat center years before. This led to a friendship that continues to this day and has grown steadily over the years. From 2009, Ingrid converted the farm into a small seminar house with great perseverance, enthusiasm and a lot of love together with her late husband Siegfried Röck under the name “Hof Kuppen”. Already at this time, Buddhist, spiritual and health -related topics formed the focus of the offers. The magic of this slowly blossoming place eventually attracted other family members and so Andreas Basigkow and Rebecca Hufen also settled here to support the program around the house and farm. Like everything else in this world, this place is subject to constant change, some things fall apart and others grow anew. What began as a small family project can and should now grow beyond its own family tree, take root, sow colorful ideas, blossom and bear many interesting fruits. With this new beginning, the place was also given a new name at the start of 2025: Tārāvana.
Our name patron is “Tārā”, a female Buddha form and meditation deity who stands for active compassion, fearlessness and wisdom. The ancient Indian Sanskrit term “Vana” means grove, forest or park. Some of the most important places where the Buddha taught in India were such sheltering and shady groves, such as the famous Jetavana or Veluvana. “Tārāvana” therefore means “Tārā's grove”: a place of peace, growth, diversity, inspiration and holistic health, all under the protective hand of Tārā.
Teamwork & Community
We love teamwork! Because together we can achieve so much more than alone (and it's also - usually - more fun!). We are always happy to exchange ideas with like-minded people and to receive short-term and long-term support. In this way, we hope that our community will continue to grow. Of course, we are particularly happy to receive volunteer help, but for some tasks we can also find other solutions that show solidarity and benefit everyone involved. A longer-term commitment with accommodation on site is also possible. Do you have the knowledge, ideas and talents or simply the drive and enthusiasm to become (temporarily) part of our team?Here you can find more information about how you can support us.
The Team
Rebecca Hufen
Rebecca is the co-founder, creative force and “task distributor” at Tārāvana. She is a Tibetologist, translator and yoga teacher. Moreover, she is a passionate chocolate eater, slow walker, cloud gazer, involuntary rabbit owner and, above all, mom to two wonderful daughters―certainly the most exciting and challenging task of her life.
Andreas Basigkow
Andreas is a co-founder of Tārāvana and our tower of strength. In his previous life as an educator in an integrative all-day school in Cologne, he was able to acquire a number of skills that he now also benefits from: pedagogical learning and creative solution strategies, motivational coaching, a (very) broad general knowledge and, above all, a lot of patience. He is particularly responsible for the seminar house area, i.e. accommodation, catering and rental. He also prepares the world's best vegan spiced millet porridge, is an emergency janitor, hobby gardener and loving dog dad to our adorable house dog Greetje.
Ingrid Hufen-Röck
Ingrid is the visionary, wise force and original founder of this beautiful place. In the course of her life, she has completed several psychotherapeutic training and further education courses, e.g. in integrative Gestalt therapy, therapeutic stage work, psychodrama, integrative couple therapy and couple synthesis. At Tārāvana, she regularly leads seminars and workshops on mental health topics and always supports the team with all her experience and wisdom.
Michaela Gharib
Michaela is our multi-talented multi-tasker who can do (almost) everything and can therefore be found (almost) everywhere around us. At Tārāvana, she is above all a good office fairy who can always conjure up the right documents and wonderful ideas, even in tricky situations. But Michaela can do much more: she is a trauma counselor, forest bathing course instructor, artist and incense expert.