Ordained Sangha

Some of the monks of Shalu Monastery enjoying a meal sponsored by the Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund.

For the last three years, the Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund has offered a grant to Shalu Monastery, Himachal Pradesh, India, to cover the costs of food for the the 50+ monks who study there. This year, US$12,360.08 was offered. 

In June, we updated you on how the monastery was doing amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. On May 7, 2020, they started offering sojong (a bi-monthly confession ceremony), on August 4, they started preparations for yarne (a three-month rains retreat), and gaye (the end of the rains retreat ceremony). These are the three activities that define a proper monastery.

The monks of Shalu Monastery engaged in puja together.

Jhado Rinpoche had previously accepted the monastery’s request to offer teachings for a month during March of 2021, but due to the ongoing pandemic this event will have to be reassessed at a later date. 

Please rejoice in the continued support of this monastery and the Sangha who reside there. Tremendous thanks to all donors who contribute to the Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund making grants like this possible. 

If you want to help Sangha, please learn more about the Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund and the ways it supports monasteries and nunneries around the world.  

Monks of Sera Je Monastery. Photo courtesy of the Sera Je Monastery Facebook page.

In 2017, after twenty-six years of the Sera Je Food Fund offering daily meals to all of the 2,500 monks of Sera Je Monastery, FPMT Charitable Projects raised and then offered a US$5.3 million endowment fund to Sera Je Monastery. The interest generated annually from this endowment supports the entire Sera Je Food Fund expenses.

Sera Je Monastery manages and is entirely responsible for the endowment, but as part of the agreement, FPMT International Office does continue to monitor it. We are very pleased to report that this endowment is continuing to generate enough interest to cover all the costs (which have increased since 2017, as was expected) of the Sera Je Food Fund so this most precious daily offering continues uninterrupted. In addition there is a little extra income generated from the interest and that is reinvested to continue to grow the endowment. 

When this project first started in 1991, Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Ven. Roger Kunsang were the main fundraisers for so many years. Then slowly FPMT Charitable Projects took on the entire responsibility so Rinpoche didn’t have to personally raise the funds. In addition, a few centers were key in helping with fundraising and tens of thousands of supporters over the years have also been inspired to donate. 

Monks of Sera Je Monastery engaged in puja. Photo courtesy of Sera Je Monastery.

When the food fund first began, we were only able to offer a small amount of money to each monk for their midday meal. Then we started to provide a cooked meal that was served to every monk. Later we added dinner, and then breakfast. We built a kitchen and catered to the thousands of monks every day with special attention given to maintaining a hygienic environment for meal preparation, and a balanced offering of nutritious food. And now, due to the endowment that was built up over ten years, this project is now totally self-sufficient. How amazing! 

Thank you so much to everyone who helped to create this incredible offering that brings so much benefit to all the monks of Sera Je Monastery who in turn are working so hard to benefit the entire world through Buddha’s teachings. Supporting monks and nuns has always been one of the highest priorities for Lama Zopa Rinpoche and the FPMT organization because the preservation of the Dharma is dependent on the existence of Sangha.

Please learn more about the Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund and the ways it supports monasteries and nunneries around the world. 

You can read the complete article on the food fund, “Sustaining the Pure Unbroken Lineage of Buddha’s Teachings in This World: The Legacy of the Sera Je Food Fund,” in Mandala eZine format and as a PDF.

Some nuns of Tashi Chime Gatsal Nunnery, Nepal, engaged in retreat.

Since 2009, sponsorship has been offered to the nuns of Tashi Chime Gatsal Nunnery, Nepal, from the Practice and Retreat Fund. Funds have been offered to complete two 100 million mani retreats (100 million recitations of the mantra OM MANI PADME HUM) every year. In addition to the 100 million mani retreats, offerings are made to cover the cost of food for all the nuns during this period as well as an offering for a qualified geshe to stay during the retreat in order to give lamrim teachings. Over the past eleven years, the nuns have completed twenty-one 100 million mani retreats. They have nearly completed the first 100 million Mani retreat of 2020.

Light offerings at Tashi Chime Gatsal Nunnery.

This year the nuns also performed a Nyung Nä retreat on Saka Dawa. During this retreat they prayed for the good health of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and especially for universal peace and to dispel the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and for the quick recovery of those who are infected.

The nunnery is following all the safety regulations for the nuns to stay safe during this time, and there are currently no regular classes being held for the young nuns because of the enforced lockdown in Nepal.

You can learn more about the Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund and the ways it supports monasteries and nunneries.

The monks of Shalu Monasty enjoying a meal together.

For three years, the Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund has offered support to Shalu Monastery, located in Tibetan Cholsum Settlement in the District Sirmour, Himachal Pradesh, India, to cover the costs of food for the monks who study there.

The monastery has been on lockdown since the Indian government enforced it on March 24 and they are adhering to restrictions.. Fortunately, they are not located in what is considered a “danger zone” even though the disease continues to spread in India. 

Some monks of Shalu Monastery doing puja together.

The monks have been following the government guidelines and continuing their daily routine: praying for world peace; reciting prayers and mantras to overcome the pandemic; and making prayers and dedications to those who are suffering due to the virus and also making light offerings for those who have died. 

If you want to help Sangha, please learn more about the Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund and the ways it supports monasteries and nunneries around the world.  

Construction on Darpa Pandita Labrang, Sera Je Monastery, South India.

The Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund was pleased to help support the completion of the Darpa Pandita Labrang at Sera Je Monastery. Due to the increase in number of lamas living at this labrang, construction was needed to renovate the existing building and add a second floor to the structure. 

Renovation and addition to the Darpa Pandita Labrang.

Darpa Pandita is an incarnation of a great Mongolian Lama, who was connected to the Most Secret Hayagriva lineage. Offering toward his labrang will make reasonable accommodation for the monks residing there possible. 

Please rejoice in this support to the monks who rely on this labrang for housing. 

“Offering to the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha is an unbelievable act,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche has explained. “It is important to remember this when you make an offering to the Sangha. Think that you are also offering to the Buddha and Dharma simultaneously.” Read Rinpoche’s full teaching on “Why Offering to the Sangha is so Powerful.”

Please learn more about the Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund and the ways it supports monasteries and nunneries around the world. 

Nuns and lay children attending the school at Tashi Chime Gatsal Nunnery in Nepal.

Since 2009 sponsorship from the Practice and Retreat Fund has been offered to the nuns of Tashi Chime Gatsal Nunnery, Nepal, to complete one 100 million mani retreat (100 million recitations of the mantra OM MANI PADME HUM) every year and a kind benefactor sponsors a second. 

In addition to the 100 million mani retreats, offerings are made to cover the cost of food for all during this period as well as an offering for a qualified geshe to stay during the retreat in order to give lamrim teachings. Additionally, in 2019, two nuns were also given funds necessary for important medical procedures and associated expenses. 

There are currently eighty-five nuns living at the nunnery receiving a traditional Tibetan Buddhist education, as well as a modern western education in science, math, English, etc. Most of the nuns are under the age of twenty. The school at the nunnery is attended by forty  nuns and twenty local children. Teachers include: three nuns, two lharampa geshes, and five lay teachers. 

The nunnery sent the following message of thanks to FPMT International Office for the ongoing support: Thank you for the kind support so far and continuing to do this. Without your help, the nunnery will not last long.”

The nunnery has now completed nineteen 100 million mani retreats. One of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Visions for the FPMT organization is to sponsor these retreats around the world.

Rinpoche explained, “[I would like] for the organization to establish 100,000 recitations of 100 million OM MANI PADME HUM mantras. This can be retreats of 100 million recitations, so 100,000 different retreats in different parts of the world and where it is happening, then for it to happen regularly, each year.”

Please rejoice in another year of these very precious retreats being completed at this nunnery in Nepal. 

The Practice and Retreat Fund provides grants and sponsorships for students engaged in retreats such as 108 nyung nä retreats, 100 million mani retreats, recitations of sutras and long term retreat. 

Young monks of Idgaa Choizinling, Mongolia.

The Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund offers sponsorship of daily lunch for the monks studying at Idgaa Choizinling Dratsang in Mongolia. 

Idgaa Choizinling was established in 2003 through FPMT Mongolia due to the kindness of many benefactors. Idgaa is strongly connected to Sera Je Monastery in India and serves as a focal point of Buddhist learning in Mongolia. Since the monastery’s inception, FPMT has been offering food to the monks studying there. The cost of this offering for 2019 was US$9,000.

Of the total 60 monks, five have taken gelong vows, eleven have taken getsul vows, two have taken rabjung vows, and another 42 young monks are waiting for rabjung vows. More than 20 new students joined the monastery this year. 

Last year the Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund also offered a US$470,000 grant for a much needed expansion of this monastery. 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche has explained:

Giving to the Sangha is an incredible thing. One extremely poor person gave medicine and drink to four monks; they were not arhats, just ordinary monks. In the next life, that person was born as a very powerful and wealthy person. The karmic cause was very simple—just giving medicine and drink to four monks—but because karma expands, the result will be experienced over many lifetimes. If you offer to the powerful object of the Sangha with the motivation of bodhichitta, the result is even more powerful. You receive limitless skies of merit because you are thinking of benefiting numberless sentient beings—numberless hell beings, numberless hungry ghosts, numberless animals, numberless human beings, numberless sura beings and asura beings, and numberless intermediate state beings—and bringing them to enlightenment. You can imagine the merit you gain if you offer to the Sangha with the motivation of bodhichitta.

Monks of Idgaa Choizinling studying.

The Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund was established in the tradition of the extremely successful Sera Je Food Fund, which offered three nutritious meals daily to all the monks of Sera Je Monastery for over twenty-six years. Over this time, the food fund established an interest-bearing endowment that will continue to cover the cost of food for this program indefinitely. This fund is now broader in scope and offers support to monasteries, nunneries, and individual monks and nuns around the world including food, accommodation, health care, education and practice. 

Supporting monks and nuns is one of the highest priorities for the FPMT organization, because the preservation of the Buddhadharma is dependent on the existence of Sangha.

Please rejoice in this offering of daily food to these earnest monks who study and practice so sincerely to keep Buddhism alive in Mongolia. 

The Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund supports ordained monks and nuns as well as monasteries and nunneries by providing sponsorship for food, accommodations, educational needs, and health care for Sangha. 

2018 participants in the annual Gelug Examination.

Every year the best scholars from the main Gelug monasteries come together for the annual Gelug Examination. Every year the Lama Tsongkhapa Teachers Fund offers a grant for daily food, travel expenses, and for teacher stipends for the main teachers of the Lama Tsongkhapa tradition. This year 518 monks participated at Gaden Lachi Monastery, India and the grant offered by FPMT was US$21,169. 

Participants of the 2019 Gelug Exam at Gaden Lachi Monastery

Stipends were offered to the 139 current abbots, past abbots, and main teachers of the Lama Tsongkhapa tradition. This small offering of money supports these teachers’ basic needs and allows them to be able to focus more of their time on transmitting Dharma to their students at the monasteries and strengthening their own practices.

Participants of the 2019 Gelug Examination enjoying lunch sponsored by the Lama Tsongkhapa Teachers Fund.

These scholars are the future of the Lama Tsongkhapa tradition and it is a high priority for FPMT to support them at this level of their education. Congratulations to all who participated and successfully completed this rigorous exam. 

Tremendous thanks to all the donors who have made these offerings possible, every year, for twenty-one years. Please rejoice in this ongoing support to past, present, and future teachers of the Gelug tradition. You are welcome to offer any amount to the Lama Tsongkhapa Teachers Fund to help ensure that these grants continue for into the future. 

Since its inception, the Lama Tsongkhapa Teachers Fund, an extension of the Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund, has supported senior teachers each year of the main Gelug monasteries, plus hundreds of monks attending the traditional winter debate and annual Gelug exam. 

190 monks from Sera Je Monastery successfully passed the 2019Special Memorization Examination.

This year, annual sponsorship was offered to Sera Je Monastery for 190 monks who qualified and passed the 2019 Special Memorization Examination.

This is an incredible achievement accomplished by extremely dedicated scholars. 

• 68 monks memorized Commentary on the Ornament of Clear Realization 
• 74 monks memorized The Essence of Eloquence on the Art of Interpretation by Lama Tsongkhapa
• 32 monks memorized Bodhisattvacaryavatara (Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life) by Shantideva
• 9 monks memorized A Presentation of General Meaning
• 3 monks memorized General Meaning (of the) Middle Way
• 2 monks memorized  Six Treatises on the Middle Way by Nagarjuna
• 1 monk memorized Five Treatises of Maitreya

A new set of robes and an offering was given to these future teachers who contribute to the preservation the Lama Tsongkhapa tradition of Tibetan Buddhism in the monasteries. The memorization of these monumental works is truly something to rejoice in. 

You can learn more about the beneficial activities of the Lama Tsongkhapa Teachers Fund or the many Charitable Projects of FPMT.

Finished accommodation at Shri Sengedrak Ngedhon Samten Choeling Retreat Center.

Shri Sengedrak Ngedhon Samten Choeling Retreat Center, a Kagyu nunnery, was badly damaged in the 2015 earthquake that devastated Nepal and surrounding areas. This nunnery, located on the border of Nepal and Tibet (on the Nepal side), is under the guidance of Zigar Monastery Abbot Tinley Dorje who is one of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachers.

Destruction following t he earthquake at Shri Sengedrak Ngedhon Samten Choeling Retreat Center, Nepal.

Following the earthquake, construction was needed for thirty-five retreat houses, one main prayer hall, a retreat house for the abbot, and five standard toilets. The nuns had been living in temporary shelter, and the Social Services Fund issued a grant for US$185,000 for the necessary rebuilding.

New accommodation and landscape at Shri Sengedrak Ngedhon Samten Choeling Retreat Center.

Please rejoice that the accommodation is now complete and the nuns can continue their studies and practice without dire living conditions. Tremendous thanks to all of the kind donors who made this possible.

You can learn more about the Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund and the ways it supports monasteries and nunneries.

Some monks of Idgaa Choizinling, Mongolia.

The Idgaa Choizinling Monastery, Mongolia, was constructed in 2003 through FPMT Mongolia with assistance from a number of extremely kind benefactors. This monastery is strongly connected to Sera Je Monastery in India and serves as a focal point of Buddhist learning in Mongolia. FPMT, through the Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund, has been offering food to approximately sixty monks studying there since its inception. 

Architectural drawing of the new dormitory.

In 2018, Idgaa was gifted land near the monastery. After careful consideration, it was concluded that an expansion of accommodation for the monks would be the most beneficial use for this land. A new three story building will feature forty-one small, and six large rooms. The Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund offered a US$470,000 grant for this most precious accommodation which includes, in addition to the construction: inner wall decoration, a plumbing system, electricity, landscaping, a complete pipeline system, and engineering work.

Please rejoice in the expansion of this monastery which contributes directly to preserving and supporting the study of Buddhism in Mongolia. 

You can learn more about the Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund and the ways it supports monasteries and nunneries.

Some of the monks of Shalu Monastery.

For the second year in a row, the Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund has offered a grant to Shalu Monastery to cover the costs of food for the 30 monks who study there. This year, US$16,116.94 was offered. 

Young monks enjoying an offered meal.

Shalu Monastery was founded by Chetsun Shetsun Jugney in 1027 A.D at Shalu Village near Shigatse town in Tibet and was consecrated by Atisha. The number of the monks studying there reached 7,700 at the peak of its opulence in the 14th century under the abbotship of Buton Rinchen Drup. Shalu Monastery was considered one of the most respected learning institutions in Tibet. Some monks from the monastery are said to have accomplished great physical feats because of their specialized training including the ability to regulate their body temperature regardless of the external weather or travel at speeds which seemed to defy possibility. 

During the Chinese invasion of 1959, this precious monastery was destroyed. It was re-established at Tibetan Cholsum Settlement, Bhuppur, India, under the vision and blessing of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and was consecrated by Sakya Trichen Rinpoche in March 2005.

There are currently fifty-six monks studying at the monastery. 

In 2018 the Holy Objects Fund issued a grant for the building of a 15 ft x 11 ft Jangchub Stupa surrounded by prayer wheels that the resident monks and visitors can utilize for circumambulation. 

Please rejoice in the continued support of this monastery and the Sangha who reside there. Tremendous thanks to all donors who contribute to the Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund making grants like this possible. 

If you want to help Sangha, please learn more about the Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund and the ways it supports monasteries and nunneries around the world.