Social Services

Goats at the Animal Liberation Sanctuary receive blessings from holy objects .

Every day around the world millions of animals are killed and mistreated needlessly. In countries like Nepal, the care and management of animals is very poor and animal sacrifices are common creating tremendous suffering for the animals and those involved. 

Animal Liberation Sanctuary, near Kopan Monastery, was established to provide shelter and care for animals who have been rescued from being killed, so that they may live out their natural lives in peace and attain a higher rebirth through exposure to the Dharma. The animals (nine cattle, fifty goats, and one sheep) regularly hear mantras and are led around holy objects. 

The sanctuary has a main animal shelter designed to provide a healthy environment throughout Nepal’s seasons, it has facilities to separate weaker animals from the main flock, and it is designed to reduce water use and waste. The sanctuary has an animal shed, treatment and isolation building,  quarantine area, and caretaker house. 

For the sixth year, a very kind benefactor has worked with the Social Services Fund to issue a substantial grant for the ongoing work and care of the sanctuary. We are delighted to report that a US$10,000 grant has recently been issued which will be used for ongoing food and care expenses, as well as for urgently needed bars over the windows of the goat shed. In 2016 one of the dogs was taken by a leopard during the night and in 2017 a female goat was taken in broad daylight by a leopard with two cubs. The staff were too late to chase the leopard away and the goat was killed. Unfortunately habitat loss has forced leopards closer to the urban fringe. The window bars will hopefully make the shed secure at night and vigilance from the caretakers will prevent future attacks during the day.

Residents of the Dhondenling Elderly Home.

Dhondenling Tibetan Settlement, located in Kollegal, India, is the most remote and underdeveloped Tibetan settlements in southern India. The settlement consists of twenty-two villages, and an elderly home. The elderly home has a capacity for thirty-two elderly Tibetans residents. 

Residents of the Dhondenling Elderly Home.

The residents are provided nutritious food and medical treatment but the facilities and services cannot expand due to lack of funds. The Social Services Fund was very happy to offer US$10,114.47 toward this home’s 2018 operating budget, which was going to finish the year in a deficit. 

A residents of the Dhondenling Elderly Home.

Supporting Tibetan refugees is a one of the FPMT Social Fund’s key objectives. In recently years, due to the kindness of donors, we have been able to really offer support to elderly homes in India caring for Tibetan elders who have access to no other means of support. Offering grants to these homes is one way that FPMT can help repay the kindness and bravery of the Tibetan people. Thanks to all who continue to contribute to the Social Services Fund enabling support such as this to continue. To date, US$524,516.94 has been offered toward the care of elderly Tibetans in need of support. Thanks to all of the kind benefactors who have made this possible. 

If you would like to support the Social Services Fund and help ensure grants such as this can continue, you can read more about the charitable projects this fund supports, or donate any amount to the fund itself. 

His Holiness the Dalai Lama visiting Ngari Institute.

Since 2014, the Social Services Fund has been supporting the school children and staff of Ngari Institute in Ladakh, India. This year, a grant for US$29,192.50 was offered to cover the costs of daily meals for eighty-three students and staff members, a substantial increase from $13,102 for 35 students in 2014.

Ngari Institute is located in the Himalayan Kingdom of Ladakh in a small village called Saboo. The campus is spread over 20 hectares of deserted land. The main aim of this school is to empower and enrich the poor and needy remote-area students by imparting a combined learning of both modern scientific knowledge and ancient Buddhist wisdom.

Students of Ngari Institute enjoying a meal together.

The students, who come from different parts of Ladakh and the border of Tibet, stay in a hostel while attending the school. The Ngari Institute is taking care of all the students’ daily needs, offering free room, board, tuition, books clothing allowances, and access to medical care.

The school was founded by the Ladakh alumni of Sera Je Monastery in South India. A number of monks at Kopan Monastery come from this region in Nepal and FPMT also helped sponsor the building of Ngari Khangtsen at Sera Je monastery.

Investing in education through schools is one way we can invest in the future and help break the cycle of poverty in disadvantaged areas, particularly in India and Nepal. The Social Services Fund currently offers over US$73,000 annually to four schools providing education to children of Tibetan, Nepali, Sherpa, and Indian heritage. The grants cover daily food for operating expenses for over 500 children.

The Social Services Fund has sponsored the food for Ngari Institute for the fifth year in a row and hopes to be able to continue long into the future. If you are inspired by grants such as this, you are welcome to contribute to the Social Service Fund and help ensure that work like this can continue. 

The nunnery was devastated by the 2015 Nepal earthquake.

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 and has been offering Rinpoche precious oral transmissions for the past two years in Tso Pema, India. 

In 2017 Tinley Dorje requested that Lama Zopa Rinpoche support the rebuilding of this nunnery. The nuns had been living in temporary shelter in modest conditions. 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 FPMT Social Services Fund offered three grants totaling US$185,000 for the rebuilding of this nunnery.  This is an incredible way FPMT can support ordained Sangha, and nuns in particular, who are not exclusively from the Gelug tradition. 

Kitchen and retreat house severely damaged by the 2016 earthquake.

Sangha offering puja where the new nunnery is being built.

Please rejoice that this grant has been offered so that the nuns can continue their monastic life under better, safer, and more condusive conditions. In a letter accompanying the final grant, Lama Zopa Rinpoche said the following to the monks and nuns of the monastery and nunnery: 

I don’t have much to say but in short I want to request all the monks and nuns who are disciples of Kyabje Sendak Rinpoche [who founded the monastery and passed away in 2005] to practice according to what Rinpoche has advised. In order to attain enlightenment, practice the root of the path, guru devotion, by developing the faith of seeing Kyabje Sendak Rinpoche as the embodiment of the Three Supreme Jewels. With that single-pointed devotion, the actual action based on living in harmony and pure morality, practice according to Rinpoche’s teachings and thus get enlightened joyously without having any fear now, at time the of death, and in all future times and places all sentient beings, who have been our mother since beginingless lives and guided us with great kindness, into the state of enlightenment.

The new nunnery is under construction thanks to three grants from the FPMT Social Services Fund.

To date, US$1,714,864.78 in grants has been distributed from the FPMT Social Services Fund toward rebuilding and disaster relief following the 2015 Nepal earthquakes.

The Social Services Fund contributes to many beneficial charitable projects as funds allow. You can learn more about these activities, or make a donation of any amount. 

12,290 meals were offered in 2017 through the LOP soup kitchen.

Lamp of the Path NGO (LOP), part of FPMT Mongolia, offers social services to some of the poor and homeless living in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. It has two main programs: a soup kitchen, which offered over 12,290 meals in 2017; and a health clinic, reopened in 2017, offers free health services to the very poor and provided treatment and medications to approximately 292 people in 2017. Additionally Lamp of the Path has cultivated a vegetable garden near the LOP building to provide fresh vegetables and herbs to the other activities; a clothing distribution service which not only serves to keep the homeless warm and clean, but also helps bring awareness to the plight of the homeless as locals can bring in clothing for this project; an anti-alcoholic project has been in operation for the past ten years to address the epidemic of alcoholism in Mongolia; and a six weeks’ meditation program will commence this year for blind people who feel depressed, angry, and who are subject to suicidal thoughts and actions. 

Please enjoy this video showing some of the incredible work being done in Mongolia through Lamp of the Path. 

Since 2012, a generous benefactor has worked with the Social Services Fund to provide ongoing grants to help fund these charitable activities. A collective US$197,500 has been granted to LOP and this year and additional US$30,000 will be disbursed. Rejoice that those in need in Mongolia are able to receive much needed support through these essential programs. 

The Social Services Fund contributes to many beneficial charitable projects as funds allow. You can learn more about these activities, or make a donation of any amount. 

You can offer directly to FPMT Mongolia to help ensure services such as these continue in Mongolia in the future. 

New accommodation for the residents of Lugsam Samduling Home for the Aged and Disabled.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche visiting and blessing the residents of the elderly home in 2015.

Lugsam Samduling Home for the Aged and Disabled, an elderly home in Bylakuppe, India, cares for approximately forty elderly individuals. Without homes and accommodation like this, many elderly first-wave Tibetan refugees have very little prospect of accommodation or support as many are without families of their own.

Due to the kindness of generous benefactors, we are now able to invest in homes such as this in an ongoing way. 

The inside of one of the new rooms being built at the elderly home.

In 2017, a grant of US$127,051.29 was offered toward the building of ten rooms at the home. The original building hasn’t been updated since 1968 and was in dire need of a rebuild as the foundation was not suitable for a renovation. This project is being completed this month and the residents will be able to move into the new building. Each room will accommodate four elders with a bathroom attached. An extremely kind donor raised the funds for this. An incredible gesture of generosity. 

In 2017, a grant was provided for a recycling initiative which raises money for the elderly home. The grant funded a recycling truck, worker uniforms and salaries for two, fuel, and repairs for the vehicle. 

The vehicle purchased for the Lugsung Samduling Tibetan Settlement’s recycling program.

In 2018 US$57,079.77 was offered for the construction of large and smaller prayer wheels on the property enabling the elders to pray, circumambulate, and maintain good health. In this way, FPMT is helping to take ultimate care of the elders by providing the conditions for them create merit for this and future lives, not simply their immediate needs for survival.  

FPMT has been supporting this home for three years and in this period has offered US$225,558.

If you would like to support the Social Services Fund and help ensure grants such as this can continue, you can read more about the charitable projects this fund supports, or donate any amount to the fund itself. 

Some students attending The Central School for Tibetans, Cauvery Valley Project (CVP).

School children washing up after their midday meal.

The Social Services Fund has been sponsoring the midday meals for the children attending The Central School for Tibetans, Cauvery Valley Project (CVP), located in Bylakuppe, South India. The school was was established in 1971 to serve the children of refugees living at Dickey Larsoe Tibetan Settlement. Twenty-four staff help educate 217 elementary, middle, and secondary students. The school has not only established an impressive academic program with an emphasis on preserving the student’s Tibetan cultural heritage, but also offers extracurricular activities such as sports, arts, and crafts.

In addition to the midday meals, FPMT has also recently been funding the salary of a kind lady who looks after some of the children after school hours. 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche also sponsored the complete renovation of the school’s kitchen in 2013. 

Please rejoice in this ongoing investment in the education of Tibetan refugees’ children. 

Helping the children of Tibetan refugees receive quality education is a high priority for FPMT, and through this offering of food, the school can use precious and scarce resources for continuing to develop and implement quality academic programs for the students. If you are moved by this work, you are welcome to donate any amount to ensure its continuation. 

If you would like to support the Social Services Fund and help ensure grants such as this can continue, you can read more about the charitable projects this fund supports, or donate any amount to the fund itself. 

Lama Rinpoche visiting Lugsung Samdupling Home for the Aged and Disabled in Bylakkupe, India.

In recent years, thanks to the kindness of generous donors, FPMT has been able to invest more resources into taking care of the elderly Tibetans living in India. Recently Lama Zopa Rinpoche visited elderly homes in southern India, giving teachings and blessing the residents. 

Rinpoche visiting seniors at Hunsur Home for the Elderly.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche giving a lung of OM MANI PADME HUM and explaining the benefits of reciting this mantra at Lugsung Samdupling Home for the Aged and Disabled in Bylakuppe, India.

Over the past two and a half years, US$1,642,115 has been offered from the Social Services Fund and Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund to assist schools, elderly care and other social projects.

FMT Charitable Projects is honored to support the homes of the eldest and destitute Tibetan refugees. You can show your support by making a donation to the Social Services Fund. 

New vehicle for the Lugsung Samdupling Tibetan Settlement’s recycling program.

The Social Services Fund offered a grant to Lugsung Samdupling Tibetan Settlement in Bylakuppe, India for investment into a recycling initiative which will raise money for the elderly home located on the settlement. The grant paid for a recycling truck, worker uniforms and salaries for two, fuel, and repairs for the vehicle. 

The truck operates six days weekly picking up garbage from around the settlement and then sorts out materials suitable for recycling. This program brings in extra income to the elderly home which is home to approximately fifty elderly Tibetan refugees. The settlement itself is made up of seven villages or camps scattered at different locations with average of thirty families in each camp. The settlement was established in 1960 with the help of the Indian government with an initial population of 3,000 settlers. This settlement is one of the biggest Tibetan refugee settlements in India.

The Social Services Fund has previously invested in the elderly home located on this settlement and will continue to do so as funds are acquired and need is identified.

FPMT Charitable Projects is honored to support the settlements of Tibetan refugees. You can show your support by making a donation to the Social Services Fund. 

In this drawing, a grateful millipede is saying: “Oh wow! We are all crying tears of joy because this great bodhisattva has helped us to circumambulate holy objects, and by his blessing we now have created the cause for enlightenment.”

The Sangha living at Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s residences in California and Washington State offer the practice of animal liberation every week (the Winter months in Washington State are not conducive to this practice due to the snow being too much for the animals), dedicated to anyone who is sick, dying, or having life obstacles and extensive prayers are made for the long life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Lama Zopa Rinpoche. Since 2015, 602,950 small sentient beings, including worms, were blessed and liberated according to Rinpoche’s instructions. Over 60,000 were liberated in 2017. Not only were the animals saved from untimely death, they were also taken around an incredible amount of holy objects, mantras were recited and blown on them, and they were carefully placed where they could live out the rest of their life. 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche carrying his “fathers and mothers” around the stupa at Aptos House, California in 2006.

On one occasion, while Lama Zopa Rinpoche was circumambulating worms around the large stupa at Aptos House in California, he located a broom to be able to carry two buckets of worms on each shoulder. Rinpoche explained, “In India when one’s parents are too old to walk then their children carry them on their back in this way. Father on one side in a basket and mother on the other side in a basket. So here I am carrying 400 of my fathers and mothers on my back.”

The Sangha in California also offer a weekly blessing of all sentient beings in the ocean by submerging large Namgyälma mantra boards into the water; and the Sangha in Washington offer charity and food to nineteen ant nests and regularly bless beings in nearby lakes with mantras and blessed food. 

Animal liberation practice is an incredible practice for anyone who has illnesses or is experiencing life obstacles. FPMT Education Services makes available many resources for those wishing to engage in this practice. Additionally, anyone who donates to the Animal Liberation Fund is directly contributing to helping save animals from the lower realms. 

Please rejoice in this ongoing practice of animal liberation which is dedicated to all beings, and specifically to those requesting prayers.

All are welcome to contribute to the Animal Liberation Fund to help ensure that our work sponsoring animal liberations around the world continues. 

The monks of Sera Je Monastery will be offered three nutritious meals a day long into the future thanks to an endowment offered in 2017.

2017 was a momentous year for FPMT Charitable Projects. In January 2017 we raised the targeted amount needed to offer Sera Je Monastery an endowment fund large enough to support the daily food offering program at the monastery (known as the Sera Je Food Fund– providing nutritious meals daily to all of the monks studying at Sera Je). The Sera Je Food Fund, an FPMT Charitable Project from 1991-2017, has offered millions of meals since its inception. At the time of this fund becoming self-sufficient it was offering approximately 700,000 meals per year, 2,900 meals per day and the annual cost was US$200,000. 

MAITRI Charitable Trust provides essential education, medical care, aid to mothers and children, animal care, and various forms of charitable service to the destitute in Bodhgaya, India.

Other beneficial grants offered in 2017 from FPMT Charitable Projects include:

• A grant was offered through the Social Services Fund to MAITRI Charitable Trust that will assist with providing essential education, medical care, aid to mothers and children, animal care, and various forms of charitable service to the destitute in Bodhgaya, India.
• The Holy Objects Fund offered grants toward the creation of large holy objects around the world including: a stupa for Tenzin Osel’s teacher Geshe Gendun Chomphel who passed away in 2016, prayer wheels for a Tibetan settlement in Bylakuppe, and the 28 ft x 6.5 ft umbrella of the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, Bendigo, Australia, which will contain embossed mantras advised by Lama Zopa Rinpoche.

Children of Sagarmatha Secondary School engaged in prayer.

• A grant was offered from the Social Services Fund for the complete rebuilding of Khumjung Gompa, Nepal, after destruction from the 2015 earthquake rendered it unusable. Approximately 4,000 local sherpas live in the area and about 300 households share this gompa for religious festivals.
• A grant was offered through the Social Services Fund to Sagarmatha Secondary School in Chailsa, Nepal for the operating budget of the school which currently serves 120 young students.
• The Puja Fund offers up to US$100,000 annually to 15,650 ordained Sangha who make substantial prayers and perform pujas and practices dedicated to the well-being of all and to world peace. Gold, saffron, precious paint and highest quality brocade are offered to the main holy objects in Nepal, India, and Tibet.

These are just a few examples of the many grants offered in 2017. Please stay tuned for the release of FPMT International Office’s Annual Review which will contain more information on 2017’s incredible year of charitable giving. 

You can keep up on all of the grants being offered through FPMT Charitable Projects and get involved in supporting us in 2018.  

Lama Zopa Rinpoche visiting Sagarmatha Secondary School, March 2017.

For the past three years, the Social Services Fund has been offering a grant to cover the cost of running Sagarmatha Secondary School in Chailsa, Nepal. The school is located on what was once a Tibetan refugee camp and currently serves 120 young students. Thanks to the generosity of donors, support for this school continues this year. 

Children of Sagarmatha Secondary School engaged in prayer.

Kopan Monastery oversees all operations of this school as well as Thubten Shedrup Ling Monastery and the Maitreya Children’s Home, a hostel for nearly fifty children.

Childred of Sagarmatha Secondary School playing and enjoying.

Approximately US$25,000 is dispersed each year for this school. 

Other school activities currently supported in an ongoing way by the Social Services Fund:

• Offering daily food for The Central School for Tibetans, Cauvery Valley Project located in Bylakuppe, South India. This school was established in 1971 to serve the children of refugees living at Dickey Larsoe Tibetan Settlement. Twenty-four staff help educate 217 elementary, middle, and secondary students.
  
• Offering support to the Maitreya School for Universal Education at Root Institute in Bodhgaya, India. The school gives 200 children living in one of India’s poorest states a precious opportunity. Not only do they have the chance of a traditional education but they receive life skills of compassion, honesty and loving-kindness.
• Daily food offered to over fifty students, teachers, and young monks at Ngari Institute in the Himalayan Kingdom of Ladakh, India. The main aim of this school is to empower and enrich the poor and needy remote-area students by imparting a combined learning of both modern scientific knowledge and ancient Buddhist wisdom.

The FPMT Social Services Fund offers over US$73,000 annually to schools providing education to children of Tibetan, Nepali, Sherpa, and Indian heritage. This is made possible by all those who generously contribute to the Social Services Fund. 

If you would like to support the Social Services Fund and help ensure grants such as this can continue, you can read more about the charitable projects this fund supports, or donate any amount to the fund itself.