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Social Services
Lama Zopa Rinpoche as a young student. Rinpoche attended Rolwaling Sangag Choling as a child.
Thanks to the kindness of a generous benefactor who provided a grant, the Social Services Fund was able to recently offer US$173,599 to Rolwaling Sangag Choling Monastery for the rebuilding of their gompa. Rolwaling Monastery is the main monastery in Rolwaling, located in Nepal along the Tibetan border, and is a precious site of cultural and religious heritage for the area. This monastery is particularly precious to FPMT as Lama Zopa Rinpoche attended this monastery between the ages of 7-12. Supporting this monastery is one way to help repay the monastery’s kindness for looking after and offering education to Rinpoche as a child. There are currently fifteen young monks studying at this monastery.
Rolwaling Sangag Choling is a community-centered monastery and its history spans about nine generations. It is the only monastery in the entire community of Sherpa Buddhists. The current gompa is approximately 150 years old and is richly painted with many holy statues and scripture. This gompa is the sole place in the area where daily prayers, offerings, pujas, retreats, Buddhist teachings, death and dying services, and community events for lay students and ordained Sangha (which can serve up to 300 people at once) are offered. The gompa was already not in good condition (having not been renovated since 1957) but the 2015 earthquake nearly destroyed what was there. For many in the local community, this gompa is more important than their own homes. It was reported that when assistance was offered to locals to help rebuild their houses following the earthquake, many locals became very emotional, saying things like, “Please help us save the gompa, we don’t mind staying in open spaces or living in caves, but we can’t see our gompa in ruins.” Restoring the gompa is extremely important to this community.
The Rolwaling gompa, which had not been restored since 1957, was severely damaged due to the 2015 earthquake.
The Buddhist relics and imagery will be preserved in the rebuilding of the gompa.
During the reconstruction, all the relics and historically important materials will be reused so that the gompa can receive this important update without losing its original identity.
Kopan monk Geshe Jinpa is from Rolwaling and will be responsible for making sure the renovations are done well and will be responsible for overseeing the financial side of this project.
Please rejoice in this offering made possible by this generous grant. The rebuilding of this gompa helps preserve the local culture and reestablish the monastery as a place for Buddhist practice and community. Additionally, as this monastery helped to care for and educate Lama Zopa Rinpoche as a child, this grant helps repay the kindness of our precious spiritual director.
The Social Services Fund also offered a grant to the monastery school to help with a youth hostel and repairs following the earthquake.
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.
Students and staff of Ngari Institute, located in the Himalayan Kingdom of Ladakh in a small village called Saboo.
For the fourth year, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, through the Social Services Fund, has offered food every day of the year to the school children and staff of Ngari Institute in Ladakh, India. This year, 46 school children, 16 teachers and eight young monks will benefit from this offering. The cost is US$20,526.39.
Supporting those in need (such as children, the elderly, poor, and sick) is one of the main priorities of Social Services Fund and Lama Zopa Rinpoche has also indicated that in addition to offering for material needs, we must help in the ultimate way as well by offering Dharma education or creating holy objects as this creates the cause to change the karma and bring real lasting benefit.
The students of Ngari Institute receive a modern education as well as training in Dharma and their own Tibetan culture.
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. It was founded by the Ladakh alumni of Sera Je Monastery in South India. In 2007 Geshe Tsewang Dorje was invited to take full responsibility for this project.
Children, teachers, and young monks are offered food through the Social Services Fund.
In 2010 Geshe Tsewang Dorje appointed a group to find children who would otherwise miss educational opportunities, especially orphans and extremely poor children in the remote area, which runs between Tibet and Ladakh. These children will now be able to receive a modern education as well as learn about Tibetan Buddhism and their own culture.
Children who would otherwise miss educational opportunities are offered a modern and traditional Tibetan culture education at Ngari Institute.
The Institute sent this very thoughtful thank you message in response to this year’s donation, “Thank you very much for all the continued support for food for Ngari Institute in 2016. We would like to particularly thank Lama Zopa Rinpoche and all the FPMT supporters. Our director, Geshe Tsewang, has gone to holy Buddhist places to offer long life prayers for our supporters and for their own wishes to be fulfilled, particularly His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, and all the great masters and regular supporters.”
Thanks to all who donate to the Social Services Fund enabling the offering of important grants such as this. If you would like to contribute to the offering of grants such as this, you are welcome to donate any amount you can.
The Social Services Fund has sponsored the food for Ngari Institute for the fourth 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.
Site of the new community hall that will serve 2,710 Tibetan refugees.
In July we reported that a US$116,848 grant from the Social Services Fund had been offered to Rabagayling Tibetan Settlement in South India for the building of a new community hall that will benefit the 2,710 refugees there. We are pleased to report that work on this hall is underway.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche blessing the members of the elderly home at the Tibetan settlement.
In December 2015, during His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s teachings in Gyurme Tantric College in Hunsur, Lama Zopa Rinpoche visited the construction site and offered prayers to bless the building.
Rinpoche also visited an elderly home that was close by and gave a talk. Many of the elders there will be using the community hall for prayers and practices. Rinpoche told them that even though they don’t have much, they have the Dharma and are so blessed due to reciting OM MANI PADME HUM every day. Rinpoche then explained some of the benefits of this mantra.
Rinpoche has said that “by reciting OM MANI PADME HUM you collect more merit than the number of drops of water in the ocean, than the number of snowflakes in a snowfall, than the number of drops of water in rainfalls, more merit than the number of grains of sand in the Pacific Ocean, and if you do it with bodhichitta, then it creates the cause of happiness up to enlightenment. Then you are able to bring all sentient beings to enlightenment by purifying the negative karma and collecting more than skies of merit.”
Lama Zopa Rinpoche blessing settlement community members with a blessing wheel containing mantras.
Rinpoche blessed all the residents of the home with his new blessing wheel that contains 2,040,000 mantras including Stainless Lotus Pinnacle. Rinpoche explained that when one is blessed with this holy object on the head, it purifies 2,040,000,000 eons of negative karma.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche blessing the site of the new community hall at the Tibetan settlement.
Rinpoche continually reminds us that in addition to offering help for basic needs such as food, shelter, and medical care, we must also remember to help others in an ultimate way – to purify negative karma and create the cause for happiness up to enlightenment. Rinpoche is hoping in the future that there will be holy objects close to the elder care home so that the residents can create merit. Rinpoche also hopes for some teachers to visit the home and give Dharma talks and lead prayers.
Residents of the elder care home with Lama Zopa Rinpoche. Through the Social Services Fund and due to the kindness of one benefactor, FPMT is able to focus on offering more help for elder care in India and Nepal.
Please rejoice! This new hall will serve this Tibetan community for years to come and will be used for holding 100 million mani retreats as well as official functions, workshops, and training in Tibetan language and culture, which is critical for the preservation of the Tibetan heritage.
The Social Services Fund sponsored all the food for the residents in 2015 and hopes to be able to continue in 2016. 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.
During the animal liberation practice, animals are carried around holy objects so the worms can create merit.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche has requested the Sangha at his residences in California and Washington state to offer the practice of animal liberation every week dedicated to anyone who is sick or having life obstacles. Additionally, Sangha in California offer a weekly blessing of all sentient beings in the ocean by submerging large Namgyälma mantra boards into the water.
Extensive prayers are made for the long life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Lama Zopa Rinpoche and all our kind teachers, the Sangha, and anyone who is sick and requesting prayers.
During an animal liberation, the sentient beings are circumambulated around holy objects and extensive prayers and dedications are made for Lama Zopa Rinpoche, his gurus, all sponsors of this fund, all beings who are sick or face an untimely death, as well as many specific dedications requested by the FPMT community.
Supporting all sentient beings in any way possible is why FPMT was established. Benefiting animals directly is one of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Visions for the organization. The Animal Liberation Fund helps carry forth this work.
In 2015, approximately 79,000 sentient beings were liberated. This is something wonderful to rejoice in, and something anyone can make offerings toward, especially if you are sick or would like to offer on behalf of someone else who is sick.
The FPMT Foundation Store offers a teachings and practices from Lama Zopa Rinpoche about how to benefit animals, including the animal liberation practice, in booklet and PDF formats.
Construction materials were flown to the village of Beding. In this area Yeshe Norbu rebuilt several houses and gave support to hundreds of families.
Yeshe Norbu Onlus is an Italian FPMT non-profit association which supports important projects benefiting Tibetan refugees and children. Since the earthquake in Nepal last April, Yeshe Norbu has offered a tremendous amount of emergency aid to assist those in need in Nepal. Please rejoice in this incredible work which has benefited
From April 2015 through the end of 2015, Yeshe Norbu Onlus:
* Distributed of 154,324 pounds of food as well as tents and medicine
* Built 129 temporary structures
* Rebuilt 29 homes
* Provided doctors to remote areas
* Rebuilt the classrooms of the Mount Everest School at Kopan Monastery
Since the Nepal earthquake, Yeshe Norbu has financed the reconstruction of 29 houses for very poor families in remote villages, reusing the materials recovered from collapsed houses and sheets of galvanized plate.
Yeshe Norbu provided rebuilding support to villages in Nepal focusing on the elderly and alone as well as families who were without resources prior to the earthquake, making post-earthquake survival incredibly difficult.
You are welcome to support this work directly to ensure that Yeshe Norbu Onlus can continue to offer essential support where it is most needed.
www.adozionitibet.it/it/cosa-puoi-fare/terremoto-nepal
The nuns of Tashi Chime Gatsal Nunnery were forced into temporary shelter due to their nunnery being rendered uninhabitable following the April earthquake in Nepal.
A young nun of Tashi Chime Gatsal Nunnery .
Following the earthquake of April, 2015, the conditions at Tashi Chime Gatsal Nunnery (also known as Bigu Nunnery), located in a remote area of Nepal, were such that the nuns living there had to evacuate and take up temporary shelter in Kathmandu. The earthquake destroyed all of the buildings at the nunnery and there was no safe housing for the seventy-five nuns. Additionally, there was no accessible health care facility or place for the nuns to study as all roads were blocked due earthquake destruction.
The Nepal Earthquake Support Fund was recently able to offer US$5,875 to the nuns, to help with food and health care needs while they are in their temporary shelter in Khatmandu.
These nuns have been offering two 100 million mani retreats every year, Lama Zopa Rinpoche has been supporting this through the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund; the sponsorship of 100 million mani retreats is one of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Visions for the FPMT organization. The nuns are still engaged in this retreat while in Kathmandu, 200 million mani mantra recitations are nearly finished.
You can learn more about the Nepal Earthquake Support Fund and the support it has offered following the Nepal earthquake, the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund, or about the 100 million mani retreats that the nuns of Tashi Chime Gatsal Nunnery have offered in alignment with Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Vision for FPMT.
Renovation work on the Lawudo dining hall.
As reported in July, the Lawudo Retreat Centre, in eastern Nepal, was damaged by the earthquake and aftershocks the area experienced in April 2015. The Nepal Earthquake Support Fund offered US$50,000 toward the renovation needed due the kindness of many donors who contributed generously to this fund.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s brother, Sangay Sherpa, who is the director of the retreat center, recently reported that the renovation work is now 90% completed. The remaining work will have to wait until next year due to needing more funds and materials and also because of difficulties due to the winter season. Sangay organized the renovation of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s home in Thame, Lawudo’s library, all of the retreat houses and the dining hall. Renovation work on the monastery is also underway.
Renovation work on the Lawudo Library.
Please rejoice that so much of this work has been completed! Thanks to all donors of the Nepal Earthquake Support Fund and to Sangay for overseeing these projects and ensuring quality in the rebuilding.
All are welcome to donate to the Nepal Earthquake Support Fund.
https://fpmt.org/support/socialservices/
You can learn more about Lawudo Gompa and the history of Lawudo.
http://www.lawudo.com/About
Residents and two staff members of the Rabgayling Tibetan Settlement’s elderly home.
The Social Services Fund recently offered a grant to Rabgayling Tibetan Settlement’s elderly home in south India. One of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Visions for FPMT is to offer ongoing social services to the elderly. This grant will be used toward the cost of offering food to all twenty residents for 2015. Earlier this year, the Social Services Fund also supported this settlement with a grant to help build their new community hall.
Residents of the Rabgayling Tibetan Settlement enjoying lunch offered by the settlement’s elderly home.
This settlement has a total population of 4,000 people including 380 children. The elderly home’s mission is to provide care to helpless and destitute aging people including those who are neglected by their family and don’t receive the proper care due to poverty. The home strives to provide its residents support in the following areas: food and clothes; health care services; mental, social and spiritual development. Sustainability of the home is a concern for the settlement, so regular, reliable funding is needed to be able to continue offering these services.
Please rejoice in this offering of food to all twenty elderly residents of the Rabgayling Tibetan Settlement.
The Social Services Fund has been established to support Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Visions for the FPMT organization, by offering benefit to others primarily India, Nepal, Tibet and Mongolia to help children, elderly, sick and the very poor by offering grants for schools, hospices, health clinics, soup kitchens, elderly homes, orphanages and much more.
The Kopan Nunnery gompa is now being renovated thanks to grants received by many generous donors and the Nepal Earthquake Support Fund.
Earlier this week we reported on rebuilding which is now underway at Kopan Monastery due to severe damage sustained at the monastery by the earthquake and aftershocks in April 2015.
Rebuilding has also begun at Kopan Nunnery which also experienced extensive damage. The nunnery is currently renovating the gompa, and several walls are being demolished, rebuilt, and renovated as well.
Structural damage to Kopan Nunnery was sustained but renovation and rebuilding has now begun.
The Nepal Earthquake Support Fund has contributed to these efforts thanks to the generous contributions of many kind donors. You can read a recent email report sent to those who have donated to the fund which presents details of money raised and how grants have been utilized.
Please rejoice in this rebuilding and renovation work happening at Kopan Nunnery which is currently the largest Tibetan nunnery in Nepal with 400 nuns. The nunnery provides full scholarship for the nuns, which includes education, accommodation, health care and food.
To learn more and offer support to FPMT’s Nepal Earthquake Support Fund: https://fpmt.org/support/socialservices/
For “Prayers and Practice for Earthquake in Nepal,”:
https://fpmt.org/edu-news/prayers-and-practices-for-earthquake-in-nepal/
The Chenrezig gompa was in the original “old house” at Kopan, pictured here in 1969, until a new gompa was built in the 1990s. Photo courtesy of Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.
The Chenrezig gompa at Kopan Monastery is one of FPMT’s most precious destinations. Since the early days of the organization, this gompa has been a place for new and seasoned students to engage with the Dharma, strengthen their practice, and connect and reconnect with Dharma family old and new. The gompa was severely damaged in the April 2015 earthquake and subsequent aftershocks that struck Nepal. Due to a very kind benefactor, a team of engineers from Taiwan flew to Kopan to professionally evaluate the structural damages to buildings. Based on their advice, the entire Chenrezig gompa was pulled down and is being rebuilt.
The Chenrezig gompa was severely damaged due to the earthquake but is now being rebuilt.
Many donors generously came to Nepal’s aid through the Nepal Earthquake Support Fund which was set up by FPMT International Office immediately following the earthquake as a way to help raise funds for both short-term relief needs and long-term rebuilding plans.
Huge thanks to all who have contributed to the rebuilding efforts in Nepal, and please rejoice in the rebuilding of this gompa so that it can benefit students far into the future. To date the Nepal Earthquake Support Fund has been able to contribute US$235,400 in initial aid relief and US$608,000 in grants for rebuilding efforts.
You can read a recent report on the Nepal Earthquake Support Fund to learn more about the ways this fund has contributed to short-term aid and long-term rebuilding needs in Nepal.
Due to a US$50,000 grant from the Nepal Earthquake Support Fund, Kopan Helping Hands was able to distribute aid to ten villages in Nepal over July and August.
In June of this year, due to the generosity of many, the Earthquake Support Fund was able to offer a US$50,000 grant to Kopan Helping Hands in support of their ongoing work to offer relief aid in Nepal. This grant is part of a total US$793,400 which the Earthquake Support Fund has offered to Kopan Helping hands since the earthquake and subsequent aftershocks. We are pleased to offer this report on how that $50,000 grant was used in ten different areas. Please rejoice in the distribution of all this essential aid in July and August to various villages in need!
- Orang VDC Dolakha: 610 bags of rice, 161 gallons of cooking oil
- Babare Chilan Kha Dolakha: rice, cooking oil, and salt for 250 families
- Lambager VDC Dolakha: rice, cooking oil, and salt for 180 families
- Balefi Sindhupalchok: rice and cooking oil for 95 families
- Lamjung: mattress foam for 158 families
- Buling VDC Dolakha: 715 bags of rice, cooking oil
- Kopan Village and surrounding area: 41 bags of rice, 17 sacks of sugar
- Bimtar VDC Sindhupalchok: 174 bundles of zinc sheets
- Lava VDC: 66 pounds of rice for 56 families
- Khaten Gompa Dhadaing: 22 bundles of zinc sheets
The devastation in many areas left villagers with very little. The essential aid offered through Kopan Helping Hands has made a huge difference to many lives.
A tremendous thanks to all generous donors who made this offering of aid possible. Additionally, many individuals and organizations have offered support directly to Kopan Helping Hands, a tremendous collective effort around the world has enabled their work to flourish in Nepal.
To learn more and offer support to FPMT’s Nepal Earthquake Support Fund, which was established to support relief and rebuilding efforts: https://fpmt.org/support/socialservices/
For “Prayers and Practice for Earthquake in Nepal,” see:
https://fpmt.org/edu-news/prayers-and-practices-for-earthquake-in-nepal/
For continuing updates and news from Kopan Monastery and other FPMT centers and projects in Nepal affected by the earthquake, please visit our “Updates from Nepal after the Earthquake” page:
https://fpmt.org/nepal-earthquake/
The gallery includes touching images of the courageous relief work of volunteers and groups such as Kopan Helping Hands. One can glimpse the massive amounts of aid supplies distributed to affected people and the dramatic destruction that was inflicted onto monasteries, residences and other structures.
Much of the recovery work and humanitarian aid seen in these gallery photos was supported by the incredible kindness of donors in and outside of the FPMT community, who quickly and generously came to Nepal’s aid through the Nepal Earthquake Support Fund.
Please visit the Nepal Earthquake Support Fund photo gallery here, and we invite you to rejoice in all of the compassionate actions of so many volunteers and donors.