Projects

Some of the young nuns of Tashi Chime Gatsal Nunnery,

Since 2009 sponsorship has been offered to the nuns of Tashi Chime Gatsal Nunnery, Nepal.

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 during this period as well as an offering for a qualified geshe to stay during the retreat in order to give lamrim teachings. Additionally, a grant was offered to the nunnery for much needed new accommodation in 2014.

Extensive water bowls offered by the nuns of Tashi Chime Gatsal Nunnery.

The Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund will continue to support this nunnery and the nuns residing there. We’d like to invite you to rejoice in some of the Dharma accomplishments of these sincere practitioners which have been completed in addition to the twice yearly 100 million mani retreats:

• Four nuns have completed 1,000 nyung nä retreats
• Two nuns have 700 nyung nä retreats
• Three nuns have completed 500 nyung nä retreats
• Two nuns have completed 200 nyung nä retreats
• Eight nuns have completed 180 nyung nä retreats
• Ten nuns have completed 100 nyung nä retreats
• Thirty-two nuns who have finished all nine preliminary practices
• Three nuns have completed one year deity retreat
• The nunnery has completed the following for His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s long life:
  • Padmasambhava’s mantra was recited 100 million times
  • Twenty-One Praises to Tara was recited 100,000 times 
  • The entire Kangyur was recited twice

Tremendous thanks to all who donate to the Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund allowing support to this nunnery to continue uninterrupted. 

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

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.  

Scaffolding level 6 of the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion. Photo provided by Ian Green.

The Great Stupa of Universal Compassion is an FPMT project near Bendigo, Australia which, once completed, will be the largest stupa in the Western world. The Great Stupa is the final home for the largest gem quality Jade Buddha in existence.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche has advised on the benefits of building stupas: 

“We can build stupas to inspire people without even teaching Dharma. However many hundreds and billions of years the holy object lasts, it continues to liberate many sentient beings every day, freeing them from the lower realms, causing them to actualize the path, liberating them from samsara and bringing them to enlightenment. After we die, even if we are in another universe, in the hell realms or a pure land, wherever we are, the stupa that we built or helped to build, is continually benefiting sentient beings. It is incredible how we can continually benefit sentient beings by building a stupa.”

Ven. Lobsang painting the arch inside the north end of the gompa within The Great Stupa. Photo provided by Ian Green.

The Great Stupa will serve as a major domestic and international tourist attraction and is designed to last over a thousand years. Due to the kindness of others, the Holy Objects Fund recently issued a grant to this impressive stupa project for the 28 ft x 6.5 ft umbrella which will contain embossed mantras advised by Lama Zopa Rinpoche. The umbrella will be handmade in Nepal out of copper and gold plated. This grant is also for the finalization of the first phase of construction which is projected to be completed in April 2019. According to chairman Ian Green there is still decades of work to be done before the stupa is entirely finished. After the first phase completion decorations will be added to each level and then work on the main gompa and eighty (approximate) shrine rooms will commence.

Please rejoice in the progress of this truly inspiring holy object project. You can keep up on The Great Stupa’s progress and support its completion. 

If you would like to contribute to the building of holy objects around the world, you are welcome to offer any amount to the Holy Objects Fund which contributes to the creation of stupas, prayer wheels and statues. 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche at long life puja, Kopan Monastery, December 14, 2017. Photo by Bill Kane.

A long life puja was offered to Lama Zopa Rinpoche on Thursday, December 14, on behalf of the entire FPMT organization. Kopan monks, nuns, and November course students filled the main gompa at Kopan for the puja, which was also broadcast live over the internet. The long life puja came at the end of the fiftieth month-long lamrim course with teachings by Rinpoche at Kopan.

Umze Geshe Sherab leading the long life puja for Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, December 2017. Photo by Bill Kane.

At the end of the long life puja, Ven. Roger Kunsang, CEO of FPMT and assistant to Rinpoche, gave a special thanks to Rinpoche on behalf of all the students for teaching fifty of these courses. Ven. Roger also recognized how the courses have resulted in the establishment of FPMT Dharma centers in 39 countries. He also thanked Rinpoche for “the many, many more lamrim courses and teachings to come.” Rinpoche was then presented with a large Buddha statue and thangka.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche with the statue offered to him at the end of the long life puja, Kopan Monastery, December 2017. Photo by Bill Kane.

This year, Australian nun Ven. Ailsa Cameron, a long-time Dharma editor and teacher, was appointed by Rinpoche to lead the course. Each year more than two hundred students come from around the world to attend. 

Vens. Karin Valham and Ailsa Cameron during the long life puja for Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, December 2017. Photo by Bill Kane.

Watch the video recording of the puja

You can find video recordings of Rinpoche’s teachings from the 2017 November course here:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/lama-zopa-rinpoche-teachings-in-kopan-2017/

Offering for Lama Zopa Rinpoche during long life puja, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, December 2017. Photo by Bill Kane.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.

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. 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche being offered a long life puja at Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa, Italy, November 3, 2017. Photo by Ven. Sherab.

Every year, the Long Life Puja Fund supports a long life puja offered on behalf of FPMT centers, projects, services and students to our most kind and immeasurably precious spiritual director, Lama Zopa Rinpoche. The next puja will be offered at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, on December 14 following Rinpoche’s teaching during the one-month lamrim course.

The ritual itself is the extensive Lama Chöpa with an added request to the dakinis, a moving plea by the students for the five dakinis who have come to take away the teacher to a pure land to allow the students’ teacher to remain with them on earth.

The purpose of the long life puja is for students to purify the mistakes that occur in relation to their teacher, and to create the causes and conditions to continue to receive benefit from that teacher for a very long time. Lama Zopa Rinpoche also mentions regularly that offering long life pujas is a cause for one’s own long life. Additionally, Rinpoche offered advice in response to requests by students to help them understand how best to prolong the life of the guru, and how to avoid obstacles that can cause him sickness and a shortened life.

You can enjoy a video of moments from a long life puja offered to Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Kopan Monastery in December of 2013:

All are welcome to contribute to this upcoming long life puja for Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Kopan Monastery. Additionally, you may download one of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s long life prayers to use at any time:

• “Bestowing Supreme Immortality” by His Holiness Trijang Rinpoche
• Long Life Prayer for Lama Zopa Rinpoche by Rangjung Neljorma Khadro Namsel Drönme

The Long Life Puja Fund always contributes to long life pujas offered to Lama Zopa Rinpoche. You can also learn about the many Charitable Projects of FPMT and discover the many ways the various funds and projects are benefiting others.

Pema Choeling Monastery suffered severe damage following the 2015 earthquake.

Pema Choeling Monastery has stood above the village of Phakding for more than 500 years. Phakding is a small village in the Khumbu region of Nepal. It is just north of Lukla.

Pema Choeling Monastery has stood above the village of Phakding for more than 500 years.

The monastery suffered severe damage following the massive earthquake and aftershocks of 2015. Rooms, the kitchen, and gompa had to be completely rebuilt. The Nepal Earthquake Support Fund recently offered US$15,000 to rebuild the gompa. 

To date US$923,822 has been offered to toward rebuilding and disaster relief following the 2015 Nepal earthquakes.

Beautiful and traditional paintwork being offered on the new gompa at Pema Choeling Monastery.

Please rejoice that this historic and important monastery has received the support it needs to rebuild and continue serving as a place of refuge for the resident monks to study, practice, and live in the monastic vows. This grant was made possible due to the kindness of so many people who immediately wanted to offer support after the devastating earthquake. Thank you to all who contributed.

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 initiatives this fund supports or donate any amount to the fund itself. 

751 top scholars participated in this year’s Gelug exam at Drepung Monastery.

Participants enjoying a meal sponsored by the Lama Tsongkhapa Teachers Fund.

Each year the foremost scholars from the main Gelug monasteries come together for the annual Gelug examination and the Lama Tsongkhapa Teachers Fund offers a grant to cover the basic expenses including food for participants. 

In September of this year 751 monks participated in this annual Gelug exam at Drepung Monastery, South India. 

Monks participating in the yearly Gelug examination.

Yearly stipends were also offered to the 128 current abbots, past abbots and main teachers of the Lama Tsongkhapa tradition. This small offering of money supports these incredibly precious teachers’ basic needs. This 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.  

US$20,778 was offered this year for expenses associated with the exam and for the teacher stipends. 

The Lama Tsongkhapa Teachers Fund would like to congratulate all the monks for their commitment and dedication to their studies. Due to this grant each year, all qualified monks are able to participate in the debate and examination, rather than being exempt due to prohibitive costs.

Since its inception, the Lama Tsongkhapa Teachers Fund, an extension of the Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund, has supported up to 150 senior teachers each year of the main monasteries, plus hundreds of monks attending the traditional winter debate and annual Gelug exam. 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche offering prayers during a puja at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, Washington State, USA.

Lhabab Duchen, one of the four great holy days of the Buddhist calendar when merit is multiplied by 100 million times, takes place this year on Friday, November 10. Don’t miss the opportunity to rejoice in an incredible array of beneficial activities being sponsored by the Puja Fund and offered by up to 15,650 Sangha. 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche recently commented: “When doing any puja think: I am doing this puja for any sentient being who needs this. So motivate for everyone, not for yourself, not for money. Then doing the puja becomes Dharma, pure motivation, because of the thought to benefit others. Then dedicate it for any people who are dying, sick, or need this puja done for them. Think of all those people who need so much prayer. In this same way whatever practice you do, try to do it for the benefit of sentient beings. Not just recite prayer.”

Please remember that on November 10 the following will be happening around the world and dedicated to the long life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and to the success of all the FPMT centers, projects, services, students, benefactors and those serving the organization in any way, as well as all beings:

Sangha participating in a puja at Kopan Monastery.

Practices Offered by Over 15,650 Ordained Sangha

• Recitation of the Prajnaparamita (three versions) offered by 650 monks of Gyurme Tantric College.
• Druk Chu Ma, Namgyäl Tong Chö, and Zangcho offered by 6,000 monks of Sera Je and Sera Mey Monasteries.
• Druk Chu Ma, Medicine Buddha Puja and Zangcho offered by 3,400 monks of Gaden Jangtse and Shartse Monasteries.
• Druk Chu Ma, Namgyäl Tsechog and Zangcho offered by 4,200 monks of Drepung. Gomang, Loseling and Deyang Monasteries.
• Namgyäl Tong Chö and Zangcho offered by 600 monks of Gyuto Tantric Colleges.
• Druk Ch Ma, Medicine Buddha Puja and Zangcho offered by the 370 monks of Kopan Monastery.
• Druk Chu Ma, Medicine Buddha Puja and Zangcho offered by the 400 nuns of Kopan Nunnery

Offerings are made to all of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s gurus

Offerings are made to Sangha at IMI communities

Boudhanath Stupa, Nepal, December 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Offerings Made to Holy Objects in Nepal, India and Tibet 

• Bouddhanath and Swayambunath stupas: Offering white wash and four giant saffron flower petals and new umbrellas to the stupas’ pinnacles
• Buddha inside the Bodhgaya Mahabodhi temple: Offering a new set of robes of the most precious material
• Jowo Buddha in Lhasa’s Jokang: Offering gold to the holy body of the Jowo Buddha

How to Participate

• Take a few moments on Lhabab Duchen to join in with prayer in your mind and rejoice that thousands of ordained Sangha are doing prayers at the exact same time. 
• Take a few moments on Lhabab Duchen to rejoice in some of the incredible offerings happening around the world. 
• Make an offering that goes toward covering the cost of these prayers, pujas, and offerings. 
• Join in on a group practice recommended for Buddha multiplying days at your local FPMT center or participate at home. 

All are welcome to donate to the Puja Fund and directly support these most precious offerings. 

A new recreation room was built for 156 elderly Tibetan refugees residing at Jampaling Elder’s Home.

Jampaling Elder’s Home, situated in Dharamsala, is about 15 minutes walking distance from the main temple of His Holiness the Dalai Lama with many prayer wheels lining the way. This home was built to accommodate elders who are sixty and older and particularly vulnerable with no family to look after them as well as ex-army members who are scattered in different Tibetan settlements without appropriate facilities. The resident Tibetan elders are able to attend all the teachings of His Holiness at the main temple. This facility provides food, shelter, and medical services to 156 residents. 

Residents of the Jampaling Elder’s Home.

Last year, the Social Services Fund offered a grant to this home to build a recreation and community room. The previous activity room was on the third floor and very inconvenient for the elders to access. The room itself was too small for all of the residents to gather and watch His Holiness’s teachings. The new community room allows the residents to enjoy their leisure time without obstacles. They can also enjoy indoor games anytime as the space is so much bigger. The old recreation room will be using for bedroom so the home can accommodate even more residents.

Please rejoice that this new recreation room is now completed and the elders can enjoy their new space as a community. 

One of the key priorities of the Social Services Fund is to provide support to elderly homes serving Tibetan refugees in India.

Monks of the new Maratika Monastery located adjacent to the holy Maratika Cave.

Due to the kindness of a generous donor the Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund issued a grant of US$70,000 to build a monastery in Maratika, Nepal. The small monastery was built adjacent to the entrance of Maratika Cave. This holy site is where Padmasambhava achieved immortality.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche has a strong connection with the Maratika Lama, Khenpo Karma Wangchuk, who takes care of the area. The Maratika Lama is the son of Lama Ngawang Chophel, who was a close disciple of the Lawudo Lama Kunsang Yeshe, Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s previous incarnation. (For more on this important pilgrimage site, see “The Caves of Maratika,” published in Mandala June-July 2008.)

Lama Zopa Rinpoche with Sangha doing practice at Maratika Cave, Nepal, February 2016. Photo by Ven. Losang Sherab.

In 2009, Rinpoche shared the following about Maratika:

“This place, which is called Maratika, is greatly blessed, as the great master Padmasambhava meditated here on Amitayus (the long life deity) and actualized the state of deathlessness (the siddhi of immortal life). Apart from other lamas, the great Kyabje Trulshig Rinpoche [did] long life retreat every year here for His Holiness’s long life, which also greatly blesses the place. Especially, according to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, due to this accumulation of white virtue, just through seeing, hearing, remembering, and touching this place, the two obscurations of beings will quickly be purified, one will be looked after by the all-knowing one (the great master Padmasambhava) from Urgyen, and easily attain the state of omniscience. This holy place has many more infinite blessings than just explained, and every sick and afflicted being should go there.”

Monks of Maratika Monastery in the new gompa.

During Rinpoche’s 2016 pilgrimage to Maratika, Rinpoche received from Khenpo Gyurme Thegchog Gyaltsen a prayer he had composed called “A Requesting Prayer to Maratika: The Source of an Ocean of Siddhis.” Rinpoche translated this prayer into English.  

His Holiness Trulshik Rinpoche included this in his verses of praise, “The Vajra Song Melodiously 
Praising Maratika”

I, an ordinary person cannot express this Place in mere words
No one can deny the truly powerful blessing of this Place
By the prophesy of the all pervading two great Terton Lords
And the prayers from past life karmic connections
Amitayus, Protector of Boundless Life and Wisdom
Shakyamuni, Excellent Refuge Buddha
And Padmasambhava, the Saviour of the Dark Age
Consecrated and established the Maratika Monastery.

Please rejoice in the Supporting Ordained Sangh Fund supporting the building of this small monastery in such a precious place. This monastery will benefit the monks residing there as well as pilgrims visiting the area for years to come.

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