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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.