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Charitable Activities
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.
Students of Ngari Institute prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Students of Ngari Institute enjoying lunch prior to COVID-19 restrictions.
The Social Services Fund has been supporting Ngari Institute in Ladakh, India since 2014. Ngari Institute helps needy children from remote regions of Ladakh and arranges to send them to, currently, three different schools. The Institute arranges all the costs related to this, such as the facility fees, food, uniforms, etc.
The Social Services Fund has been covering all the costs of the food for the children and staff. This offering started at US$15,720.62 and is now US$30,741.85 a year. The Ngari Institute is located in the Himalayan Kingdom of Ladakh in a small village called Saboo. The mission of the Institute is to empower and educate the poor and needy remote-area students by providing the ability for children to receive a combined learning of both modern scientific knowledge and ancient Buddhist wisdom.
All the schools are currently closed due to the restrictions in India, but the hostel located at the Institute remains open for the children who stay there. Most of the staff are staying at the Institute and are able to care for the children staying there. To date there have been no cases of COVID-19 at the school, but around 24 cases in the region. The schools are hopeful that they will be able to reopen as soon as possible and are undertaking all necessary care for when the school opens that it will be safe for the children.
Thank you to all the donors who make it possible to support to the Institute with food for all the children and teachers. It is due to your kindness that we can offer this.
All are welcome to support the Social Services Fund and help ensure grants to schools can continue.
FPMT Charitable Projects will continue updating you on how schools supported by FPMT Social Service Fund are navigating these challenging times.
Some of the elders of Lugsum Samduling Home for the Aged and Disabled during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lugsum Samduling Home for the Aged and Disabled, an elderly home in Bylakuppe, India, cares for 37 aging Tibetans. The Social Services Fund has been supporting this home since 2016 with grants toward annual operating budget shortfall; and also to build new rooms for the elders; 115 prayer wheels for the residents’ use; and necessities like cushions, chairs, and curtains for the premises.
The elders and staff at this home are currently doing fine and are all safe during the COVID-19 restrictions. The elderly home has been regularly disinfected. Face masks have been distributed to all and necessary toiletries and sanitation have been issued. The residents are not permitted to leave the home at this time and the staff have been working arduously to provide food and care. Their nurse is administering screening and health checkups every week. Thankfully, there have been no cases of COVID-19 at the elderly home, or at the settlement.
Just before the shutdown in India started, Social services Fund was very happy to be able to offer US$14,025 towards the 2020 operating budget for this elderly home. This donation will directly support the elders food and medical expenses. Thank you to all the kind donors who help FPMT support the Tibetan elders in this way.
FPMT Charitable Projects will continue providing updates on how elderly homes supported by FPMT Social Service Fund are navigating these challenging times.
All are welcome to support the Social Services Fund and help ensure grants to elderly homes can continue.
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.
Residents of Doeguling Home for the Elderly and Disabled, Mundgod, India.
Doeguling Home for the Elderly and Disabled is located in the Doeguling Tibetan Refugee Settlement in Mundgod, India, and is offering care for 103 elderly residents. The Social Services Fund has supported this elderly age home since 2016. In 2020 we were very happy to offer a grant for the home to purchase a vehicle to be used as an ambulance to transport the elders quickly to the hospital.
The elders of this facility are currently in good health during the COVID-19 pandemic. Appropriate measures have been taken at this home including: providing educational talks on COVID-19 and preventive measures by nursing staff. These talks have covered issues and demonstrations such as the importance of performing hand hygiene (hand washing steps with demonstration), the importance of wearing a face masks, and the importance of maintain social distancing and avoiding going to crowded places.
The following precautions are being followed:
- Providing N95 masks and washable masks to the elderly to wear when walking around the stupa and while going to crowded areas.
- Providing six anti-bacterial soaps for each wash basin every month so the elders can perform healthy hand hygiene.
- Maintaining social distance in crowded areas like in the kitchen, stupa, etc.
- Providing a healthy diet for the elders, such as fruits to boost the immune system and offering vitamin tablets.
- Advising the elders to drink plenty of warm water and also Tibetan medicines such as Mani Rilbu and Rinchen Rilbu (Tibetan Precious Pills).
In addition, every Saturday nurses are performing Covid-19 screening tests. Since the elders are not allowed to go outside, a doctor from the local hospital is visiting the Doeguling Home for the Elderly and Disabled for checkups, and every Sunday a Tibetan Doctor also visits.
Any relatives of the elderly residents are only allowed inside the home with a mask on and after they are checked for symptoms like fevers, colds, and coughs.
Lastly, with the help of all the staff and youth volunteers from Camp Number 3, widespread sanitization has been provided several times with an anti-septic solution.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank all the donors who have made it possible to support elderly homes which enables us to help Tibetan elders who are most in need.
FPMT Charitable Projects will continue updating you on how elderly homes supported by FPMT Social Service Fund are navigating these challenging times.
All are welcome to support the Social Services Fund and help ensure grants to elderly homes can continue.
Extremely precious Arya Lokeshvara statue offered gold in Potala Palace on behalf of the entire FPMT organization, Saka Dawa 2020.
Gold offered to the Jowo Buddha statue in Lhasa, Tibet on Saka Dawa 2020.
Please join us in rejoicing in a most precious offering that occurred on Saka Dawa (June 5, 2020): Gold was offered to two statues in Tibet! The offering was made on behalf of the entire FPMT organization—including all students; volunteers; benefactors; teachers; those working in all FPMT centers, projects, services; and those offering service in any way to the organization—and for all beings.
The extremely precious statue of Arya Avalokiteshvara (Chenrezig) located in the Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet, was offered gold. This statue is one of the Self-Arisen Arya Avalokiteshvara Brother statues dating back to the seventh century. Gold was also offered to the most precious Jowo Buddha in the Jokhang Temple, Tibet.
While we may not be able to physically travel to Tibet and make these offerings ourselves, we are honored to be able to facilitate these offerings on everyone’s behalf on this powerful multiplying day of Saka Dawa (and this year Lunar Eclipse).
Praise to Chenrezig
Incredibly precious Arya Lokeshvara statue dates back to the time of Songtsen Gampo, seventh century.
O Arya Avalokiteshvara, treasure of compassion,
Together with your retinue, please pay attention to me.
Please quickly free me and all mother and father sentient beings of the six realms from the ocean of cyclic existence.
Please enable the profound and extensive peerless bodhichitta to quickly grow in our mindstreams.
Please quickly cleanse our delusions and actions accumulated since beginningless time, with the water of compassion.
And, with your compassionate hand, lead me and all migrators to the blissful pure land.
May Amitabha and Avalokiteshvara act as our spiritual friends in all lifetimes, show us the excellent unmistaken path, and quickly place us in the state of buddhahood.
You can read about all of the prayers and activities offered on Saka Dawa on behalf of the entire FPMT organization and you can join in all of these offerings by strongly rejoicing.
All are welcome to offer any amount to the Puja Fund so that these beneficial activities can continue long into the future.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche leading puja at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, 2020.
Saka Dawa falls on June 5 this year and is one of the four great holy days of the Tibetan calendar commemorating Shakyamuni Buddha’s enlightenment and parinirvana. June 5 is also an eclipse day this year.
The Puja Fund is sponsoring prayers and practices on behalf of FPMT for all students, volunteers and benefactors, and the entire world, on Saka Dawa. Normally we would be sponsoring a lot more pujas, but due to the current restrictions in South India, many of the monasteries are not able to offer the pujas at this time. We are so thankful that Kopan Monastery and Nunnery will still be doing pujas on Saka Dawa. These are the activities we are sponsoring this year:
PUJAS
- 100,000 recitations of Praises to the Twenty-One Taras
- Druk Chu Ma (sixty-four offerings to Kalarupa)
- Medicine Buddha Puja and King of Prayers
SUTRA PRINTING
Golden Light Sutra (6 x), Arya Sangata Sutra (10 x), Vajra Cutter Sutra (200 x) and Amitayus Long Life Sutra (20 x): printing will be done during the actual eclipse time with specific prayers that Rinpoche has recommended.
OFFERING TO HOLY OBJECTS, GURUS, AND SANGHA COMMUNITIES
The precious Jowo Buddha statue in Lhasa, Tibet.
Offerings of gold, robes, saffron, and umbrellas are made to holy statues located in Lhasa, Tibet; and the Boudhanath and Swayambunath Stupas. Also offerings are made to all of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s gurus, and to all the IMI Sangha communities.
Using Saka Dawa to Create Merit in a Suffering World
Saka Dawa is such an incredibly auspicious and powerful time to practice and make prayers, especially right now with all the suffering in the world. This is a great opportunity to utilize this time in the best possible way, for the benefit of all beings. Anyone can mentally join in any of these pujas and offerings, by remembering them and rejoicing in them. Merely remembering what is happening and rejoicing in the offerings is so beneficial: the existence of the holy objects, the Sangha making prayers and students all over the world who are also are making prayers, as well as the activities and offerings happening in so many of the centers and online on Saka Dawa. By rejoicing in this you create so much merit and it is multiplied 100 million times. How fantastic! What an opportunity!
Thank you for your support to the Puja Fund. It is due to the kindness of so many that these ongoing prayers, pujas, and offerings can happen and in this way, hopefully bringing more peace and happiness in the world.
All are welcome to offer any amount to the Puja Fund so that these beneficial activities can continue long into the future.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s recent advice for practice on Saka Dawa: https://fpmt.org/edu-news/recommended-practices-for-the-fifteenth-day-of-saka-dawa-june-5/
Advice for eclipse days and Buddha multiplying days: https://fpmt.org/edu-news/advice-for-eclipse-days-and-buddha-multiplying-days/
Elders of Jampaling Elder’s Home, Dharamsala, India, joining in puja together.
Since 2016, the FPMT Social Service Fund has been supporting Jampaling Elder’s Home, situated in Dharamsala, India. 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. This facility provides food, shelter, and medical services to 156 residents.
Since the lockdown and social distancing measures taken in India due to the COVID-19 crisis, all the elders, as well as staff, are doing well at this time.
Residents of Jampaling Elder’s Home receiving masks.
The Home Department of the Central Tibetan Administration has takes various precautionary measures to avoid the spread of the virus among elderly homes in India and Nepal including: the generation of guidelines to all these elderly homes; health workers have taken and recorded the temperature of elders daily; elders are not allowed to go out of the elderly home property at this time; daily needs for the elders are bought from the markets for residents; masks and advice on daily hygiene were distributed; advice from the medical experts was followed strictly; and outsiders are not allowed onto the property of the elderly homes.
The Home Department reports that they have had no issues or problems in the elderly homes in India and Nepal, including Jampaling Elderly Home. They share that they, “take special care of our elders since this deadly virus is a danger to this population.”
FPMT Charitable Projects will continue updating you on how elderly homes supported by FPMT Social Service Fund are navigating these challenging times.
All are welcome to support the Social Services Fund and help ensure grants to elderly homes can continue.
The grounds of Sagarmatha Secondary School, Chailsa, Nepal.
Since 2015, the Social Services Fund has been offering support to Sagarmatha Secondary School in Chailsa, Nepal. The school stands on what was once a Tibetan refugee camp. Under normal conditions, 170 students receive education there including 79 young lay students who live at the school hostel, and 25 young monks who live at Thubten Shedrup Ling Monastery, which shares the school grounds. Eleven teachers and one additional employee support these students.
The school has been closed since March 19 as per the Nepal lockdown in response to the COVID-19 crisis and the reopen date, like many places around the world, is uncertain.
Most of the children have gone back to their own homes or the homes of relatives and about 30 individuals, including teachers and staff, remain at the school. Due to the lockdown, some of the teachers from outside of the Solu Khumbu area are unable to go back to their homes. Since the teachers are staying at the school, they are giving regular classes to the monks as well as kids from the neighborhood. Children in grade 8 and grade 10 are having regular classes from the teachers who are staying at school because their final exam is given at the government level and the school has to complete their curriculum text book before the final exam.
Young students continuing their education during the COVID-19 lockdown.
During this lockdown period, the students are kept within the school and monastery compound which is restricted from outside visitors except for people from the neighboring village. Young monks and children are washing their hands regularly and thoroughly. Individuals in the village must be able to move freely within the limited area because of their responsibilities with farming and agriculture. Many locals work in the trekking industry but since there are currently no tourists in Nepal they have become jobless and some have offered to do volunteer work such as repairing the road and cleaning the facilities. During this period, the school is taking advantage of the time to do maintenance work and plant trees around the school area.
Sagarmatha Secondary School recently joined Kopan Helping Hands program to distribute food items for the poor and jobless villagers in the area.
All are welcome to support the Social Services Fund and help ensure grants to schools can continue.
FPMT Charitable Projects will continue updating you on how schools supported by FPMT Social Service Fund are navigating these challenging times.
As COVID-19 continues to impact individuals and communities, beneficiaries of charitable services aren’t as able to access the aid they are accustomed to relying on. Here we share an update on how Lamp of the Path NGO, Mongolia, is managing the current reality of this crisis.
A blind beneficiary of clothing from Lamp of the Path NGO.
Lamp of the Path NGO (LOP), part of Ganden Do Ngag Shedrup Ling, has offered social services to some of the poor and homeless living in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia since 2003. Its main program is a soup kitchen which offers food as well as free medical support through a health clinic, which reopened in 2017. LOP helps bring awareness to the epidemic of alcoholism in Mongolia and offers tuberculosis checkups for the disadvantaged in the area.
Lamp of the Path soup kitchen in operation, January 2020, prior to the COVID-19 restrictions.
The soup kitchen typically feeds 50-70 people daily from Monday through Friday and during the winter season, service is offered on Saturdays as well. In Mongolia, the quarantine came into effect on January 27 and impacted Lamp of the Path immediately and directly. They were not allowed to operate the soup kitchen and experienced frequent police check-ups, warning letters and kind reminders about not having any public activities.
In February, they arranged a “window soup kitchen” with distribution of food (mainly bread and instant noodle soup) through the window. This was successful before their beneficiaries stopped coming, perhaps due to fear of the virus.
Soup being made for Lamp of the Path’s “soup window.”
In the meantime, they have shared a substantial amount of food with another NGO who is providing shelter for former alcoholics and people with disabilities. Since March, in cooperation with government social workers, they initiated a home visit project. Every week those from the NGO, or caseworkers, visit five poor families and distribute food according to a list provided by social workers. They have increased the number of beneficiaries since April by allowing one representative of a family to receive takeaway of freshly made soup from the premises once a week, ensuring there is a 30 minute period between serving each family. In addition, they have distributed many items of second-hand clothing that were received from Switzerland to members of the Mongolian Blind Association.
Lamp of the Path’s plan for May is to provide food to thirty families with visually impaired members who are most affected by the quarantine. Ten of these families each have four or more small children with visually impaired parents who have lost their source of income. The need is quite great.
In good news, their vegetable garden project is expanding and they have prepared a plot for planting potatoes for the first time.
FPMT Charitable Projects will continue updating you on how social service projects around the world are navigating these challenging times.
Learn more about Lamp of the Path NGO: www.fpmtmongolia.org/lamp-of-the-path-ngo
As COVID-19 continues to impact individuals and communities, beneficiaries of charitable services aren’t as able to access the aid they are accustomed to relying on. Here we share an update on how MAITRI Charitable Trust in Bodhgaya, India, is managing the current reality of this crisis.
Distribution of aid at MAITRI Charitable Trust, May 7, 2020. Photo courtesy of Adriana Ferranti.
Since 1989, MAITRI Charitable Trust has been operating as a beneficial example of Dharma in action. MAITRI is a registered charitable trust in India working to support the poor and disadvantaged in the province of Bihar, India.
As MAITRI has a hospital for leprosy and tuberculosis patients and an animal shelter on campus, they have been bound to continue their work to keep their beneficiaries fed and taken care of. This means they must pick up their vegetables by driving to the farmers along back pathways early in the morning, and on alternate days, collecting their grains, lentils, etc., from a different supplier by motorcycle on back roads negotiating the police.
The grounds maintenance staff are local and able to come to work so that basic services can be ensured. This is more difficult for the office staff, who live father away and have had to abide by different pass-through schedules.
What has been seriously affected by the pandemic is the field work and their clinics, as only a few patients have dropped in to get their monthly rations or treatment.
Beneficiaries receiving care from MAITRI Charitable Project, May 7, 2020. Photo courtesy of Adriana Ferranti.
However, recently the paramedics have ventured out early in the morning for home delivery of treatment for current patients, particularly milk powder for malnourished babies.
MAITRI has been providing all the staff with face masks and daily Vitamin C to ensure safety.
MAITRI Director Adriana Ferranti gave the following recent report from Bodhgaya:
Mothers and babies receiving care from MAITRI, May 2020. Photo courtesy of Adriana Ferranti.
On May 7, the day of Buddha Purnima (Lord Buddha’s birthday), when great celebrations usually go on in the scorching heat for three days as pilgrims flock to Bodhgaya from all over India and the world, the Mahabodhi Temple remained closed to the public and only a few selected monks could offer prayers. The disappointment for the failed procession with patients and students and the 24 hour health camp was quickly replaced with a MAITRI-style celebration: the resumption of our field clinics, albeit in a humbler mode as the paramedics had to go by motorcycle and the clinic had to be over by 9 a.m. Thirty-six very happy patients attended the clinic and could finally resume treatment after one and a half months!
While this was going on in the field at 6:30 a.m. patients started arriving at MAITRI for their rations, both TB patients and mother-child care patients. They kept coming until 9:30 a.m., as the curfew would restart at 10 a.m. and enjoyed the recitation of mantras and sutras and the unusually balmy weather. Indeed, what a beautiful way to celebrate Buddha Purnima!
On May 9 the clinic had an attendance of 18 mothers-to-be and small children who had not received their treatment at home from the paramedical worker. Our patients still rely on us.
FPMT Charitable Projects will continue updating you on how social service projects around the world are navigating these challenging times.
Learn more about MAITRI Charitable Trust: www.maitri-bodhgaya.org/home