Charitable Activities

Students of Sangag Dechholing Gonpa School.

Sangag Dechholing Gonpa School in Taplejung, Nepal, was established in 2007 to serve the Buddhist community in the area. Seven teachers currently educate eighty students, starting at age 3-4. The curriculum is taught in English and Nepali and focuses on modern subjects such as math and science, while being grounded in Buddhist teachings and culture. 

Sangag Dechholing Gonpa School provides a modern as well as Buddhist education to the students.

In 2016, Ven. Thubten Jikdol, a Kopan monk, in conjunction with the  School Management Committee and the local community, decided to expand the school to benefit more students in a bigger way. To help actualize this, three generous families donated land to the school. In the future, they intend to use this land for the school, a hostel, and an elderly home. 

Students of Sangag Dechholing Gonpa School.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche was very inspired by the work of this school and donated US$53,874 through the Social Services Fund in support of their work. 

This is the seventh school providing education to children of Tibetan, Nepali, Sherpa, and Indian heritage to which the Social Services Fund has offered financial assistance.  

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. 

Finished accommodation at Shri Sengedrak Ngedhon Samten Choeling Retreat Center.

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.

Destruction following t he earthquake at Shri Sengedrak Ngedhon Samten Choeling Retreat Center, Nepal.

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 nuns had been living in temporary shelter, and the Social Services Fund issued a grant for US$185,000 for the necessary rebuilding.

New accommodation and landscape at Shri Sengedrak Ngedhon Samten Choeling Retreat Center.

Please rejoice that the accommodation is now complete and the nuns can continue their studies and practice without dire living conditions. Tremendous thanks to all of the kind donors who made this possible.

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

Some monks of Idgaa Choizinling, Mongolia.

The Idgaa Choizinling Monastery, Mongolia, was constructed in 2003 through FPMT Mongolia with assistance from a number of extremely kind benefactors. This monastery is strongly connected to Sera Je Monastery in India and serves as a focal point of Buddhist learning in Mongolia. FPMT, through the Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund, has been offering food to approximately sixty monks studying there since its inception. 

Architectural drawing of the new dormitory.

In 2018, Idgaa was gifted land near the monastery. After careful consideration, it was concluded that an expansion of accommodation for the monks would be the most beneficial use for this land. A new three story building will feature forty-one small, and six large rooms. The Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund offered a US$470,000 grant for this most precious accommodation which includes, in addition to the construction: inner wall decoration, a plumbing system, electricity, landscaping, a complete pipeline system, and engineering work.

Please rejoice in the expansion of this monastery which contributes directly to preserving and supporting the study of Buddhism in Mongolia. 

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

Residents of Doeguling Elderly Home during a recent visit from His Holiness the 42nd Sakya Trizin.

Doeguling Tibetan Refugee Settlement in Mundgod, India, consists of seven monasteries, twenty schools (from nursery to secondary), two homes for the elderly, several modern hospitals, a Tibetan Medical and Astro Institute, and various activities such as farming and craftwork.

Residents of Doeguling Home for Elderly and Disabled.

Since 2016 the Social Services Fund has been supporting the Doeguling Home for Elderly and Disabled which cares for eighty-six elderly residents of the settlement, some of whom are monks and nuns. Many of these residents are HIV +, have cancer, psychiatric problems, diabetics, and/or chronic arthritis. Much of the annual expenses of the home are medical.

In 2019 we were very happy offer a grant in the amount of US$73,020 toward their corpus fund which pays some of their annual operating budget. The corpus fund in the future will fully support the operating costs of the home from interest. They still have a long way to go but are slowly building up this fund and we are delighted to support them in creating long-term and sustainable car for the elders.

Please rejoice in the ongoing support to this elderly home which supports vulnerable Tibetans in Mundgod. Tremendous thanks to all who donate to this beneficial fund, making grants like this possible. 

FPMT Charitable Projects is honored to support the homes of the eldest and destitute Tibetan refugees. Please consider supporting the Social Services Fund.

Some of the monks of Shalu Monastery.

For the second year in a row, the Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund has offered a grant to Shalu Monastery to cover the costs of food for the 30 monks who study there. This year, US$16,116.94 was offered. 

Young monks enjoying an offered meal.

Shalu Monastery was founded by Chetsun Shetsun Jugney in 1027 A.D at Shalu Village near Shigatse town in Tibet and was consecrated by Atisha. The number of the monks studying there reached 7,700 at the peak of its opulence in the 14th century under the abbotship of Buton Rinchen Drup. Shalu Monastery was considered one of the most respected learning institutions in Tibet. Some monks from the monastery are said to have accomplished great physical feats because of their specialized training including the ability to regulate their body temperature regardless of the external weather or travel at speeds which seemed to defy possibility. 

During the Chinese invasion of 1959, this precious monastery was destroyed. It was re-established at Tibetan Cholsum Settlement, Bhuppur, India, under the vision and blessing of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and was consecrated by Sakya Trichen Rinpoche in March 2005.

There are currently fifty-six monks studying at the monastery. 

In 2018 the Holy Objects Fund issued a grant for the building of a 15 ft x 11 ft Jangchub Stupa surrounded by prayer wheels that the resident monks and visitors can utilize for circumambulation. 

Please rejoice in the continued support of this monastery and the Sangha who reside there. Tremendous thanks to all donors who contribute to the Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund making grants like this possible. 

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.  

His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Lama Zopa Rinpoche.

On behalf of the entire FPMT organization, Lama Zopa Rinpoche is planning to offer one thousand statues of Shakyamuni Buddha to His Holiness the Dalai Lama. These nine inch statues are currently being made, painted, filled and consecrated.

The statues are being offered with prayers for His Holiness’ very long life.

Everyone can join this project. You can sponsor a completed statue, or you are welcome to offer any amount you are able, thereby participating in this most precious offering of one thousand statues for His Holiness’s long life.

These holy objects help sentient beings easily purify inconceivable negative karma and create the causes for happiness and extensive merit, which brings them to enlightenment quickly by realizing the path up to enlightenment. The moment holy objects, such as statues of Buddha, are completed they become a field of merit for sentient beings. They become only a cause for others to achieve happiness.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama with Lama Zopa Rinpoche.

As long as space endures,
as long as sentient being remain,
until then, may I too remain
and dispel the miseries of the world. —Shantideva

May this offering create the cause for His Holiness the Dalai Lama to remain in this world for as long sentient beings remain.

You can learn more about Offering One Thousand Buddhas to His Holiness the Dalai Lama and join the offering. 

The Community of Rabgayling Tibetan Settlement utilizing the hall sponsored by the Social Services Fund.

In 2015 a grant was offered from the Social Services Fund to Rabgayling Tibetan Settlement in Hunsur, India to build a community hall. The settlement is now actively utilizing this space for pujas, prayers, public talks, retreats, community events, workshops, and training of Tibetan language and culture.

This settlement, situated on 2,000 acres was established in 1971. 1,615 acres were designated for the cultivation of crops and 385 acres were intended for the villages, hospitals, schools and monasteries. The settlement began with 2,060 Tibetan refuges and the population has since increased to nearly 3,000. 

Community members enjoying a meal together in the settlement community hall.

Recently the settlement offered Lama Zopa Rinpoche a list of all the prayers which have so far been completed in the sponsored community hall.

We invite you to rejoice in all of these repetitions of very precious prayers and mantras, made possible by a grant from the Social Services Fund:

• Prayers to the Twenty-one Taras:  21,760 times
• OM MANI PADME HUM: 22,389,000 times
• Kings of Prayers: 340 times
• Barche Lamsel and Sampa Lhundup: 510 times
• 18 Arahat Prayer: 170 times
• Prayer for the Flourishing of the Nonsectarian Teachings of the Buddha: 170 times
• Prayer from the Bodhisattva’s Guide to Life: 170 times
• Sukhavati Prayer: 170 times
• Prayer to Chenrezig: 170 times
• His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s Long Life Prayer: 2,210 times
• Prayer of the Words of Truth: 2,210 times

Community halls such as this are essential for the preservation of Tibetan heritage, particularly on a settlement made up of nearly 3,000 Tibetans. Please join us in rejoicing!

You are welcome to donate any amount to the Social Services Fund to help ensure that beneficial grants such as this are able to be offered in the future.

Students of Ngari Institute enjoying a meal.

The Social Services Fund has been supporting the school children and staff of Ngari Institute in Ladakh, India, since 2014. This year, a grant for US$26,682.61 was offered to cover the costs of daily meals for eighty-three students and staff members.

Ngari Institute is located in the Himalayan Kingdom of Ladakh in a small village called Saboo. The mission of this school is to empower and educate the poor and needy remote-area students by providing a combined learning of both modern scientific knowledge and ancient Buddhist wisdom.

The students receiving a lesson at Ngari Institute.

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

Supporting schools is one way FPMT invests in the future and helps break the cycle of poverty in disadvantaged areas, particularly in India and Nepal where children of Tibetan, Nepali, Sherpa, and Indian heritage are in dire need of education. 

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. 

Zangdog Palri temple in Tso Pema, India.

Zangdog Palri: Guru Rinpoche’s Pure Land

There is a tradition in Tibet of building three-dimensional versions of the Pure Land of Guru Rinpoche: Glorious Copper-Colored Mountain — in Tibetan, Zangdog Palri.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche wants to build a Zangdog Palri at Lawudo Retreat Centre located in a secluded corner of the Himalayas, in Solo Khumbu, the Everest region of Nepal, fourteen thousand feet above sea level. The retreat center has been built around the cave where Rinpoche’s previous incarnation, the first Lawudo Lama, Kunsang Yeshe, meditated, not far from the village where Rinpoche was born.

Guru Rinpoche (Padmasambhava) is perhaps the most universally cherished realized being in all of Tibetan Buddhism. He came to Tibet from India in the 8th century and helped establish a pure lineage which is still practiced today by all four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism around the world.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche lauds Guru Rinpoche’s contribution to humanity: “Due to Guru Rinpoche’s great compassion, Tibetan Mahayana Buddhism flourished in Tibet and now has spread throughout the entire world. Because of that, so many people have experienced the path to enlightenment and achieved enlightenment. Due to his great compassion, the lives of infinite number of sentient beings have become meaningful.”

“Usually a Zangdog Palri is three stories high,” Ven. Roger Kunsang, assistant to Lama Zopa Rinpoche and the CEO of FPMT, Inc., explained. “Each level has a specific purpose. Rinpoche will build a two-story version at Lawudo above the cave. Rinpoche has a number of excellent art books that explain all the levels and details, and has been visiting a number of Zangdog Palris in India, collecting photos and discussing with artists and others who have been involved in building them.”

Tremendous thanks to Ven. Robina Courtin and Lauwdo Trek which have been  the main supporters of this project since Rinpoche envisioned it.

All are welcome to help actualize this incredible temple in Lawudo. Details will be shared as the project takes shape. 

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.  

Some of the monks of Thame Monastery

For the second year in a row the Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund is offering a grant to cover the cost of three meals per day to the monks of Thame Monastery in Nepal. The monastery is home to nine elderly and thirteen young monks. Thame Monastery is one of the oldest in the region, and is famous for hosting the annual Mani Rimdu Festival.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche was born in the Mount Everest region of Thame, located close to Lawudo which was the home of his previous incarnation known as the Lawudo Lama. Many Kopan monks are also from Thame. FPMT is very pleased to offer support to this region whenever possible. 

Completed magnificent stupa in Thame, Nepal.

During the earthquake of 2015, the Thame region was seriously affected. Amidst the destruction, a large and important stupa for the area was destroyed. The Holy Objects Fund offered over US$300,000 for the rebuilding of the stupa which took two years to complete. The new stupa, which stands nearly 46 feet tall with a base measuring 54 feet across, is larger than the one which previously stood and is utilizing much of the materials from the original stupa. This stupa also features a large prayer wheel inside, pilgrims and locals can enter the stupa to spin it and create even more merit.   

Thame Monastery, Nepal.

Please rejoice in the ongoing support offered to the monks of Thame Monastery. This offering of food, which cost US$11,000 for 2019, allows the monks to receive three nutritious meals daily. In a letter of thanks to Lama Zopa Rinpoche, the monastery explained, “The sangha meal project has even more urgency now as more monks are getting older and unable to visit local families frequently for pujas and finding resources on their own.”

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. 

The 31st incarnation of Dzarong Trulshik Shatrul Rinpoche, Trulshik Ngawang Chokyi Lodoe.

Due to the kindness of very generous donors, the Holy Objects Fund has invested US$61,600 in gold leafing for 31 statues of the incarnations of Kyabje Trulshik Rinpoche. The 31st incarnation of this lama who passed away in 2011, was revered as one of the most learned and respected living masters of the Nyingma tradition and is one of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s teachers and one of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s gurus. 

These statues will live at Maratika Monastery, the small monastery 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.)

The third incarnation of Trulshik Rinpoche, Ananda.

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 creation of these statues and the continued support FPMT is able to offer to Maratika Monastery.

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.  

The monks of Zigar Thupten Shedrupling Institute .

The Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund is now offering support to the sixty-two monks of Zigar Thupten Shedrupling Institute, a Kagyu monastery located in Darjeeling, India. 

The monastery sent a letter of thanks and praise to Lama Zopa Rinpoche:

Today on this special day of Sutra and Tantra 

To you who is illuminator of nonsectarian Buddha’s teaching: Kyabje Zopa Rinpoche, for a long time you have generated the holy wish for the teachings of the Buddha and for migratory beings. It has now ripened into fruition, due to the conjunction with noble dependent arising of karma and prayers. By providing livelihood conditions to the Sangha who are engaged in the three activities of study, contemplation, and meditation practice on the teachings of the Buddha.

In the Araya land of Darjeeling’s Thubten Shedub Ling Institution for higher study, we are indebted to the incredible kindness of your holy deeds, and this cooperative condition. Today on the third month of the 15th day of the Tibetan calendar, we have started the needed facilities and food offering to the Sangha. Currently there are 62 Sangha residents who are part of Shedra study discipline, likewise there are one to two new admissions each month.

On behalf of all who are part of the team of Dzigar Shedra monastery’s well-wishers, in and outside, and all the lamas, tulkus, monks, nuns, and the public — We thank you from the bottom of our hearts. To you, Kyabje Zopa Rinpoche, and the FPMT organization, staff, and followers under your guidance: 

May all your holy wishes for the scriptural and realized teachings of the Buddha, which is the source of all help and happiness, be spread widely and remain for a long time in this universe.

May all the holy beings who practice and preserve the teachings have long lives and may all their holy wishes be fulfilled as they wish. Especially Rinpoche, may you live long and may all your holy activities and deeds spread extensively. Today at the Shedar we offer incense offering through the ritual of Tashi Rekong (Fulfilling Wishes of Auspiciousness) and make heartfelt requests to The Three Supreme Ones and the Three Roots. May all come true as requested.    

Thubten Zopa Rinpoche, the source of all the help and happiness
With willpower of tolerance to lift up very high  
You are empowered with extraordinary thought and bodhichitta
Glorifying the nonsectarian teachings
May you live long.  

This year, the grant for food was US$14,432. Lama Zopa Rinpoche, through the Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund, has pledged US$200,000 for this monastery. About offering food to Sangha, Lama Zopa Rinpoche has said:

The ultimate point is that this offering also benefits all the six-realm sentient beings. Any practice that the Sangha do in the monastery, they do for all the six-realm sentient beings, to benefit them. Every sadhana or practice starts with the motivation for “mother sentient beings,” which means all the six-realm sentient beings.

Every dollar offered – even just one dollar, even the smallest amount of money offered – has all these benefits. And the benefits go to all sentient beings: every mosquito, every fish, every pitiful chicken that is taken by a truck to be killed, every sentient being in numberless universes receives these benefits.

Please rejoice in this ongoing offering of support to the monks of Zigar Thupten Shedrupling Institute. 

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.