Charitable Activities

His Holiness the Dalai Lama visiting Ngari Institute.

Since 2014, the Social Services Fund has been supporting the school children and staff of Ngari Institute in Ladakh, India. This year, a grant for US$29,192.50 was offered to cover the costs of daily meals for eighty-three students and staff members, a substantial increase from $13,102 for 35 students in 2014.

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.

Students of Ngari Institute enjoying a meal together.

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

The school was founded by the Ladakh alumni of Sera Je Monastery in South India. A number of monks at Kopan Monastery come from this region in Nepal and FPMT also helped sponsor the building of Ngari Khangtsen at Sera Je monastery.

Investing in education through schools is one way we can invest in the future and help break the cycle of poverty in disadvantaged areas, particularly in India and Nepal. The Social Services Fund currently offers over US$73,000 annually to four schools providing education to children of Tibetan, Nepali, Sherpa, and Indian heritage. The grants cover daily food for operating expenses for over 500 children.

The Social Services Fund has sponsored the food for Ngari Institute for the fifth 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. 

Jangchup Stupa project in progress at Shalu Monastery.

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. During the Chinese invasion of 1959, this precious monastery was destroyed. It was re-established at Tibetan Cholsum Settlement, Bhuppur, India, and was consecrated by Sakya Trichen Rinpoche in March 2005. Currently there are 30 monks practicing and studying at this monastery. 

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

Stupa work in progress.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche has explained, “Building stupas helps develop so much peace and happiness for numberless sentient beings. As a result, wars, disease, and desire will all be pacified. Instead of feeling hopeless, people will gain courage. This is about peace – for the beings who see it, for the whole country, for the entire world, for all sentient beings.”

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. 

Ven. Roger Kunsang offering a mandala to Lama Zopa Rinpoche during the long life puja. Photo by Ven. Sherab.

On May 12 a moving long life puja was offered by over four hundred students to Lama Zopa Rinpoche at The Great Stupa of Universal Compassion in Bendigo, Australia, following the conclusion of an incredible six-week-long retreat. 

Beautiful White Tara statue made by Bertrand Cayla, painted by Sonam Sherpa and offered to Lama Zopa Rinpoche during the long life puja. Photo by Bertrand Cayla.

During the puja, which lasted six hours, Rinpoche was offered a White Tara statue, sculpted by Bertrand Cayla over a year and a half, and intricately painted by Sonam Sherpa and Bertrand over a period of several months at Nalanda Monastery in France. The life-sized statue was shipped to Bendigo and filled by Geshe Thubten Rapten and Ven. Gyatso and made on advice of one lama who advised that a life-sized Tara statue should be made for Rinpoche’s health and long life. Students of FPMT Taiwan sponsored this holy object and it was offered to a new nunnery being established in Bendigo called Machig Labdron. 

Vens. Thubten Dechen and Gyalten Wangmo offered the long life prayer to Rinpoche composed by Rangjung Neljorma Khadro Namsel Drönme (Khadro-la) which was sung to a Bhutanese tune, during the long life puja, as the statue was being offered. You can watch a video of this:

At the end of the puja Rinpoche gave all of the offerings that were made to him to the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, Machig Labdron Nunnery, Thubten Shedrup Ling Monastery, and Atisha Centre. 

Proceedings of the long life puja offered to Lama Zopa Rinpoche. Photo by Ven. Sherab.

Many materials and prayers are available and can be used for creating the cause for Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s health and long life. Students are also welcome to watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings from the precious recent retreat in Australia.

The Long Life Puja Fund contributes to long life pujas offered to Lama Zopa Rinpoche. All are welcome to contribute to this fund.

The nunnery was devastated by the 2015 Nepal earthquake.

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 and has been offering Rinpoche precious oral transmissions for the past two years in Tso Pema, India. 

In 2017 Tinley Dorje requested that Lama Zopa Rinpoche support the rebuilding of this nunnery. The nuns had been living in temporary shelter in modest conditions. 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 FPMT Social Services Fund offered three grants totaling US$185,000 for the rebuilding of this nunnery.  This is an incredible way FPMT can support ordained Sangha, and nuns in particular, who are not exclusively from the Gelug tradition. 

Kitchen and retreat house severely damaged by the 2016 earthquake.

Sangha offering puja where the new nunnery is being built.

Please rejoice that this grant has been offered so that the nuns can continue their monastic life under better, safer, and more condusive conditions. In a letter accompanying the final grant, Lama Zopa Rinpoche said the following to the monks and nuns of the monastery and nunnery: 

I don’t have much to say but in short I want to request all the monks and nuns who are disciples of Kyabje Sendak Rinpoche [who founded the monastery and passed away in 2005] to practice according to what Rinpoche has advised. In order to attain enlightenment, practice the root of the path, guru devotion, by developing the faith of seeing Kyabje Sendak Rinpoche as the embodiment of the Three Supreme Jewels. With that single-pointed devotion, the actual action based on living in harmony and pure morality, practice according to Rinpoche’s teachings and thus get enlightened joyously without having any fear now, at time the of death, and in all future times and places all sentient beings, who have been our mother since beginingless lives and guided us with great kindness, into the state of enlightenment.

The new nunnery is under construction thanks to three grants from the FPMT Social Services Fund.

To date, US$1,714,864.78 in grants has been distributed from the FPMT Social Services Fund toward rebuilding and disaster relief following the 2015 Nepal earthquakes.

The Social Services Fund contributes to many beneficial charitable projects as funds allow. You can learn more about these activities, or make a donation of any amount. 

Buddha statue in Bodhgaya is offered new robes by the Puja Fund.

Saka Dawa is the most important Tibetan Buddhist festival day, celebrating Lord Buddha’s birth, enlightenment and parinirvana. Buddhists around the world engage in many auspicious and merit-making activities such as sponsoring or engaging in beneficial pujas, practices, and prayers; and making extensive offerings to teachers, holy objects, and auspicious charitable activities. This year, Saka Dawa takes place on May 29. 

Offerings of white wash, four giant saffron flower petals and the best quality cloth to the umbrellas at the pinnacles are made to the Boudhanath and Swayambunath stupas in Nepal.

The FPMT Puja Fund was established so that pujas and prayers, offered by as many as 15,650 ordained Sangha, would continuously be sponsored for the benefit of the entire FPMT organization. On Buddha Multiplying Days, such as Saka Dawa, when karmic results are multiplied by one hundred million, the Puja Fund offers US$10,000 toward an extensive array of pujas and practices. This is a very auspicious way for FPMT to support the Sangha at various monasteries and nunneries in Nepal and India. Providing prayer services such as these allow the ordained Sangha to benefit others while also supporting themselves.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Sangha at Kopan Monastery offering puja.

Additionally, the Puja Fund makes offerings to all of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s gurus; to over 15,000 Sangha from Sera Je and Sera Mey Monasteries; Gaden Jangtse and Shartse Monasteries; Drepung Gomang, Loseling, and Deyang Monasteries; Gyurme and Gyuto Tantric Colleges; as well as Kopan Monastery and Nunnery; to Sangha at International Mahayana Institute (IMI) communities; and holy objects in Nepal, India, and Tibet. 

You can see details about all of these activities here. 

This is an incredible day of celebration and offerings when skies of merit is created for the entire FPMT organization including all centers, projects, services, students, benefactors and those serving the organization in any way, as well as all beings. 

Shakyamuni Buddha with offerings, Kachoe Dechen Ling, California, USA. Photo by Chris Majors.

All are welcome to participate in this beneficial celebration by remembering any of these practices and offerings happening around the world and then mentally offering this oneself and/or rejoicing. You can also make a financial contribution to the many prayers, practices, and offerings sponsored by the FPMT Puja Fund. You can participate by offering even one dollar. 

In terms of personal practice, Lama Zopa Rinoche advises that any beneficial practices can be done. In particular, Lama Zopa Rinpoche has recommended: 

• Recitation of the names of the Thirty-Five Confession Buddhas
• Vajrasattva mantras

Practices specifically recommended by Rinpoche for Buddha Multiplying Days include:

• Taking the eight Mahayana precepts
• Doing nyung nä retreats
• Performing the Guru Shakyamuni Buddha puja
• Reciting the Sutra for Remembering the Three Jewels

Of course, any other meritorious activities often advised by Lama Zopa Rinpoche are also good to do on these days, such as recitation of the Sanghata Sutra, the Sutra of Golden Light, etc., with extensive dedications. These texts are available on our sutras page.

The Puja Fund was established by Lama Zopa Rinpoche to provide resources for continuous pujas 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.

The Sera Lachi monks. Photo courtesy of the Sera Lachi Facebook page.

Thanks to a very kind benefactor plus funds offered from Lama Zopa Rinpoche personally, over US$73,000 was offered from the Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund toward a desperately needed new sewage system at Sera Lachi in southern India.  Sera Lachi is made up of Sera Je and Sera Mey Monasteries. 6,000 monks study between the two monasteries. 

This grant contributes to making the environment at Sera Lachi clean, hygienic, safe, and conducive to thoughtful study for the Sangha on the grounds. This is just one way the Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund is able to offer support to thousands of monks at one time. 

Please rejoice in the funding of this important project which benefits the Sangha, the environment, and in turn, all who will receive teachings and guidance from these monks in the future. 

You can learn more about the Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund and the ways it supports monasteries and donate any amount to help ensure grants like this continue. 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche arriving at Trulshik Rinpoche’s monastery, Thubten Choling, March 2018.

Altar for Trulshik Rinpoche at Thubten Choling monastery.

Thubten Chöling is a large monastery built by the late Trulshik Rinpoche in the 1960s in Solu Khumbu near Chailsa, Nepal. One of the greatest living masters of the Nyingma and rime traditions of Tibetan Buddhism, Trulshik Rinpoche, who passed away in 2011, was one of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s gurus. Trulshik Rinpoche was the closest and most realized disciple of the late master, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. It was prophesied in Khyentse Rinpoche’s visionary teachings (terma) that Trulshik Rinpoche would be the spiritual heir to his teachings, and in his absence, Khyentse Rinpoche referred all important matters to Trulshik Rinpoche. Upon Khyentse Rinpoche’s passing in 1991, Trulshik Rinpoche was entrusted to find his reincarnation. He also visited the west several times to give teachings to students.

Rinpoche with Thubten Rigsel Rinpoche and the incarnation of Trulshik Rinpoche during Guru Rinpoche bumtsog.

In December of 2017, Khachoe Ghakyil Ling in Nepal hosted a 100,000 tsog offerings for Guru Rinpoche in front of the gigantic Guru Rinpoche (Padmasambhava) thangka. Lama Zopa Rinpoche attended the special puja, known as a “Guru Rinpoche bumtsog,” along with the young incarnation of Trulshik Rinpoche.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche offering a khata to the holy body of Trulshik Rinpoche at Thubten Choling Monastery, March 2017.

In March 2017 Rinpoche visited Thubten Chöling to pay his respects to Trulshik Rinpoche’s holy body which was in a mandala house above the altar at the monastery. While there Rinpoche offered to sponsor half the costs of a stupa being constructed there which will ultimately house the body of Trulshik Rinpoche. 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche has taught extensively on the benefits of stupas: “The benefits you receive from building a stupa equal the number of atoms of the stupa and these benefits exist as long as the stupa exists. Sentient beings accumulate extensive merit by making offerings to holy objects, and from this merit happiness comes. As soon as a thangka or statue of the Buddha or stupa is completed, in that very second it becomes an object with which beings can create the cause of happiness. Having one more holy object gives sentient beings one more opportunity to create merit.” 

Please rejoice that this most precious stupa is being built contributing directly to more peace and merit for sentient beings on earth. 

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. 

12,290 meals were offered in 2017 through the LOP soup kitchen.

Lamp of the Path NGO (LOP), part of FPMT Mongolia, offers social services to some of the poor and homeless living in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. It has two main programs: a soup kitchen, which offered over 12,290 meals in 2017; and a health clinic, reopened in 2017, offers free health services to the very poor and provided treatment and medications to approximately 292 people in 2017. Additionally Lamp of the Path has cultivated a vegetable garden near the LOP building to provide fresh vegetables and herbs to the other activities; a clothing distribution service which not only serves to keep the homeless warm and clean, but also helps bring awareness to the plight of the homeless as locals can bring in clothing for this project; an anti-alcoholic project has been in operation for the past ten years to address the epidemic of alcoholism in Mongolia; and a six weeks’ meditation program will commence this year for blind people who feel depressed, angry, and who are subject to suicidal thoughts and actions. 

Please enjoy this video showing some of the incredible work being done in Mongolia through Lamp of the Path. 

Since 2012, a generous benefactor has worked with the Social Services Fund to provide ongoing grants to help fund these charitable activities. A collective US$197,500 has been granted to LOP and this year and additional US$30,000 will be disbursed. Rejoice that those in need in Mongolia are able to receive much needed support through these essential programs. 

The Social Services Fund contributes to many beneficial charitable projects as funds allow. You can learn more about these activities, or make a donation of any amount. 

You can offer directly to FPMT Mongolia to help ensure services such as these continue in Mongolia in the future. 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche having lunch at Vajrapani Institute with staff, members, and others, California, US, November 2015. Photo by Ven. Sherab.

Vajrapani Institute, an FPMT retreat center, is located in the Santa Cruz Mountains near Boulder Creek, CA at the end of a five-mile dirt road on the border of Castle Rock State Park. Being entirely off-grid has been an ongoing challenge for a busy operation like Vajrapani Institute’s. The logistics in terms of production and distribution of power, water, gas, and communications are complex. After forty years of managing with this difficult infrastructure, last year an overhaul of these systems commenced. Everything is being redone and the entire project is costing approximately US$800,000.

Construction at Vajrapani Institute. Photo courtesy of VPI.

Construction at Vajprapani Institute. Photo courtesy of VPI.

For example, last year five miles of conduit was installed underground. According to director Fabienne Pradelle, this is the biggest construction project the center has undertaken but essential for the future growth and safety. Fabienne explained, “Once the new infrastructures are in place, there’s a level of emergency and stress that won’t longer be there. Much more reliable. We’re proud of what we’ve achieved on a shoestring budget all these years. Our carbon footprint is impressively small.” 

The Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund invested in the electricity wing of this considerable project. Please rejoice that this important retreat center is able to make these improvements to the infrastructure which will benefit students, teachers, and staff for years to come.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund enables Rinpoche’s compassionate service to others to flourish. All the offerings from the fund are used toward the creation of holy objects and extensive offerings around the world; sponsoring young tulkus, high lamas and Sangha in India, Nepal, Tibet and the West; supporting FPMT centers, projects and services; sponsoring Dharma retreats and events; funding animal liberations and blessings, and many other worthy projects. 

New tracksuits offered to the children of Maitreya School and Tara Children’s Project.

The charitable mission of Root Institute, located in Bodhgaya, India, is to provide support to impoverished children, adolescents and adults in neighboring areas through three focused projects. Maitreya School is a primary school providing free education for local children; Tara Children’s Project is a safe, nurturing environment for HIV-affected orphans; and Shakyamuni Buddha Clinic is a free hospital serving impoverished, local people via a variety of medical systems.

For the past six years, due to the kindness of one main benefactor, the FPMT Charitable Projects has been able to offer substantial grants toward this amazing work. Additionally, Lama Zopa Rinpoche personally offers support to these beneficial activities. Recently Rinpoche offered new tracksuits to all of the children of Maitreya School and Tara Children’s Project. 

Children receiving new tracksuits.

In January, when His Holiness the Dalai Lama was teaching in Bodhgaya, the children offered him three recitations of the Heart Sutra as well as “Praise to the Seventeen Nalanda Masters” in Sanskrit and His Holiness was visibly moved receiving this. (The video above shows the children reciting the Heart Sutra to His Holiness in 2017.)

Please rejoice in the ongoing support offered to the children of the Maitreya School and Tara Children’s Project. 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund enables Rinpoche’s compassionate service to others to flourish. All the offerings from the fund are used toward the creation of holy objects and extensive offerings around the world; sponsoring young tulkus, high lamas and Sangha in India, Nepal, Tibet and the West; supporting FPMT centers, projects and services; sponsoring Dharma retreats and events; funding animal liberations and blessings, and much more.

New accommodation for the residents of Lugsum Samduling Home for the Aged and Disabled.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche visiting and blessing the residents of the elderly home in 2015.

Lugsum Samduling Home for the Aged and Disabled, an elderly home in Bylakuppe, India, cares for approximately forty elderly individuals. Without homes and accommodation like this, many elderly first-wave Tibetan refugees have very little prospect of accommodation or support as many are without families of their own.

Due to the kindness of generous benefactors, we are now able to invest in homes such as this in an ongoing way. 

The inside of one of the new rooms being built at the elderly home.

In 2017, a grant of US$127,051.29 was offered toward the building of ten rooms at the home. The original building hasn’t been updated since 1968 and was in dire need of a rebuild as the foundation was not suitable for a renovation. This project is being completed this month and the residents will be able to move into the new building. Each room will accommodate four elders with a bathroom attached. An extremely kind donor raised the funds for this. An incredible gesture of generosity. 

In 2017, a grant was provided for a recycling initiative which raises money for the elderly home. The grant funded a recycling truck, worker uniforms and salaries for two, fuel, and repairs for the vehicle. 

The vehicle purchased for the Lugsung Samduling Tibetan Settlement’s recycling program.

In 2018 US$57,079.77 was offered for the construction of large and smaller prayer wheels on the property enabling the elders to pray, circumambulate, and maintain good health. In this way, FPMT is helping to take ultimate care of the elders by providing the conditions for them create merit for this and future lives, not simply their immediate needs for survival.  

FPMT has been supporting this home for three years and in this period has offered US$225,558.

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. 

In 1976, Geshe Lhundub Sopa, one of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachers, began offering commentary to Lama Tsongkhapa’s Lamrim Chenmo. The lamrim, or “graduated path,” is a presentation of Shakyamuni Buddha’s teachings that detail the stages on the complete path to enlightenment.

Geshe Sopa’s teachings continued into the early 1990s. In 1994, discussions on turning the audio teachings into a book series commenced. And in 1995, Lama Zopa Rinpoche took on the responsibility of sourcing the project’s funding. Shortly after, a very kind benefactor came forward to sponsor it. In all, US$500,000 was raised for this incredible project.

Over the next twenty-three years, Wisdom Publications published a five-volume series called Steps on the Path to Enlightenment. Producing these volumes involved laborious effort on the part of translators, transcribers, and editors—not to mention that each editor read their drafts to Geshe Sopa many times, incorporating his feedback and refinements. The result is the longest and most detailed lamrim commentary available in English.

Geshe Lhundrub Sopa, Maitripa College, Portland, Oregon, US, 2009. Photo by Marc Sakamoto.

Steps on the Path to Enlightenment, Vol. 1: The Foundational Practices; Vol. 2: Karma; Vol. 3: The Way of the Bodhisattva; Vol. 4: Śamatha; and now Vol. 5: Insight are currently available through Wisdom’s website.

The final and longest volume in the series  focuses on the nature of reality. In addition to the teachings themselves, the book features an extensive glossary of technical terms.

Wisdom’s senior editor, David Kittlestrom, commented on the volume: “Dechen Rochard has brought enormous precision and devotion to the project, preserving the many levels of subtlety on the different points of the Madhyamaka view in Geshe-la’s exposition to create an unparalleled guide to the sixth perfection and Tsongkhapa’s text. And what makes it all the more remarkable is how readable and cogent the work is—it’s a pleasure to read. It is a wonderful tribute to Geshe-la’s great erudition and kindness.”

All are welcome to order Steps on the Path to Enlightenment, Vol. 5: Insight directly from Wisdom Publications now. 

Please rejoice in the completion of this incredible project decades in the making!

“Lamrim is what you should focus on your whole life, even while you are doing your job. This is what you should keep your mind in, this is the most meaningful, most profound practice, doing each act with the mind in bodhichitta. This should be your practice, this is what you should try to accomplish in this life.” —Lama Zopa Rinpoche

You can learn more about the Steps on the Path to Enlightenment series by Geshe Lhundub Sopa: www.wisdompubs.org/author/geshe-lhundub-sopa