The Tibetan Losar (New Year) was met with great celebration.  On the first day (February 21), each monk student went to his respective teacher, prostrating thrice before him to start the year fresh with his blessing.  Afterwards, the monks went to the prayer hall and temples, making prostrations, offering katas, and taking blessings from holy Buddhist idols, stupas, and scriptures.  During Losar, monks are allowed to play games and watch videos--acitivities usually prohibited.  Important events of this Losar were cultural shows and  competition between the nine camps, particularly the soccer final match between Camps 6 and 7  (Camp 7 won the final).

The Monlam Prayer Festival was on March 6th (the fifteenth day of the Tibetan New Year).  The Monlam is the commemoration of the Buddha's displaying paranormal feats, thus defeating the six "heretics" who had challenged him.  The festival was established by Je Tsong Khapa (1357-1419), the founder of the Gelug Sect of Tibetan Buddhism.  Before the Chinese invasion, this festival drew about 20,000 monks to Lhasa from the the three great monasteries of Drepung, Sera, and Gaden and attracted throngs of people from places as far as Amdo and Kham who walked days and nights with their animals to make offerings and receive blessings from the huge congregation of monks.

In exile this year, the Monlam Prayer Festival was conducted at Gaden Monastery (last year it was held at Drepung).  Monks from both monasteries attended the prayer session. On the sixteenth day, the ritual of cake burning was conducted.  This religious ceremony is done to remove obstacles and bad omens from the path to begin the fresh year.  On the seventeenth day of Losar, the sacred statue of Maitreya Buddha was carried in procession around the Gaden main Prayer Hall amidst great festivity.  People sought the statue's blessings, offering khatas and looking forward to the age of Maitreya when everyone will be mindful of religion, sincere and honest, and free from sickness and distress.

Khensur Rinpoche Tsultrim Phuntsok
Sacred Art Tour Leader

Drepung Gomang Monastery will launch its fifth tour, Sacred Art of the Land of the Snows, in April 2005, not September 2004, as previously announced. The delay will facilitate a more solid schedule that will enable both art centers and institutes and spiritual centers to interface. This heightened communication will enable the tour to better fulfill its mission to educate the public about the spiritual nature of Tibetan art. Following are the elements that will comprise the touring exhibition:

• Images of the 12 stages of the life of Buddha
• Traditional dolls wearing historic costumes of Tibet
• Craft workshops,such as butter sculpture, thangka painting, mask making, and tent making,
• Sacred Art of the sand mandala
• Ceremonial masks
• Images of famous monasteries in Tibet, along with a thangka of each the founding lamas, with a correlating overview for each monastery
• Butter sculptures
• Slide Show:  History of Gomang
• Display of thangkas from the monastery:  some are created by the tour group, including four appliqué  thangkas (may be purchased); some are rare thangkas belonging to the monastery (not for purchase).
• Portraits of Traditional Tibet:  Images of its people, including full-length painting of Tibetans:  3 men, 3 women in traditional clothes.

Portrait
Tibetan Man and Woman from Amdo

Any persons living in the USA who are interested in assisting the tour group in their area, please contact the USA tour coordinator, Jennifer Harris, at sacred@gomang.org

(For a complete description of the tour, Sacred Art of the Land of the Snows, please click here.)
 

The 2003-04 Tour Group, led by Geshe Tenpa Sonam, is now on the last leg of its tour.  As of April, the tour group has visited 37 locations in 23 different states.  Presently, the 11 monks who comprise the tour are going to a variety of centers, universities, and Students for a Free Tibet meeting places in the Mid-West USA.  In May, they will return to Bloomington for a week before they go to Louisville, Chicago, Ohio, Michigan, Pennsyvania, and Connecticut.  The tour will end on July 11 and the monks will return to India on July 17.

The monks have met with such a positive response from all those who have attended their programs.  Their message of wisdom and compassion has inspired many persons, and their informative discussions about Tibet and the monastery have helped Americans to better understand the necessity of lobbying for a Free Tibet and continuing their support of the refugee communities in India.

Many persons have snapped candid shots of the monks during the tour.  For a look-see of what they have been up to during their sojourn in the USA, please visit their scrapbook pages.

Click here for complete information about the 2003-04 Tour,

Tenzin Drolma (Kristin Ouwehand) is a woman from Canada who teaches art and English to students at Drepung Gomang College.  She regularly takes notes on happenings at the monastery and has agreed to share some of them with those persons who may be interested in what occurs during daily life at a Tibetan monastery in south India.

Losar Celebration

LOSAR TASHI DELEK!!   An explosion outside my window jolts me out of a deep sleep, and stifled giggles and shouts of “Sir-Madam! (The youngest kids take a while to adapt to having a teacher they can’t call “sir”).  Glancing blearily at my alarm clock, I see that it’s not yet 4:00 and still pitch black outside, but the kids are out in force, having a grand time with cheap Indian fireworks.  LOSAR TASHI DELEK!!

Losar is the most anticipated of all the Tibetan holidays, especially in the monasteries, where it is a welcome break from study and debate. Preparations begin several weeks in advance, first with the making of Kap-si (crisp fried dough twists, that fill the air with the smell of baking). A kilo’s worth is distributed to each monk. Then the Medok-choba are made, colorful butter sculptures which are set up in the protector deity chapel and in His Holiness’ rooms atop the prayer hall. The local tailors have more work than they can handle as everyone orders new clothes for the New Year. Rooms are cleaned, clothes are washed, and small shrines are set up in each room made up of offerings of fruit, tsampa, sweets and pictures of His Holiness, or a monk’s personal lama.

After everyone’s been awakened by the racket made by the kids and their fireworks, it’s a tradition in the monasteries for monks to visit their teachers with offerings of fruit, biscuits and a kadag (white scarf). One makes three prostrations as a gesture of thanks and respect for the kindness of the teacher for sharing his knowledge. Then everyone heads to the temples, where kadags are offered in the main prayer hall, the protector deity chapels, and His Holiness’ rooms. Everyone is in good spirits, shouting greetings to each other for the New Year. This includes the lay community as well, who turn out in flocks, dressed to the hilt in their finest brocade chubas and fur lined hats, despite the heat.

Walking along the road, the usually quiet of the monastery is changed to a riot of sound, each hostel blaring out music. It’s entertaining to pass a row of buildings, and hear Hindi pop from one, the wailing of Tibetan nomad songs from the next, and Chinese music or English dance tunes thrown in for good measure. (Several of the older monks resort to earplugs to survive the holidays, but the younger kids love it.)

Just as it’s not permitted during the rest of the year to play loud music, neither is it allowed to watch movies, so during the holidays, the vast majority of the monks take advantage of the freedom and spend as much as 15 hours a day, watching 30 reel Chinese epics translated into Tibetan. Apart from those, kung fu or war movies are a big hit, as there is lots of action and not much dialogue. Rambo and Jackie Chan are particular favorites, as are Charlie Chaplin and Mr. Bean!

Staring wide-eyed at the screen, the viewers often neglect to eat or even sleep! For those with less interest in staring at a screen, there are games such as cards, badminton, mah jong, carom, and even the occasional organized football match in the camps.  Friends visit friends, families have meals together, and people go for walks in the relative cool of the evenings, singing songs and chatting.

Monlam Prayer Festival

Following the week of Losar, there are usually two days of holiday to recover from the actual holiday, in which to catch up on sleep, wash clothes and recuperate in general! Then starts the fifteen-day Monlam Prayer Festival--held this year in Gaden monastery, down the road from us. Al the monks from Drepung went to stay in Gaden for the prayer sessions celebrating the anniversary of Buddha’s miracles. Towards the end of Monlam, the huge butter sculptures are brought out for the public to pass by, offering kadags and prayers. The next day, an early morning procession of a small statue of Jampa (Maitreya) the future Buddha, takes place around the entire monastery. The statue is carried in an ornately carved and painted wooden shrine, mounted on a draped table in the trailer behind a tractor festooned with streamers and flowers and is accompanied by several monks who catch the thousands of kadags and flowers thrown in offering. Thousands of monks and lay people follow the procession, slowly walking behind and stopping at each corner to offer prayers led by monks with bells, horns and cymbals, carrying incense with thickens the air with its smoky fragrance. Standing crushed in the crowds, sweltering in one’s best clothes, the combination of the packed bodies, incense, heat, and the chanting makes one’s head reel.  It is a relief when the crowd moves on, and we finally reach the main doors of the temple where the statue is carefully and reverently lifted down and onto a gilt palanquin and then carried by several monks into the temple where it stays until next year’s ceremonies.

After the shrine has disappeared into the depths of the temple, games are held:  cycle and foot races, tugs of war, and contests of strength, hefting bags of sand etc. In Tibet, the games would have been horse races as well as shooting or archery competitions, but the same spirit of friendly rivalry exists.
 

Ruins of Drepung Monastery in Lhasa, Tibet

After the Chinese invaded Tibet in 1949, life in the monasteries around Lhasa went on normally until one evening in March 1959 when Chinese artillery began firing on them. The monks were aware that tension had been mounting, but thought of it only as a temporary situation. The ones that did escape took a few belongings and several days’ supply of food before seeking shelter in the mountains behind their monasteries. Their plans to return a few days later were thwarted by guerrillas or others fleeing who advised them to go further. This they did until they heard about His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s flight and the deteriorating situation. After two or three months, they began crossing the passes into India, Sikkim and Bhutan.

Several thousand monks crossed the border into India, walking days and nights. When they reached India, at the request of His Holiness the Indian Government offered 1,500 lamas, scholars and monks the option of forming a monastic camp at Buxa in Assam. The rest set off to build roads in the Himalayan region.

The Years at Buxa

Buxa was a former British internment camp situated in the jungles of Assam and surrounded by the remains of a high barbed wire fence. Many of India’s great independence fighters had been imprisoned there.

The Buxa refugee camp was formed in August 1959. Planned to accommodate 1,500 monks from the four sects of Tibetan Buddhism, it was set up as a monastic study center. Its purpose was to provide an environment in which lamas and scholars could pursue their studies and pass on their knowledge. About 7,000 monks had sought refuge in India, among them some of Tibet’s greatest saints and scholars. Priority was given to those who had been engaged in studies, though some of those admitted only began formal studies after arriving there.

The structure of the camp resembled that of the three great monasteries of Drepung, Sera and Gaden, as the majority of the monks belonged to the Gelugpa sect. The camp retained monastic colleges of these three great monasteries, including the houses or khamtsens within each college. They also adhered to the distinctive syllabi of the colleges.

When relating their experiences at Buxa, monks express contrasting reactions and feelings. It is obvious that the physical conditions were extremely difficult. The weather was hot and humid and, as in all jungles, insects of all types abounded and leeches dropped down from trees. Though food was sufficient, it was not of the type to which Tibetans are accustomed and this, in addition to contact with bacteria unknown in Tibet, led to skin as well as intestinal ailments. However, the worst enemy was tuberculosis. More than 200 monks had contracted it by 1966, and 80 of those died. The monks who were spared physical illness were not exempted from worry and mental problems, though many avoided those by clinging to the hope of a prompt return to Tibet.

One senior monk relates; “If we had been told at our arrival that Tibetan independence would be a matter of years, the disappointment would have been unbearable. and many of us would have fallen into a state of depression”. However, disappointment came in small doses. “ After several years, we realized that independence might not be around the corner, and that countries like India had to wait decades before obtaining it.”

Some monks did not react so positively. Physical and mental stress combined with a dislike of the food and environment created a feeling of hopelessness, which often led to depression and even madness. Barbed wire fences and rumours that the camp was haunted by prisoners who had been executed there two decades before created for some a climate of fear and oppression. There were several cases of monks hanging themselves.

For those monks who plunged themselves into their studies and escaped illness, life was not so grim, and some retain happy memories of life at Buxa. One monk, who was nineteen at the time, relates:  “All I thought of was debating--what I had debated yesterday, with whom and how and what I was going to debate tomorrow. If it rained, I worried hat the debating session might be cancelled.” Though exile had brought everyone to a level of strict equality, ordinary monks were often eager to ease the physical discomfort endured by young lamas and privileged students who in the monasteries had been used to living in relative comfort.

The daily routine was memorization of texts, classes with one’s teacher, and more memorization in the evenings. Every effort was made to follow the traditional teaching system as it was practiced in Tibet, as closely as possible. Scholars who had not been able to take their Geshe degree examinations in Lhasa did so in Buxa and although this ceremony may not have been as grand an occasion as it was in Lhasa, the presence of many great scholars made it one of the most exciting and stimulating events. Many great geshes, some whom are now the abbots of their monasteries, received their degrees in Buxa, where the most brilliant among them were awarded grades or ranks as in Tibet. As books were scarce, one copy of a text often had to serve many monks. A young scholar’s main concern was to find ways of obtaining books. Missing pages or even entire books were copied by hand, mainly on the wrappers of U.S. donated powdered milk, and although this paper had to be thoroughly rubbed down with a glass bottle to make it usable, it was very popular for its quality and durability.

The monks in Buxa celebrated all the festivals as in Tibet, but only as far as their means allowed. At Losar, the Tibetan New Year, discipline was relaxed. The monks played games and told stories. Better meals were served. A favorite treat was American corned beef in cans, which the refugees received through international aid agencies. The monks used them either to make momos, a Tibetan meat dumpling, or cooked them by placing the cans directly into the fire where they burst open with a loud report.

In 1966, the Council of Religious and Cultural Affairs (Department of Religion and Culture) became alarmed about the health of the monks in Buxa. They brought the problem to the attention of the Ministry of External Affairs (India), which was running the camp. As a result, a Central Relief Committee medical team was sent, and eventually a small hospital was set up. The worst cases of tuberculosis were sent to sanatoriums. Despite the decrease in the number of T.B cases during the following year, it became clear that the hot and humid climate would continue to impair the health of the monks and that the only solution would be to relocate the camp in a more suitable climate. Also the rations given until then were soon to be discontinued and other solutions had to be considered.

The first site considered by the Council was near Palampur in Himachal Pradesh. There were 173 acres, which seemed suitable both for religious and agricultural purposes. In 1967, rumors of this plan began to circulate in Buxa, and the monks opposed it very strongly. For some it aroused feelings of insecurity and fear of having to begin self-supporting schemes in a country they knew nothing about. Although these monks had been in India for eight years, they had gone straight from Tibet to the transit camp at Misamari before proceeding to Buxa. Except for perhaps a few short trips to Kalimpong to visit Tibetan friends, most monks knew nothing of India.

The First Years in South Indian Settlement

Building the First Prayer Hall at Gomang
in South India

The plan to move to Palampur was eventually shelved--both because of the monks’ opposition and because of the piece of land was judged to be too small. Then the Council had to search for alternative places to resettle the monks. At that time, a large number of Tibetans were being resettled in Karnataka in South India. Since there had always been a good deal of interaction between the Tibetan people and the monasteries, resettling both near each other seemed a more positive move. In Palampur, the monks would have been isolated from most Tibetan communities in India, and the land would have had to be bought. In Karnataka, the Indian Government was offering to allocate two acres of land for every three monks, build housing blocks and give an allowance until the communities could become self-sufficient. Plans to resettle the Buxa monks in the South began to be actively prepared.

Though this solution appeared far more practical than the Palampur one, after the opposition that the latter had encountered, the Council expected the monks to raise objections because they had no experience farming and would see this work as a disruption of their lives of study and meditation. In order to counter any opposition before it arose, the Council summoned the abbots to Dharamsala. The Dalai Lama explained to them the needs and benefits of beginning a new life in a monastic community, which could be self-reliant. His message was recorded on tape and the abbots returned to Buxa with an official from the Tibetan Government in exile.

In his message, the Dalai Lama told the monks that they could not live on rations forever and urged them to think of the future and of a means to achieve self-sufficiency. He advised them that moving to another location would be worthwhile in the long run.

In 1970, arrangements with the Indian Government to resettle the monks in the South were completed. The first monks were moved from Buxa in 1971:  Sera and Kagyupa monks to Bylakupee, while Ganden, Drepung, Sakya, and Nyingma monks were resettled in Mundgod.  Both areas were in Karnataka State.

At first, about 100 monks were sent to both places. The land was covered by jungle, which had to be cleared and wells dug before it could be made habitable. The monks went to work in the morning, returning to a campsite at night. Indian workers with bulldozer uprooted the trees, but the monks had to clear the land of debris, prepare if for cultivation and dig foundations for buildings.  In addition, they had to learn how to lay bricks.

Gradually the monks’ attitude to their rehabilitation in the South changed. On several occasions H.H. the Dalai Lama had exhorted them to think ahead, not to ignore the future, and to realize that their efforts at reconstruction were not useless. His Holiness said that if they were to return to Tibet, they could leave what they had done, but that at present it was important to think in terms of remaining in India for some time. This helped the monks view their attempts at settlement in Karnataka as an improvement rather than a burden. They realized that it gave them a chance to control their own future, to look after themselves and to re-establish their monasteries in the way they had been in Tibet. An institution run by themselves would also allow them to train a new generation of monks who could pass on their traditions--something which could not be achieved while living off rations. Some monks even regretted that they had obstructed and protested against earlier plans to establish a monastic colony, realizing that if they had began earlier, instead of living off rations at Buxa, they would already have been well established.

In 1972, the remainder of the monks left Buxa, taking the train from Alipur to Hubli & Mysore. The camp was emptied. Many remember the painful sight of the numerous dogs who had depended on them for years and who realized they were being left behind. They followed them in packs to the train, whimpering and barking. For many monks it was their first trip away from the camp in Buxa.

Though the climate in Karnataka was an improvement over that of Assam, the living conditions were different and working in the fields introduced new problems. There were no tools--let alone oxen or tractors--and monks had to pull the ploughs themselves, causing them to develop sores on their backs. Their lack of experience in agricultural matters hindered their efforts. Although they sought the advice of Tibetan farmers settled nearby, they wasted time and were not always successful. At first they tried a variety of crops such as corn, peanuts, cotton, and chili, as suggested by Indian agricultural advisors. The Lama Cooperative Society provided fertilizer, but all the crops apart from corn proved difficult to grow, so the others were eventually abandoned. Also, because of the proximity of the jungle there were hordes of creatures particularly fond of corn such as wild pigs, monkeys, and parrots.  Night watches had to be set up to keep them away.

The heavy emphasis on manual labour disrupted the atmosphere of study and meditation, which had-- in spite of all the hardships--prevailed at Buxa. In addition to the common work on their monasteries’ fields, monks began their own ventures, buying fields to cultivate and keeping cattle, usually one cow to two or three monks. Though the cows provided milk, a welcome supplement to an otherwise very poor diet, the agricultural ventures were not always successful. All this resulted in less and less time being devoted to study and created difficulty in disciplining younger monks, who were left alone in the tents during the day to memorize their texts. An attempt was made to re-establish debating sessions, but it failed as everyone was too busy trying to rebuild the monasteries. However, when enough housing blocks were completed, around 1974, monks moved into their new quarters. At last it became possible to establish a real monastic routine, including the necessary studies and discipline.

The land given to the monks had been allotted on the basis of two acres per three monks. Whatever they produced from their land had to suffice them and this, of course, created problems when the numbers of monks increased. In all monasteries a common was established where they used their own produce.  Corn was ground into meal and mixed with flour bought from the outside. Milk from the college’s cows was insufficient to prepare the morning tea, but the shortage was made up with powdered milk. Since buffalo milk, was of higher quality, it was given to the college’s restaurant to sell.  Likewise, any leftover corn was sold in the market.

Life in the monastery was established around a routine of work and study. Being a self-supporting institution, the community had to look after the monastery’s assets and share the work equally. The monastery was set up like a commune with its members sharing both the work and its fruits on a basis of total equality. In this way it differed from the system, which existed in Tibet where, though the monks had living quarters in the monasteries, they had to support themselves and depend on students and donors from outside.

A typical monastery’s assets include corn fields, rice paddies, a small herd of buffalo or cows, a restaurant which serves extra meals to the monks at a moderate price, a team of sweater sellers who sell in Bombay, Hubli or Bangalore for three or four months a year, and five to ten monks who are send out to perform prayers and rituals in the lay communities. Fieldwork, while providing the largest part of the community’s income, is also the most demanding. Sowing, weeding and harvesting the corn crop require five or six work sessions a year, of between three and ten days each. All adults under sixty participate. They take turns keeping the night watches to guard against wild pigs and monkeys. However, not much can be done about the monkey who climb trees and wait until their pursuers have departed to resume their plundering. Some settlements have even experienced the visits of wild elephants which cause the worst destruction and against which nothing can be done. Some monks have lost their lives trying to chase them away.

Of all the chores, pig-watching is perhaps the most resented. It takes place outside the regular work sessions and the monks have to attend debates, regular classes and memorization sessions after having spent sleepless nights in the mosquito infested cornfields. The monks go off at dusk in teams of two. Protected from snakebites by heavy rubber boots, they walk over to their base camp with flashlight in one hand and a tin can of smouldering leaves in the others. Intermittently they make rounds, shouting to scare away any pigs, which may have ventured in to eat the tender corncobs. Another team makes round to make sure the others stay awake.

Outside the work sessions and special debates, study occupies a monk’s day. It begins in the early hours with the memorization of texts.  If there is no assembly, this continues--interrupted by tea--until about nine, when the debating session begins. All monks are required to attend.  Failure to do so leads to a fine. At eleven, there is lunch. In the afternoon, each monk attends teachings with his particular teacher, usually until dinnertime at five. After dinner are the evening prayers, followed by another debate until ten. Serious students usually review their texts until twelve or one in the morning.

The monks’ curriculum has remained the same as in Tibet and Buxa, with each particular college following its own traditions and syllabi.  This entails the passing on of many oral and written lineages, thereby retaining the richness and variety of the Tibetan scholarly traditions. Others variations include the use of different textbooks and different methods of debating and memorizing texts. Even some houses within the colleges may have specialities, such as highly developed reading skills or emphasis on memorization.

In spite of their rigorous schedule, many interferences impede a monk student’s progress. The knowledge expected of a student monk in Tibet was immense, and he had to devote himself wholeheartedly to studying. Now in exile, this has become all the more necessary, but interruptions such as weeding and harvesting sessions have been detrimental. Time is precious since those scholars who obtained their Geshe degrees in Tibet are becoming older and rarer. Many died because of illness and old age in the initial years in exile, and the generation who should have succeeded them in training young novices had their religious education interrupted by exile and resettlement. Those monks who, in Tibet, would have been preparing for their geshe examinations have had to contribute their physical labour to rebuilding their monasteries. Many lamas, geshes and other bright monks left Buxa to become teachers in Tibetan schools, while others went abroad to teach in universities or set up Buddhist centers. The gaps had to be filled by the older generation and the few brilliant middle-aged monks who had remained in the monasteries and managed to pursue their studies. Their efforts and devotion have maintained the religious tradition of Tibet. This achievement required all the time both students and teachers could provide and demanded reduction in their working time. The council made this possible by providing five hundred monks of the four sects and Bonpo tradition with a Rs.30 per month supplementary allowance. Private sponsors also contributed substantial amounts in response to appeals from monasteries and individual colleges. This aid enabled the monasteries to free monks from fieldwork by replacing the corn crop with rice and hiring Indian peasants to work in the paddies. Diminishing the corn crop also helped to reduce the length of each work session as well as the need for pig watching.

This system may seem like a short-term solution, but it was the only way to provide much needed help without delay. The council is now drafting new plans to eventually reduce this dependence by making the monasteries completely self-sufficient viable organizations dedicated to academic and religious excellence.

The Establishment of Monastic Schools

Class of Young Monks

Monks Debating

From the mid 70s, the number of novices grew steadily in all the monasteries. Whereas in Tibet young monks were usually admitted between the ages of seven and fifteen--and more commonly after they were ten--the age of novice monks in India dropped drastically.  Also, the customs for their admittance were also modified. In Tibet, in the case of a wealthy family, the parents sponsored a lavish ceremony when their son entered.  He then acquired the rank of a privileged student in either his house or college. Though his patterns of studies remained the same as that of other monks, he was given better quarters in the monastery and a seat of honor at assemblies. Even a common monk enjoyed prestige and respect and was a source of pride to his family. By applying himself he could become a distinguished scholar and, in the case of a monk with exceptional qualities, the abbot of his monastery.

In India, all too often it is the large and poor families who send their boys to monasteries because they cannot afford to raise them. Wealthier parents prefer to send their children either to private schools or to Tibetan schools what are under the supervision of the Council for Education.  They feel that they will get better food, accommodation and a broader education there. Monasteries in exile lack the facilities boasted by these schools, which benefit from external financial aid and educational advice.  However, the monasteries do provide a more solid basis in Traditional Tibetan education for those young monks who apply themselves.

It must be admitted that, especially at the beginning, life for a young monk is not easy. Since he does not have a share in the land given to the initial monks from Buxa, the monk community cannot afford to feed him from the common kitchen, and his teacher has to share his meals with him. This problems remains until he reaches his teens and can do his share of the work the monks have established in common, such as fieldwork, looking after cattle and helping in the kitchen. The teacher acts as a young monk’s father, mother, guardian and teacher. He feeds and clothes him, and looks after him when he is ill, as well as teaching him to read and memorize his texts. The monks who have two or three students find that their already cramped living quarters become very crowded, and they have a difficult time making ends meet. The food from the common kitchen, which they share with their students, consists of tea in the morning, a large flat bread at noon, and noodle soup in the evening. The result of this poor diet is that many boys develop the head sores characteristic of children suffering from malnutrition.

	Little Monks Debating
Geshe Jinpa Sonam with Students

Young boys continue to be taken to monasteries and monks argue that they cannot turn them away, but add that having to look after children aged between four and ten--some of whom call for their mothers a night--disrupts their own studies and way of life. One after the other, the monasteries have begun schools where each child is served one or two meals provided by funds set aside for this purpose or is donated by sponsors. A number of learned monks have been assigned as teachers and most monasteries have begun to build a separate school building.

(From Chöyang: Vol 1-No-1 1986)

Any donations and contributions are gratefully received.  You will be remembered in the prayers of the monks.