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![]() July 2010 Year of the Metal Tiger 2137 |
In This
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More than 50,000 people from Tibet, China, Bhutan, Nepal and other Himalayan region of India and also non-Buddhist countries like Australia, Italy, the Czech Republic, Spain, England, Brazil and several African and Asian countries gathered at Bodh Gaya, the holiest Buddhist pilgrimage site to attend the teaching of His Holiness the Dalai Lama on January 5 to 8, 2010.
![]() His Holiness Teaching at Bodh Gaya Tibetans
decided against celebrating the Lunar New Year for a second year in
remembrance
of the suffering of people inside Tibet. Here in the settlement,
Tibetans only
observed religious ceremonies. In Tibet, the New Year celebration was
marked
with protest in several areas to mourn the killing of hundreds of
Tibetans
during 2008 March protest.
In
Tibet before the Chinese
invasion, the biggest annual religious festival, Monlam Chenmo used to
draw thousands of pilgrims from the regions of Amdo and Kham who walked
days
and nights to receive blessing . H.
H.
the Dalai Lama and other important Tulkus and officials graced the
occasion.
2009 Tour
Group The
Drepung
Gomang’s Monastery’s official
tour to the
United States was concluded in December 2009.
All but one
of the monks of the
tour group returned to the
monastery and handed over their report to the monastery. A special
prayer was
organized at the prayer hall to thank all the kind supporters:
Many
people will be
truly benefit from this kind and altruistic assistance from
so many people.
There has been delay in the start of 2010 tour due to the visa process. We sincerely extend our apologies for the delay and request all local coordinators, volunteers, hosts, friends to keep checking with our inviting organization, Drepung Gomang Institute, and our National Coordinator, Mrs. Sue Simone, for up-to-date information on when the tour group will arrive in the USA. World Health day was celebrated on April 7th, 2010. This year the Drepung Gomang Community Dispensary organized the program at the Settlement Community hall where monks and students from the Tibetan Settlement School attended. Ven. Tsewang Norbu, Supervisor of Gomang Community Dispensary, gave talks on the importance of health practices and an awareness towards preserving our environment. Carry bags made from cloth materials (instead of plastic) were distributed to all who attended.
Logo on Carry Bags Distibuted to Settlement School Children Back to Top
Abbot and Chanzoe Visit the USA Arjia Rinpoche, Director of the Tibetan Mongolian Buddhist Cultural Center (TMBCC) in the United States, extended an invitation to Khen Rinpoche Geshe Yonten Dhamchoe and Gomang Director (Chanzoe) Ven. Tempa Dawa to attend His Holiness’s teaching of the “Heart Sutra” in Bloomington.
In addition to visiting the TMBCC, they were also able to stop by the monastery’s sister organization Drepung Gomang Institute in Louisville, Kentucky. They also saw our monks and friends in New York, Philadelphia, Miami, New Jersey, Virginia and many other places.
At Gethesemani, Kentucky - Gravesite of Thomas Merton The visit
of the Abbot and Director was very successful.
We thank you all so much for the support and
assistance that you
extended and give a special “thank
you” to everyone
who made this visit possible. One of our annual monastic religious programs was held here at the monastery in June. For several days, groups of monks from each Parchen class debated with monks from other Parchen classes. The best moments of these debate occur when a group gets intensely into the debate. Sometimes there is pulling and pushing of classmates when a monk poses his toughest questions to the other party. The discipline master and his assistant have to control all of this jostling.
Monks Debating during Parchen Thug Chora Visit of DGI Members
Keith Schmidt, Anne Dolma and Jason Holland visited the monastery for short period with Geshe Jampa Sangay. Despite the rain, they visited the monasteries and camps in this settlement. They received blessings and offered prayers at Drepung Lachi and also at Drepung Gomang Monastery’s new prayer hall.
Geshe Lobsang Gelek - New Gegu The term of discipline master in our monastery is for one year. The Gegu (Discipline Master) is responsible for the overall discipline of all the monks of the monastery. He is assisted by two ‘chabre’ (assistant disciplinarian). The iscipline master is elected by the monks during the prayer congregation whereasthe two assistant are appointed from the 16 khangtsens by rotation. This year, Geshe Lobsang Gelek (Hamdhong Khangtsen) has been eelected as the new Discipline master (Gegu). Saka
Dawa was observed from
May 14 to the 12th of June.
It
is
one of the most important sacred Buddhist
days in the year and is celebrated
during the entire fourth month of the Tibetan Calendar. On the full
moon day of
this month, we celebrate the three most
important events of the Buddha’s life:
his Birth, his Attaining Enlightenment,
and his death (Parinirvana) .
New Administrative StaffEach and
every Tibetan Buddhist monastery has a group of directors and an
administrative
staff who look after the welfare and finances of the monastery. Here in our monastery, the
Directors, the Tibetan
secretary and the Accountant are voted in by all the monks at a prayer
congregation. The term of their service at the office is for three
years. The newly elected administrative staff who will take charge beginning December 1, 2010 are
Projects of Drepung Gomang Monastery & Wish List'THANK
YOU' We
really thank kind donors, sponsors, well wishers for their continuous
support which has made this monastery to survive here in exile. This
monastery
solely survives on the donations, contribution and prayer offering and
every
single fund helps us a lot. We
sincerely appeal everyone to continue kind support towards this
monastery and will understand if you are unable to do so. We thank you
all once
again and will include you all in our daily prayers. Please
kindly ask receipts for every single donation or contributions. |
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| Gomang News is published 3 times a year by Drepung Gomang Administrative Office gomangoffice@yahoo.com | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||