Tibet's exiled high lama Khensur Rinpoche Lobsang Jamyang (left), abbot of Sera Mey monastery, with Costanzia
Photo: J J Jeliazkov, journalist
Before the annexation of independent Tibet by communist China in 1950, monasticism was the foundation of Buddhism in Tibet . All major monasteries in Tibet served as higher learning institutions, the equivalence to universities in the West. DREPUNG, SERA and GANDEN are regarded as the "great three" university monasteries — Tibet's premier scholastic institutions. They were all relocated into exile in India, following the 1959 mass exodus of refugees from Tibet that continues to this day.
The covid pandemic and unfolding food crisis have pushed these 3 major universities into survival mode. Tibetans are facing deteriorating conditions inside refugee settlements. Your help is needed now more than ever. If we don’t support the student monks and kind lamas in these times of crisis, their way of life might simply perish.
Your donation is sincerely appreciated because it will help protect the future of exiled monks and the Buddhist teachings from Tibet. Please visit the sites below and consider giving to each FOOD FUND over time.
Thank you for considering 🌺
Donate directly to trustworthy charities providing direct aid to the "great three" monasteries in India:
DREPUNG:
To nourish 2000 needy monks at Drepung Gomang monastery, just click the golden link above and make a secure online donation. Donations received are processed by its Dharma Centre in Louisville, Kentucky.
SERA:
To provide needed food for 4000 refugee monks at Sera Jey monastery, please click the golden link above and make a secure online donation. Donations received are processed by its Dharma Centre in New York City, NY.
To help feed 2000 monks at Sera Mey monastery, you can give via the secure donate buttons below from the NYC-based The Tibet Fund, the top Tibetan refugee charitable organisation in exile.
GANDEN:
To help feed 2000 exiled monks at Ganden Jangtse monastery, you can give to GANDEN JANGTSE FOOD FUND via the secure donate buttons below from The Tibet Fund.
Many people have asked me why I set up this fundraiser on behalf of Tibet's exiled Buddhist monks and nuns. There are no easy answers. Tibet is not free. Tibet's monastics have been targeted for violence from the time the PRC, an officially atheist state, invaded Tibet on 7 October 1950. Their living conditions have been deteriorated further after the 1959 escape of the Dalai Lama — Tibet's head of state and spiritual leader — to India seeking political asylum. Since that fateful time, monks and nuns have had to endure inconceivable indignities inside communist detention centres, again and again brutally tortured and imprisonned for years and even decades. By the late 1970s, 1.2 million Tibetans had died as a result of cultural annihilation and political persecution. Here's refworld.
The stories of these refugees — orphans and children, adults, families, kind lamas, monks and nuns — are heartbreaking. These are naturally gentle, deeply spiritual nomadic people who have fled occupied Tibet and been wholly displaced. They reached exile in India, some settled in Nepal and Bhutan, having crossed the Himalayan mountains on foot — not by plane or train. For years, thousands upon thousands met death on the way to freedom.
From the 1959 mass exodus from Tibet to this day, it's a miracle that stateless Tibetans in India have survived insurmountable odds, even manage to preserve much of their unique 1300 year-old Buddhist culture from Tibet. These refugee monks and nuns have taught us compassion and tolerance for all living beings — even for those who oppress them in their fatherland. In these times of crisis, we cannot simply leave them alone to fend for themselves. Their world is under siege. They need help.
Coronavirus has brought the informal economy inside Tibetan refugee settlements — with the philanthropists and pilgrims — to a stand still. Self-reliant Tibetans are at risk of losing their livelihoods due to the economic fallout post-covid. With a rapid increase in food prices post-pandemic, Tibet's "great three" monasteries (DREPUNG, SERA and GANDEN in India) really need our help.
Governments alone cannot win this war. That's why we endeavour to keep this fundraiser ongoing for some time.
Please consider helping the monks in need, in any way possible. By donating to each FOOD FUND above, on a continuous basis, we can ensure that thousands of monks can sustain themselves in these times of crisis.
Thank you for considering 🌺
Costanzia Tran PGDip MBA MSc
Written: Saka Dawa (May) 2021