At the onset let me wish you a very merry Christmas and a very happy, peaceful and prosperous new year 2009. May the New Year bring us all the necessary conditions to render more service to the deprived children, the marginalized communities and promote world peace. May you be healthy and cheerful.
I also hope that this finds you in the best of your physical, mental and spiritual health. With your continued support and solidarity, every activity at the campus is going on extremely well and we are able to introduce more needy programs and reach out to more and more people in need with our humble endeavor.
The last few years have been exceptionally very busy years for us with many new projects being undertaken and new areas included. Being so busy, we couldn’t print the Devachan magazine not could we send you any progress information by e mail. We apologize as all our friends, supporters and well wishers would be interested to know about all what is happening here at the campus and its branches. We are re-organizing the office and new staffs have been inducted. From now on we will try to bring our news letter every year and hopefully very soon we will be printing the Devachan magazine and send you all copies of it. In the last two years I have traveling a bit too much and so feel very tired and so I need sometime for myself. In the next two days I will be leaving for my personal meditation retreat for two months at my private hermitage in the mountains. I missed my solitary for quite some time. Ofcourse I will remembering you all during my metta meditation. All the good things that has happened here at Mahabodhi, the merits must go to all of you as you are all very much part of this organization. Mahabodhi now is becoming truly a global, international, practical and a model of socially engaged Buddhist organization.
One of our major project that has been accomplished is the water project and installation of the solar water heating systems in all the wings very generously sponsored by Sister Ramona Lai of Malaysia . With availability of water, the crises have been overcome. All the children and the elderly people now are enjoying hot water during the harsh and severe cold winter months. Over 300 people are living at the campus now. We have ensured the yearly plantation of many trees and fruit trees, vegetables and flowers. The campus is slowly turning into a green oasis. With help from the German Agro Action and the Schemitz Foundation, we have introduced green houses at the campus to ensure availability of green and fresh vegetables for the children and the elderly people during the harsh winter months.
Nubra branch:
With repeated requests from the people of Nubra, we have made a head start in establishing the Nubra Branch in village Hundar. The center was formally inaugurated this year. A students of our school Miss Pasang, has donated a piece of land as a mark of gratitude to MIMC. Pasang has been educated at our school and further at Bangalore.
Jammu Branch:
Jammu is a city of Temples and spirituality and an education hub for many of our Ladakhi students pursuing their higher studies. It has also a sizeable number of government officials and families permanently settled there. While there exists not a single Buddhist Centre in the entire province of Jammu and Srinagar. There are thousands of students, servicemen and traders who belong to Ladakh and other states and also thousands of local Neo-Buddhists.
The ardent demand of setting up of a Buddhist centre at Jammu was made long back but couldn’t be materialised. We felt essential to have such a centre on a apriority basis- for the young college students and other Buddhist population to provide proper guide in the ethico-spiritual direction and to provide other welfare programmes based on the example of MIMC Devachan.It was formally inaugurated by the Governor Lt. Gen. S.K. Sinha in February, 2007.
Chandigarh branch:
Chandigarh is one of the most beautiful places in north India. Chandigarh is a well-planned and fast growing city and is a popular educational center that attracts many students from different parts of the country. Many students from Ladakh are also studying in Chandigarh. Providing a holistic education to the children, particularly the deprived, neglected and orphans from the remote and inaccessible areas of Ladakh, has been one of the priority services of MIMC. As mentioned earlier that after high school, the Mahabodhi school childrenare sent outside Ladakh for further studies and as such we cannot think of any better place than Chandigarh for their higher studies.
As of now (17) of our girl students are enrolled in different schools and colleges in Chandigarh pursuing their higher studies. All of them being girls students, accommodation in a safe, secured and congenial atmosphere is of utmost necessity and our liabilities and responsibilities stands towards their parents for their safety. At the moment they are all accommodated in a building temporarily spared by one of our well-wishers/altruist Mr. Naresh Kumar Gupta till our own hostel is constructed. We sincerely wish to build a hostel in Chandigarh for these poor children to be able to pursue their higher studies. We positively hope to purchase a piece of land for the construction of a hostel but Chandigarh being a business hub city and an educational destination for thousands of international and domestic students, real estate costs are skyrocketing and exorbitant. At the outskirts, small piece of land is affordable and we hope to find a piece of land to construct our own hostel which will be of immense benefit to hundreds of future children of both Mahabodhi and other Ladakhi students aspiring to continue their higher studies.
2550th Buddha Jayanti celebration:
The special sacred 2550th Buddha Jayanti was celebrated at the campus with great enthusiasm and by introducing a number new projects including a school/hostel for the visually impaired children. We had the great privilege of the visit of His Excellency the President of India who inaugurated these two programmes that of the Buddha Jayanti and inauguration of the school/hostel for the visually impaired children.
Floods and earthquake:
There were also unprecedented natural calamities both in Ladakh (flood) and Kashmir (earthquake). Being in the same state, it was our moral duty to extend immediate relief and re-habilitation as people lacked greater resilience to withstand calamities of such intensity/magnitude. There was colossal loss of life and property in the earthquake in Kashmir. Huge chunk of cultivated crops, trees, animals and houses were buried under heaps of stones/rubbles and mud in few villages in Leh. We did our bit to amelioration of the economic and social life of the affected people and to revamp, rehabilitate and rejuvenate their life for their survival and sustenance and able them to lead a normal life aftermath.
Education is one of our major and important projects. Our endeavor is to mould the future of these less fortunate children and prepare them for leadership in the society by providing them with a holistic education for all round development. The school and hostels are up-graded and expansion programmes are periodically undertaken to accommodate more needy children and to ensure that the disadvantaged section, which finds it difficult to get access to educational opportunities, and thus gets left out, find a place at our school/hostels. At present there are 117 girls at the girls hostel and 108 boys at the boys hostel
Jetavana Monastery:
The Monastery has been growing each year with new incumbents. At present there are 17 young novices whom are doing extremely well in the study and practice of the Buddha Dhamma and their education. We aspire that these Nuns and Monks will receive a novel and comprehensive training program. Besides study and practice of the teachings of the Buddha, they also receive a complete, modern secular education at the Mahabodhi Residential School. We also wish that later in their life after they finish their studies, they become community leaders of MIMC guiding all aspects of the work, in addition to ensuring the moral and spiritual integrity of the organization.
All of them perhaps will become proficient in Pali, Hindi, English, and Ladakhi languages so that there will be no limits to how they may serve society in the future. We hope they will be adept in meditation, steeped in moral principles, articulate in public speaking, and skillful future leaders of the community. We hope the next generation of Nuns and Monks will be confident and proficient in explaining the Buddha’s teachings in all corners of the world.
Phandeyling Nunnery:
The Nunnery fosters the young Nuns with the study and practice of the Buddha Dhamma which now is thriving at this place All the resident Nuns, many of whom are very young and small, are doing extremely well in the study and practice of the Buddha Dhamma. Besides study and practice of the teachings of the Buddha, they also receive a complete, modern secular education at the Mahabodhi Residential School. At present there are 17 Nuns at the Nunnery hailing from different villages of Ladakh as well as from Arunachal Pradesh- an eastern state of India.
This year they have been shifted to a more comfortable building in the campus located adjacent to the main administrative office. New set of bathrooms and toilettes have been constructed and the Nuns also have access to hot water through the solar water heating system. A boundary wall has also been raised all along the building for a secured and safe living. Expansion prorammes are planned as requests pour in every year for inclusion in the Nunnery and with help and support from generous people, we hope to accomplish them.
The Old Age Home:
Aside from various other activities, the home for the aged and destitute is one of our priority areas. At the moment 37 old people who are mentally and physically challenged, are residing at the home. They are all living a very peaceful and happy life at the home in a spiritually ennobling environment and spending the last part of their life mostly engaged in prayers for the well-being of all sentient beings.
Hostel for the Visually-Impaired Children:
In 2007, we took yet another pioneering step in establishing a school and hostel for the visually impaired children of this region. This project is established for the first time in Ladakh for the welfare of the blind children of this region who otherwise were left at their own mercy to cope with all eventualities for themselves.
The hostel now has 6 blind children with two teachers who themselves are blind. Both these teachers have studied and trained at the Blind Relief Association at Delhi. All the children attend their classes at the same school with other children but they have separate classroom and Braille teaching aids.
Vocational Training Programme: The aim of this new initiative of MIMC is to provide vocational training and employment avenues to the school drop-out children, psychically disadvantaged and unemployed educated youths of Ladakh. There is therefore an urgent need to revive and revitalize the arts and crafts and to make a boost to it by blending with modern sophisticated artistic knowledge and skills. At the moment the wood carving unit is producing various items and side by side a time schedule is set apart to impart training to our school children who attend regularly and with great interest.
The children of MIMC have the inherent latent talent in singing. Few children have already sung for local audio song albums and are quite popular. The Leonhard Hannelore Music section Recently we inaugurated the Zita Norberg recording studio which is sponsored by the Norberg family of Germany. It has the state of the art recording equipments and a full fledged recording studio has been set up.
1st Graduation day celebration:
28th of July, 2007 was a jubilant, euphoric and a moment of success in the history of Mahabodhi Devachan when the first graduation ceremony of our first batch of girl students was celebrated. The school’s humble beginning was with just 25 girls belonging to poor families from the most remote and deprived villages of Ladakh. The ceremony was honored by the gracious presence of the heads of the local government, Ministers of the state, honourable members of MIMC and many eminent personalities of Ladakh.
All the graduate students, shared their motives and feelings and how these students now wish to look at life with greater meaning, rather than merely focusing on tempting materialistic perspectives. Standing to their words, 7 of these students are now serving at the campus in various capacities. Some more of our senior students would be joining us in the coming year when they will be finishing their post graduation studies in various fields.
Among these girls two of them will be going to Malaysia next month for undergoing studies in hotel management, which will then help us in systematic management of our global family guest house as well as our distinguished guests and friends visiting us. The course will sharpen their skills of effective interpersonal skills of communication, learn aspects of the guest cycle, gain skills in effective handling of routine procedures, food science and hygiene and gear them to acquire skills and knowledge in accommodation operations, cost control and profitability. Two girls have already left for Delhi and other places in India to study and learn meditation and Yoga to carry forward the meditation and Yoga programmes at the campus.
Women Empowerment programme:
It is our earnest efforts to establish literacy centers in remote and deprived villages to educate the illiterate and unfortunate women who had no educational opportunities either due to economic reasons or being absorbed in their agricultural and household chores. They face extreme difficulties being illiterate and are often misguided and misled even while having to purchase groceries or dial a phone number or read a bus number. At present there are literacy centers in the villages of Gonpa, Saboo, Nurla, Sakti, Stok, Chubi and Diskthtsal, Housing Colony. On the whole 272 learners in 7 literacy centers are being benefited from this project and women learn all the basic of languages and numbers besides vocational skills. We also endeavor to provide vocational training in tailoring or knitting that would both consume their household wool products and fetch them some additional income and even stitch their family cloths thereby saving on expenses. This on the whole empowers them financially and not having to rely on their husband.
All the centres including the new one in Leh at Housing Colony which perhaps is the largest centre with 56 women students, are doing extremely well in their literacy endeavors. They shared their joyful experiences with all the visitors and every one who visits them, are really very impressed with the progress.
Conference and seminars:
Various seminars, conferences and exchange programmes were initiated. The 1st Buddhist Youth Camp was held at our campus from 21st to 24th June, 2007 wherein participants from Malaysia, Canada, Singapore and other countries participated. The International Conference on Humanistic Buddhism was organized by our BLIA Ladakh Chapter wherein many delegates and eminent personalities from various BLIA Chapters around the world and within India, had participated.
The Global Family Guest House at the campus, has been a very successful venture this year. Many seekers of truth visit and stay at this guesthouse and thereby offer them an opportunity to interact with us and other fellow guests thereby promoting a cohesive, peaceful and harmonious world. This also generated additional income for sustenance of the organization by re-deploying the proceeds for crucial projects.
With increase in the number of activities, the amount of work also increased steadily keeping us very busy all the year round and thus we could not bring out the periodic news letter nor could we write to our friends and well-wishers to keep you informed of our progress. I have therefore decided to stay back this winter and re- organize the office work as well as do my personal retreat which I missed for the last few years. We have inducted some new staff,
Ms. Lhamo the In-Charge of the Old Age Home will also be leaving for an exchange visit to an Old Age Home in Germany so as to learn and adapt in managing our old age home at the campus.
The beautiful summer has ended and the harsh winter has already set in with the temperature plumbing down to as low as -15 degree Celsius.. A new working committee has also been set up with new faces, new experiences and a more dynamic team to carry forward our mission.
All the students, staff, the old people at the home, the Nuns and the Monks, joins me to solemnly and sincerely express sincere thanks and gratitude for your continued help and support. We pray for your good health and prosperity. You are very warmly invited to visit our organization, be our special guest. We now have the Global Family Guest House to comfortably accommodate you at the campus. There are short meditation retreats and Yoga classes organized regularly at the campus. I hope your love, goodwill, and support will continue and together we will be able to render greater service to the poor, neglected and underprivileged people and promote peace, compassion, the message of non-violence, brotherhood and global family as the world now is passing through very unfortunate terrorist strikes and violence.
May you be well and happy
May the Lord grant you peace, good health, progress and prosperity.
With very kind regards.
In the service of humanity,
Bhikkhu Sanghasena.
Mahabodhi International Meditation Centre
Devachan, P.O. Box # 22, Leh - Ladakh 194101, INDIA
Ph: +91-1982-264372 Mobile: +91-9906902025, +91-9419178667
http://www.mahabodhi-ladakh.org/
