New Potable Water System Installed
at Amarbayasgalant Monastery
Greetings to all members and friends
of Gaden Relief's Mongolia Project,
Wonderful
news! Through everyone's vision, faith, generosity and effort,
the illustrious Amarbayasgalant Monastery, one of Mongolia's
most important centers of Vajrayana Buddhist Thought and
Practice, now has a system delivering potable water. Gerlee,
our devoted friend and contact in the Amar Mur office in
Ulaan Bataar informed us that a South Korean firm finished
the drilling work by June 30th. The dream has been realized.
The Amarbayasgalant community is very happy and appreciative
of everyone's work and generosity. There are already plans
to build a green house and garden and the water will bring
a good measure of hygiene for the monks. Amazingly, it took
only six months to raise $20,000 for this project. The Mongolia
project would like to thank everyone for their participation
and giving. In particular, we'd like to thank: the Very
Venerable Zasep Rinpoche for his spiritual direction, Gerlee
and the Amar Mur center for their organization, some of
our anonymous members who offered large donations and the
spiritual community of Ven. Zasep Rinpoche's center in Moscow,
Idaho, the Golden Blue Lotus Tara Center for raising a significant
amount through their fundraising efforts. Have a look at
the photos of the well-work and contractual agreements.
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| Monks blessing the well
site. |
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| Water pouring out of pipe. |
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Ven. Zasep Rinpoche and a number of
his students will be visiting Mongolia and Amarbayasgalant
monastery this August 2004. Rinpoche wants to consult with
everyone there as to see in what direction to take the Mongolia
Project - there will be a local community needs-assessment
with emphasis on primary health care and education in particular,
similar to Gaden Relief's efforts in Tibet. Already, two
of Rinpoche's students accompanying him on the trip, with
help from Rinpoche's Australian Sangha, have collected clothes,
toothbrushes and sunglasses for the monks at Amarbayasgalant.
One idea of Rinpoche's is to raise money
to help renovate Amarbayasgalant's sister monastery in the
desert south of UB. The young abbot of Amarbayasgalant,
Ven. Zava Damdin Rinpoche heads another institution as well,
a small monastery in the town of Delgertsogt, north of Mandalgovi,
in the Gobi. Traditionally the seat of the Damdin Rinpoches
of Mongolia, this monastery was
destroyed during the
Stalinist years and is in need of repair.
The local lay community, while indeed devoted and doing
their best to restore the building, is nevertheless quite
poor owing to their nomadic lifestyle and cannot afford
to do too much. Rinpoche has mentioned that there could
be a role for the Mongolia Project here, either raising
money for electricity or a water system for the monastery.
Presently we'll have to wait for his word. We will get a
better idea of Rinpoche's plans when the group returns to
Canada at the end of August. Relevant information will be
posted on this website. In the meantime, best wishes to
all.
Yours in the Dharma,
Matthew Richards
Mongolia Project Coordinator
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| Well house under construction. |
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For more information on the new well,
please see the project preliminary
report.
Return to Mongolia
Project Home Page
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