Events
| 1-08-08 |
HWB Chinese website is available. Please go to www.hwbww.org |
|
12-30-07 |
DCA volunteers offered a lama jacket manufactured by DCA to HH Karmapa in India.
HH Karmapa kindly bestowed upon DCA photos of HH wearing the jacket.( See"
photos") |
| 12-02-07 |
Our sincere gratitude went to Mr. Tony Duh, the owner of
Fine Accessories Plus Inc., who donated 3,600 sunglasses for the patients with
cataracts. |
| 11-30-07 |
HWB donated 311 sets of Tibetan style heating stove, total value of 103,485
RMB, to 20 schools in Tsun-dor County of Qin-Hi province. The local winter
temperature can be as low as minus 17 degree Celsius. The stoves are the only
heating system for the children in schools.This project benefit 5,847 childen. |
| 10-3-07 |
1. DCA volunteers accepted and
recorded the materials donated by The Red Cross Society of China at “YuShu
Thrungu Monastery material distributing center”. The materials including 200
boxes of medicines, 30,000 books and 25,000 winter clothing were estimated
$550,000 RMB.
2. The volunteers from DCA and Lamas
from ‘Thrungu Monastery material distributing center’ distributed 1,670 winter
coats to 835 people in 255 families at Kor-Lor village where it is 15 minute
drive away from Jai-Ku Town. |
| 10-2-07 |
406 winter coats were distributed at
QinHai Genchin County and 15 local families were evaluated for further
assistance. |
| 9-8-07 |
1) We have delivered the 500 sleeping bags as
described in the last DCA project update, as well as 183 winter jackets to
Mingyur Rinpoche’s monastery and 171 winter jackets to Sichuan Monastic School.
2) We would like to give our special thanks
to Mr. Shang Luhsang, who is in charge of the clothing manufacturer in Canton
that produced the winter jackets this year, for the generous sponsorship of
3,000 new, high-quality winter jackets. These winter jackets have been
delivered to DCA. In July, with the help of Lodro Nyima Rinpoche of Thrangu
Monastery, HWB will be distributing the coats to the poor.
3) In October of this year, HWB will join
efforts with China Red Cross in Sichuan to perform 200 cataract operations. The
cost for each cataract operation will be $450. We are currently accepting
donations for this project, and we welcome your support.
4) Beijing Red Cross will donate 30,000 –
50,000 books and 3,000 middle school uniforms. These items will be distributed
by HWB.
5) At the end of this year, HWB will
establish its first eye clinic in Qinghai. In September, Thrangu Monastery will
send two monks to Beijing to enroll in a three-month eye care specialist
training program. Upon completion of the training, they will provide initial
eye examination for local residents.
6) The construction of the new Qinghai
Thrangu Nunnery began this April (please go to www.dondenchojin.org and click
“photos”). The projected completion date for the nunnery will be August of
2008. Currently the shrine room is in need of sponsorship for the following
statues:
a) 1 - Thousand-armed Chenrezik @ $24,000.
b) 35 - Buddhas @ $300 each.
c) 21 - Taras @ $300 each.
d) 1200 – Amitabhas @ $15 each.
7) There has been a delay in launching the
new HWB website
www.hwbww.org and email address
e-mail@hwbww.org. We appreciate your patience.
8) In July, DCA volunteers delivered$ 5,000 ,
and HWB volunteers 70,000 RMB, to Qinghai Thrangu Monastery to support the
construction of the nunnery and the establishment of the eye clinic. |
| 7-16-07 |
The following is a list of goals accomplished
in the first half of 2007, as well as continuing projects:
1) We have officially established the
not-for-profit organization Help Without Borders, Inc. (HWB) in the United
States. Volunteers in Bei Jing have also established a not-for-profit HWB
chapter in China as well. We hope to be able to launch the new HWB website
www.hwbww.org and email address
e-mail@hwbww.org by mid-August of this year.
HWB is affiliated with DCA. Both H.H. the
Gyalwang Karmapa and the Venerable Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche are aware of the
charitable activities of these organizations and the scope of their ongoing
projects. Our focus is to promote the development of education, environmental
stewardship, and medical assistance. We hope to gradually establish HWB
throughout the world as a way to directly participate in H.H. the Gyalwang
Karmapa’s wish to “extend our love and care to the whole world.”
2) We would like to thank KTD Publications
for including the Bardo Package resource information in the recently published
Bardo: Interval of Possibility by Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche. Since the
publication of this book, we have received requests for Bardo Packages from
countries as varied as Germany, France, Brazil, and China. We hope to continue
to extend the benefits of the Bardo Package to Europe, Taiwan, and everywhere
throughout the world.
3) DCA and a publisher in Taiwan will be
collaborating in producing Chinese editions of Bardo: Interval of Possibility
and Karma Chakme’s Mountain Dharma, the original English editions of
which have been produced by KTD Publications. Depending on the availability of
translators, we hope to be able to translate more of Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche’s
teachings into Chinese.
4) DCA will be sending a total of 500
sleeping bags to the following institutions:
200 sleeping bags – Bardor Tulku
Rinpoche’s Raktrul Monastery in Tibet
140 sleeping bags – Mingyur Rinpoche’s
Monastery in Tibet
160 sleeping bags – Si-Chun Monastic
School
5) DCA will be sending a total of 320 winter
jackets to the following institutions:
140 winter jackets – Mingyur Rinpoche’s
Monastery in Tibet
160 winter jackets – Si-Chun Monastic
School
20 winter jackets – Karme Ling
Three-Year Retreat Center (for the retreatants who
will be coming out of the fourth retreat in February 2008.)
6) We have received a donation of 200
children’s winter jackets. We plan to distribute these jackets in July of 2007
when our volunteer visits Tibet at that time. |
| 4-4-07 |
This the receipt from Sherop Ling.
 |
| 2-25-07 |
Because of your generosity, we were able to
accomplish the following projects in 2006:
1) Under the
direct guidance of the Venerable Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche, we completed the
precious Bardo Package to assist practitioners, friends, and family
during the difficult time of death.
2) Delivered
420 winter jackets to Tsurphu Monastery, the traditional seat of His Holiness
the Gyalwa Karmapa in Tibet.
3) Delivered
275 sleeping bags to Thrangu Tashi Chöling Monastery in Chinghai, eastern Tibet.
4) Raised $1750
towards 250 winter jackets for young novice monks of Tai Situ Rinpoche’s Sherab
Ling Monastery in the Himachal Pradesh, India.
5) Raised
$10,000 towards computers and equipment for the new school at Thrangu Tashi
Chöling Monastery in Tibet.
6) Volunteers
visited China to start fundraising projects and launched a new project of
special interest, Help Without Borders, in the United States and China.
7) At the end
of December, volunteers attended the Kagyü Mönlam Chenmo in Bodh Gaya, India.
We presented H.H. Karmapa with three winter jackets, the Bardo Package
and information regarding the Help Without Borders project.
We have very good news!! Beginning 2007, Lotus
Peace, Ltd. will be sponsoring all the sleeping bags for the poor, as well as
donating their leftover stock of fleece jackets. We would like to give special
thanks to Lotus Peace, Ltd. for their continuous efforts to help those who are
in need of these winter items.
In 2007, Dönden Chöjin Association
will actively launch the Help Without Borders project in China and the
United States. Our plans are as follows:
1) We plan to
establish an HWB medical team by recruiting doctors who will volunteer
their time and medical expertise. We currently have one doctor and a small
donation of medical equipment and supplies for this project. Our goal for this
year is to at least have the medical team make one trip to the impoverished
regions of Tibet where assistance is desperately needed.
2) HWB
will combine efforts with Dr. Zi Long Ye’s Re-light project to
perform surgeries for cataract candidates in the regions of Tibet and Hebei. In
the past two years, Dr. Ye has performed 400 cataract operations for the
poor in three of the affiliated hospitals. There are approximately five million
people suffering from preventable blindness in China; of that number, 27% can
not afford such medical care.
3) Establish
health clinics or mobile health clinics in impoverished regions with
few or no medical treatment facilities.
4) In Chinese
and Tibetan villages, many of the major causes of health problems are due to
unsanitary conditions. We plan to install
“methane” system to provide hot water for these cold regions to help
maintain basic sanitary health requirements.
5) Build a
nunnery at Thrangu Monastery for several hundred nuns who have completed
their three-year retreat but currently have no place to reside.
6) Sponsor
monastic winter jackets for monks and nuns.
7) Publish a
Chinese translation of the new book from KTD Publications: Bardo: Interval
of Possibility: Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche’s Commentary on Aspiration for the
Bardo by Chökyi Wangchuk. This exceptionally concise and direct
teaching can clarify and deepen our understanding of the different stages of the
bardo experience, and in particular provide a powerful means of inspiration for
making this life meaningful through practice. By integrating this teaching with
the Bardo Package, we can take great steps to prepare ourselves and other
beings for the time of death and the interval state, and bring about great
benefit in doing so. |
| 10-28-06 |
Dönden Chöjin will be sending 420 winter
jackets to Tsurphu Monastery, the traditional seat of His Holiness the Gyalwa
Karmapa inTibet. We will also be sending 275 sleeping bags to Thrangu Tashi
Chöling Monastery in eastern Tibet.
Around the end of December, volunteers will be
attending the Kagyü Monlam in Bodh Gaya, India. During that time, money raised
towards 170 winter jackets for young novice monks of Tai Situ Rinpoche’s Sherab
Ling Monastery will be distributed at the event.
|
| 9-17-06 |
Volunteers visited China to start fundraising projects there. The response was
very positive and we now have new volunteers in China assisting with the
effort. Due to the positive response we will be launching a new project, “Help
Without Borders,” in the United States and China. To learn more about this
project in detail, visit our website at
www.dondenchojin.org, look under Physical Generosity, then go to the link
for “Help Without Borders”. Please download the information and spread the word
to as many as possible. We welcome and encourage more people to join us so that
we can continue to expand and benefit even more sentient beings. |
| 8-11-06 |
With the help of many generous contributors, Dönden Chöjin was able to
successfully raise $10,000 for computers and equipment for the new school at
Thrangu Tashi Chöling Monastery in Tibet. |
| 7-1-06 |
We would like to take this opportunity to give you an update on
some of the projects currently in process.
I. Donden Chojin is working with Lodro Nyima Rinpoche on several Thrangu
Monastery initiatives.
1) Building new schools
2) Building nursing homes
3) Building Tibetan hospitals and training new Tibetan
doctors
4) Building an Ani retreat house or monastery for the
nuns.
Donden Chojin's first fundraising effort will be directed at establishing
much-needed schools in the
Thrangu Monastery region. The president of Donden Chojin will travel to China in
September of 2006 and present the above initiatives to several collaborative
prospects in order to raise funds.
II. Another project currently underway is providing winter jackets for 170 young
monks at His Eminence
Tai Situ Rinpoche's monastery at Sherab Ling in northern India.
III. We are working to provide 200-300 sleeping bags for Thrangu Monastery monks
and winter jackets for impoverished Tibetans in need of warm clothing. We have
secured a sponsor who will provide the
material necessary to manufacture jackets specifically for this project--but we
still need to raise money to cover labor and shipping costs.
We need your support in order to bring these projects to fruition. By
participating in these virtuous and meritorious activities, you are helping to
preserve an endangered culture and build a more promising future for a people
desperately in need. We gratefully invite your support in contributing to any of
these efforts.
|
I wish to support:
Thrangu Monastery Project:
Building Schools $__________
Building Nursing Homes $_______
Building
Tibetan Hospitals $_______
Building Ani Retreat House or Monastery $________
Training New Tibetan
Doctors $____________
Winter Jackets for 170 Young Monks at Sherab Ling $________
Sleeping
Bags for Monks of Thrangu Monastery $________
Winter Jackets for Poor
Tibetan People $_______ Please make check payable to:
Donden Chojin Association
P.O. Box 521830
Flushing, NY 11352
First Name: ___________________ Last Name: ____________________
Address:
______________________________ City: _________________
State: _________
Zip Code: _________
Telephone: ____________________ Email Address: _________________
Do you want a receipt: Yes / No If you have any questions
or suggestions, please call 516-626-9285 (Chinese) or 917-880-8315
(English). |
|
| 9-8-05 |
At 6:00am on 9/8, we departed from Jye-Gu for Shi-Ning for Shi-Ning. The two
brothers, Tyen-Bah and Jih-Mei, took turns driving, and we arrived at Shi-Ning
at 8:30pm. The next day, I changed flights to Hun-Chew and Taiwan, with the main
purpose to find silks and proper printing papers for “Bardo Blanket“. Blankets
for the Dying are usually strewn around and piled over the cremation sites
mainly because that they are made of Nylon which can not be cremated along with
corpses, and that few people understand how precious Blankets for the Dying
meant to the decedents. Hence we are considering silk or paper, which is more
pricy than nylon, as material to avoid the disrespectful disposals of the
blankets.
I returned to NY in late September with the missions of this trip successfully
completed. The winter coats were delivered without trouble; the containers small
and large needed in Care for the Dying were ordered; the final decision on the
material for the Blankets for the Dying is to be made by Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche.
After receiving the price quote for the minimum order from the printing factory,
we’ll be left with one thing to do: to raise the money. I received many phone
calls from Buddhist practicers requesting the finished date of the Care for the
Dying Package. We are as eager as everyone to complete the projects, but the
tasks and chores involved are more than a few. Since Donden Chojin Association
was just established, not many people know about our society. We need
everybody’s hearty supports. If you read my report and feel that we are doing
something meaningful and beneficial to human kind, please tell people around you
about our society. If one person tells ten people about our organization, our
capability in doing good will burgeon and grow strong quickly, and we’ll be able
to reach our goals vastly sooner. Thanks. |
| 9-7-05 |
On 9/7, Rinpoche asked an electrician to check and plan to redo the electrical
wires in the old main shrine in Thrangu monastery. The wires in the old shrine
were fatigued by old age, and might risk a fire if not properly checked and
rewired. While in Thrangu monastery, I also came to visit Chia-Lieh Rinpoche’s
house which was in renovation and the retreat rooms of Wen-Cheng Princess Temple
which were in construction. The temple was crowded with tourists. Rinpoche said
he welcomed the Buddhist practicers who were interested in short-term exclusion
to utilize the rooms after the completion of the construction at the end of the
year.
During the trip to Jye-Gu, I observed the fact that the workers on the
construction sites for heavy labors like mixing cement were all females. After
several days of being with Laka, I realized that, probably attributing to
child-bearing at early age, the poor sanitation, lack of proper medical
facilities and daily heavy workloads, most Tibetan women carried various
illness, with gynecological diseases most prevalent. The above fact emphasizes
the urgency of the aforementioned Thrangu monastery’s project to build clinics
and to train medics. However, serious illness shall be treated in Shi-Ning.
After the visit to Wen-Cheng Temple, Rinpoche was asked by the herdsmen to bless
their pastoral area. Every year in early September, the herdsmen bring their
herds from high plateau back to their own pastoral areas. I was luck to go with
Rinpoche to the pasture and was treated with fresh milk and home-made sour milk
while visiting their tents. Fifteen minutes drive from Wen-Cheng Princess
Temple, we saw a hot spring on which Rinpoche wished to build a tourist
attraction, in hope to improve the herdsmen’s income. During the “Pictures of
Activities”, the hot spring is located right behind where Rinpoche stands.
Pictures of two flat areas, taken from a higher point by me, can also be viewed
in the same section. Rinpoche said these two flat areas were ideal sites for
building schools with the advantages of being flat, near the pastoral areas and
easy transportation. Once built, the schools will greatly benefit the herdsmen’s
children when the herdsmen return to their pastoral areas in autumns and
winters.
In the evening, we sat for two hours on the top of the plateau. It’s cliché to
describe the experience as time standing still; however, it’s rather true.
Chakme Rinpoche depicted in “Chakme in Mountain Dharma” his retreat in serenity
as a relaxing experience of Buddhism practice, during which he only chanted
mantras whenever the thought came to him. We all knew Chakme Rinpoche was being
modest in describing his practice as loosening, but at the moment when sitting
quietly on the top of the plateau, I genuinely felt the ultimate contentment of
not doing anything. It was reminiscent to what Yonge Mingyur Rinpoche teaches in
“The non- meditation meditation”, the natural mind is just like that. At that
moment, I thought to myself: why not return home, while grasping this new-found
understanding, to practice the Buddhist rules accordingly. |
| 9-5-05 |
In the morning on 9/5, Tyen-Bah, Rinpoche’s younger brother, drove me to
Kah-Lah-Rong Temple in Nung-Cheng to deliver 100 winter coats. The temple was
burned down by a fire, and the makeshift was very shabby, with nothing in it
except a Tanka of chenezig. The hardships the Tibetan nuns have long faced in
their lives were even more evident here. Being a female as well, I felt deep
empathy for them. I now quite understood the urgency and passion Lodro Niyma
Rinpoche carried in planning to build a center for those nuns who have nowhere
to go after completing periods of retreat in meditation. Because of jetlag and
poor acclimatization, my stay in Kah-Lah_Rong monastery was short. Right after
distributing the coats to the nuns, we went back to Jye-Gu. The round trip took
six and a half hours. The sceneries along the road was magnificent, with
snow-capped mountains rising up to five thousand meters high. Although it’s
September, the temperature differences between day and night were mild, and it
felt comfortable.
Since there’s no planned itinerary on 9/6, I went to town to shop for Khenpo
Karthar Rinpoche the brocade for Tanka. In the afternoon, Laka, Tyen-Bah’s wife,
accompanied me to the public bathhouse in town which charged 5 RMB for a bath
including blow-dry. Like many stores in town, this tidy bathhouse, divided into
7 or 8 small bathrooms with shower facility, was operated by local temples like
Jye-Gu monastery. I was more prepared and used to the local ways of bathing and
lavatories in this second trip to Jye-Gu. And I congratulated myself for this
new adaptation.
|
| 9-4-05 |
On 9/4, Rinpoche arranged a truck to deliver the winter coats to Thrangu
monastery at noon. Most of the Lamas went to fields to harvest highland barley
at this time of the year. The remaining junior Lamas, no more than 50, excitedly
wore the new coats for the picture-taking. (Those pictures can be viewed in the
“Photos” section on this website.) On the way to Thrangu monastery, Rinpoche
pointed out a piece of donated land of 30 acres at the foot of the mountain
along the riverbank. Thrangu monastery plans to build nursing homes, retreat
centers, schools and clinics on the land, and has accordingly started the
process of training Tibetan medics for the new clinics. The completion of the
project will greatly benefit the local monks, nuns, and the poor senior citizens
without families in terms of boarding and lodging. It’ll also help put children
in schools and mitigate the dire need of medicine.
In the afternoon of the same day, I visited the construction sites of Thrangu
monastery’s Buddhist College and stores in Jye-Gu, which were scheduled to be
finished at the end of the year. The first floor of the college building will
have six rooms with lavatories, to accommodate twelve volunteer teachers at
maximum. I met, in Rinpoche’s home, a young Canadian, Daniel Green, who just
freshly graduated from college and arrived at Thrangu monastery on 9/7 as the
first volunteer teacher sent by the program “School Without Boarder.” He was to
teach here for three months. His courage to travel to a place of extreme
outlandish culture, climate, language and customs, and his altruism in devoting
time and money for the trip and teaching materials, all moved me deeply. Another
girl from Australia I met at the same day, also in Rinpoche’s house, put me in
shame by her tenacity and enthusiasm for practicing Buddhism. She came to Nung-Cheng
every year without exception for a short term of retreat in meditation. |
| 9-4-05 |
In the morning on 9/4, I checked and accepted the530 winter coats made and
delivered by Chang-Sha garment factory in Hunan. These winter coats were to
distribute to 530 monks and nuns in Thrangu monastery, Lama Nola’s Kah-Lah-Rong
monastery in Nung-Cheng, Bah-Duo Rinpoche’s Ancestral monastery in
Ken-Chang-Bah-Cheng -Ling, and to those in retreat in Wen-Cheng Princess Temple.
I delivered in person the winter coats to all the above monasteries except
Ken-Chang-Bah-Cheng. A two and a half hours drive and another two and a half
hours horse-riding were needed to reach Ken-Chang-Bah-Cheng. Since I never had
any horse riding experience and that Rinpoche said those horses were somehow
recalcitrant, the director of Ken-Chang-Bah-Cheng, Tashi-Duo-Jye drove to
Rinpoche’s home at 11:30 to accept the 152 winter coats. |
| 8-30-05 |
I departed from NY on 8/30, arrived in Peking the next day, and flew from there
to Shi-Ning on 9/1. I stayed in Shi-Ning for one day and took a ride from Lodro
Niyma Rinpoche to Yu-Shu village in Jye-Gu town on 9/3. The whole trip from Shi-Ning
to Jye-Gu, total 800 plus kilometers, took us fourteen and a half hours, with
more than two hundred kilometers of the road being extremely bumpy. We started
off for the long trip at dawn around 6:00, arrived at Jye-Gu at 8:30 evening the
same day, and stayed in Rinpoche’s home for the night. I sincerely offered my
deepest appreciation to Rinpoche for his hospitality in arranging lodging and
transportations during my stay in Qing-Hi until 9/9. I also give special thanks
to Rinpoche’s families for their loving cares and help. |
|
