Siri and Geshi Pema Dorje

My roommate Siri  is from Norway but lives in Dharamsala these days. She is a wonderful, kind lady who not only sponsors (and mothers) 4 monks but also works with her Tibetan teacher, Geshie Pema Dorje on several of his community projects. Geshie Pema Dorje was born in Tibet close to the border with Nepal and received his Geshie degree in the Gelupa Lineage. He worked in the Tibetan Children's Village for 17 years before becoming a renowned Buddhist teacher in Europe, America and Israel. His idea was to rather than build an organization with Buddhist centers in those countries, he has inspired his close friends and students to take on and fund various projects in India and Nepal. The projects include setting up a nunnery/girls school in Aranachal Pradesh which is a very poor, remote state in the north east of India  www.tarabodong.com  This is funded by Dutch and Norwegian students. Conditions in Aranachal are very bad and money was raise to set up a small clinic that attempts to service approximately 52 villages. The funds also enable the treatment of TB and have enables 6 children to have much needed kidney, brain and spinal operations.

In the remote region of Malagiri in Nepal student funds, have built a primary school which teaches 50 children. In Ratankot, which has become a model village for sustainable and environmental friendly development, they built a community/ prayer hall, re-built the local school, re-built a bridge connecting two villages so that trade can resume, as well as install a water system. To increase the village income they have taught cheese and honey making and have had agriculture experts advice the farmers on crop diversification. In Kathmandu a home for destitute girls has opened. The girl are aged from 6 to 15, they now have secuirty and stability in their new home as well as assess to school. The latest projects of Geshie Dorjie, which is backed by American  students was the renovation of an old carpet factory in Pokhara into a community/teaching hall which provides activities for Tibetan refugee elderly and youth as well as job training for young people. Close to the community center a cheese factory is under construction and which will provide jobs for Tibetan refugees in the settlement. www.buddhistcharity.org 

Geshie Dorjie himself is undertaking the task of reviving the Budong Tibetan Buddhist lineage which was popular in his region of Tibet but has almost been lost. The head of the Bodong Lineage is a Tenzin Thotop Jigdral a young Tibetan man born in India, who lives and studies in Ngari Khamtsen, Sera Je Monastery, Bylakuppe, Mysore India, which is another Tibetan monastic settlement

Projects by Geshi Pema Dorjee, along with information on his Bodong research can be found at www.bodong.org 

                                   

Today Serie and I also met reincarnate lama, named the 11^th Lelung Rinpoche who while born in India and very informal, is also trying to revive his almost lost lineage of the Lelung sect of Tibetan Buddhism.  www.lelung.org    www.gendenphachobhucho.org