JANGCHHUB
CHOLING MONASTERY
Jangchhub Choling is
a small, Buddhist monastery (gompa) at an altitude of 1800 m. in the village
Bhuriakhop in the mountains in Sikkim, Northern India. The small monastery was built in 1973 by a local monk who is still looking after the monastery
together with his family.
In January 2005 a
monastic school has been established here: around 14 boys in the age varying
from 9 till 16 years study to be a monk.
All live in the hostel under the gompa (temple) and all come from
very deserving families.
Jangchhub Choling
wants to offer long term monastic education. First of all the monks have to
learn the Tibetan language to be able to read the prayers and texts. They also
have to learn to recite many different prayers by heart and they are taught the
different rituals and ceremonies. In the future the monks will be instructed in
the different meditation practices common to Buddhism. Jangchhub Choling follows
the Nyingma tradition, the eldest of the 4 different schools of Tibetan
Buddhism.
Jangchhub Choling Monastery functions as a place for learning
and practice for the residing monks as well as a place of prayer and worship for
the local community.
Wongchuk Dorjee
the monk who started this very meaningful project was born in 1973. He is the eldest
son of the monk who started to build the gompa (in the Nyingma tradition monks
can get married and have a family). Wongchuk Dorjee has been a monk since he was
14 years old. He had monastic education for 13 years in a well known monastery
in Gangtok (Sikkim). After that he spent all together 5 years in retreat. With
all his experience and loving care the monks are in very good hands and have a
beautiful opportunity to grow in the Dharma.
New and old accommodation
Till recently the overall accommodation was old and showed a lot of
deterioration. With foreign support several improvements could come about! The
gompa itself was in decay and is newly painted inside and outside and the
structure has been renovated and made stronger.
Under this gompa is a space which serves as hostel and classroom at the same
time. Formerly it was a dark and damp space but recently the walls are renewed,
bigger windows are placed and the room is a much more pleasant living space for
the monks. The boys themselves are cooking on wood fire. A new and bigger
kitchen recently has been constructed to replace the old kitchen made of bamboo,
as well as some new outside toilets.
Recently the building of new accommodation has started. The house will
accommodate several small meditation rooms for the monks to enable them to do
their own meditation retreat in the future. Wongchuk will live in the house and
there will be some rooms available for foreigners to come and do their personal
Buddhist retreat. Right now we do not have sufficient financial funding yet…..
Who wants to help?
