Educating Tibetan Bon Children and Youth

Dear Global Giving Donors,

Thank you so much for your support of our project to educate Bon children. As you may already know, these children have various backgrounds that have led them to being educated at this monastery. Some are orphans, other children are from poor families who decided the best way for their child to be educated was to send them to the monastery.

While at the monastery, the boys are referred to as monks, and the girls as nuns, but none of the children are committed to the monastic life until they are old enough to make this decision for themselves, and are not expected to become life long monks and nuns. They are expected to choose the path that is best for them when the time comes.

In our last few reports, we have shared with you their daily schedule and a few details about the structure of the school. In addition to their studies, the students get to participate in a variety of different athletic activities, both for fun and to help them bond with the other students.  

As you can see in the picture above, the male students participated in a basketball competition. Each of the four houses that the students live in put together a team for the tournament. (As we told you in the last report, the students live in four  ‘houses’ while they going to school at the monastery and the other students in these houses serve as a sort of surrogate family.) We heard that the students had a great time participating in the tournament, and cheering on their teams!

The female students weren’t left out of the athletic competitions either. They participated in a badminton tournament between the various houses. Pictures of the girls’ competition can be seen below.  

It’s great to see the students having such fun and participating in activities outside the classroom!

Again, we’d like to thank you for your support of Creating Hope International’s project supporting the education of Bon children. Your support helps the monastery to provide a high level of education to the students in its care. Thank you.

Dear Friends, 

We wanted to give you another look into the lives of the students studying at the Bon Monastery in Dolanji, India. In our last report we shared the students’ daily schedule and told you that students are placed into four ‘houses’. Each house has been named after one of the people responsible for spreading the teachings of the Tibetan Bon. The names are Dru-tsang, Zhu-tsang, Pa-tsang and Meu-tsang. These houses have various competitions throughout the year. Below you can see pictures of a costume competition that the students participated in. (We would really like to know what the student dressed as an alien used to turn themselves so blue!) 

Each one of the younger students is paired with an older student who acts as their big brother or sister. The big ‘sibling’ generally helps the younger student adapt to life at the monastery. Together the students will eat a simple and delicious breakfast of Tibetan tea, bread, jam and eggs, before the older student helps the younger student get to class. (The top picture of this e-mail shows some older ‘brothers’ walking their younger ‘brothers’ to school.) Since all of the students studying at the Monastery are living far from their families, developing this bond between older and younger students helps to foster a sense of family and togetherness among all of the students.   

The students at the monastery come from very poor homes or are orphans. The students are so thankful for the support that you give to them which allows them to attend school at this Monastery. As you can see from the pictures, the students are receiving a very high level of care while living and studying at the Bon Monastery, and your donations help to make that possible for them. Thank you so much.

Links:

• Creating Hope International's Home Page