The reasons behind our project

Our monastery life was going well.

Of course, with the hundreds of small and big problems a big family like ours can have.

But it was good.

Our Khenpos and monks were going abroad to give teachings and perform Pujas. So they were receiving donations to keep things going here.

Our kind friends were supporting us with generous offerings.

Everything was so great that we started a building project in Mustang.

To have a big prayer hall for guesting all the community around our monastery. And better accommodations for the kids, the elder monks, and our friends.

It was a great project.

Then two things happened.

The lockdown.

And the construction of the new Pokhara international airport. It is a few tens of meters from our monastic school.

About the lockdown, everybody knows.

It hit us too.

For almost two years now, we couldn’t go around giving teachings and performing pujas.

Lot of our friends got hit financially too. So they can support us less than they did before.

We started to think: what if this disaster happens again?

We have a lot of people to feed, kids who are growing and need good food.

And we are also worried about the impact that the airport will have on our lives. It will bring a lot of noise and pollution.

We cannot move everything in Mustang, where we have some land, for several reasons.

Nepal has an incredible variety of climates.

To give it in a nutshell, in the plain the climate is tropical. Pokhara has a mild climate. Mustang's is extremely cold.

Our monastery is in Upper Mustang, as you can see.

Super cold!

Kids coming from tropical Nepali regions cannot stay in Mustang during the winter.

They cannot bear it.

Mustang has no woods, so no fuel is available to heat the houses. The only available fuel locally is yak dung.

It’s too hard for our kids, most of whom are from Nepal lowland.

Very few vegetables are cultivated in Mustang. This is due both to the cold weather and the lack of water. So even when we have everybody up there during the summer, we need to send a LOT of food from Pokhara. And this costs a lot because of the transportation.