We are a Mustanghi Monastery, but, due to the School, we have another building in Pokhara (the one so close to the new airport).
We have both Mutanghi kids and kids from other ethnic groups: Tamang and Gurung.
Many of them are not used to extreme cold Winter in Upper Mustang.
To give you a rough idea, the average Winter temperature in Upper Mustang is between -20° and -25° C ( -4° to -13° F ) during the nighttime. And between 0° and 5° (32° and 41° F) during the day.
Plus, you have to think that in Mustang there is no way to have a heating system.
Traditionally the cooking fuel was, and still is, yak's dung.
There is no coal in Mustang.
No woods.
Just yak's dung.
Solar panels are too expensive for running a heating system, and in the winter it snows a lot. We have a small one for a little electricity, but often it doesn't work because it is covered by snow.
If you want a gas cylinder for cooking you have to bring it all the way from Pokhara. Through roads which are not good at all. In good conditions, means with no landslides and so, it's a 12 hours trip from Pokhara to our Monastery.
So it costs a lot!
Just there is no way of heating our buildings in Winter.
The only solution is: the area near Pokhara.
The land we want to buy to move the Pokhara situation has to be in this area for two reasons:
1) to guest the kids in the cold seasons
2) to grow crops to feed our people both in Mustang and in Pokhara.
If you ask yourself what happens to the Pokhara building and the ancient Sun Cave Monastery when the kids are not there, the answer is: one or two of us stay and take care of them, otherwise, empty buildings. That's why we have Mustanghi Mastiffs! For safety reasons.
