For many years before this winter residential monastic school was built, all the young and elderly monks of the monastic community had to resettle every winter at a flat on rent in Kathmandu so as to escape the extremely cold climate in Upper Mustang. Of course we had great struggle accommodating all the monks at a small place and it had always been very costly to rent the place for about a hundred monks in Kathmandu.
Unable to bear seeing the extreme difficulty our monks were facing, our former abbot the Late Khen Rinpoche Jampa Tashi Tenzin tirelessly raised fund to buy a plot of land near Boudha and to build a winter residential school for the monks. Rinpoche travelled abroad to Japan, Taiwan and the United States to request for donation from the devotees.
With the construction of this monastic school building in 2004, the elderly monks and the monk students of the monastic family have been able to resettle very well in a spacious environment every winter. The monastic school building is perfectly located near Boudhanath stupa for these monks in pursuit of spiritual advancement. There had been significant increase in the number of young monks studying at the monastic school and to solve the accommodation problem, our present abbot Khen Rinpoche Kunga Tenzin travelled abroad to raise fund to build an upper floor. We had sufficient monk quarters to accommodate the more than hundred young monks.
But the massive earthquake of 2015 badly damaged the school building and we had to completely retrofit the whole building so as to continue giving education to these young monks in a safe environment. The retrofitting project required the removal of the top floor so as to have a very strong building safe for a large number of residents. As a result, we have a reduced number of rooms even though the number of young monks is constantly increasing. Every room is used as classroom cum bedroom due to limited number of rooms. We need to accommodate the growing number of young monks studying at the monastic school and facilitate classrooms and bedrooms separately to strengthen the teaching and learning activities.
With the kind understanding and guidance of our root guru His Holiness the Sakya Trichen, Sakya Earthquake Relief Team generously donated fund to buy the plot of land (10 anna approx.) adjacent to the existing school building.
It will cost approximately Rupees 3 crores to build one storey building at the newly acquired plot of land and thus increase the number of rooms for the monks. The monastic community request for your kind and generous support to contribute funds to build few rooms at the adjoining plot of land. Thank you!