Roof Project

Over 500 Tibetan refugees  live  in the Nepal foothills of Mount Everest, in a retreat community known as Thupten Choling. Over 350 are women, they are buddhist nuns and practice meditation under the guidance of Kyabje Trulshik Rinpoche. At 84, Kyabje Trulshik Rinpoche is one of the most senior and revered Nyingmapa Masters and is often requested to offer  teachings and transmissions to His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

The nuns, or Anis live in extremely  poor conditions. They have built themselves small huts and  roofed them with planks of wood. The wood rots quickly and often moves the strong monsoon winds, making the roofs leak and the huts very damp, even when patched with shreds of plastic. In addition, most Anis do not have a stove or chimney and have to light a small fire in a corner. This fills the room with smoke, which slowly filters away through the cracks in the roof. These conditions automatically lead to health problems such as bronchitis and arthritis.

Kyabje Trulshik Rinpoche was very concerned about the difficulties the monks and nuns had to endure, and so we decided to start a project to help get them new roofs over their heads. New durable and water-tight roofs, a steel stove with chimney and, if the hut doesn't have a window, clear plastic sheeting in the roof to let light in, makes a huge difference to their lives.

It takes about €250 per hut to provide roofing material and a stove, including transportation costs. Most of the construction work is done by the monks and nuns themselves. There are no extra costs or overheads. 100% of every donation goes to the project. It makes such a difference to the nuns to have a dry, secure home. One of the older Anis, who had lived for 40 years with a leaking roof, told me her new hut was like heaven.

To date we have done over 150 huts which includes 50 new huts for Anis who didn't even have a room to stay in. Rinpoche himself has given the roofs for 150 monks and Dr Mingma Sherpa from Phaplu has offered the stoves for them. This is fantastic but still leaves about 100 Ani roofs and stoves to be done and any help who be really appreciated. Thank You

Document Available in German - Tee fur neue dacher