Liberation 2015 in the Himalaya Region
At long last, the yearly liberation that you have been waiting for! This time we are doing it in a different place and therefore took a longer time to coordinate. Here are the details:-
1) Venue:
In the nomad region of Chantang near the border of Himalaya and Tibet.
2) Animals to be liberated:
A mixture of goats and sheep
3) Date:
We target to do this between 20th May to 20th June. The exact date being uncertain as that depends very much on the weather and road condition when the monks depart from Leh. It may take them one or two days if everything is smooth. However if there is rain or landslide or snow, the road might take days to clear before they can move on.
However we try to do this during the Sagadawa period where merits will multiply by 100,000 times to give all donors the maximum benefit.
4) Who will be conducting the ceremony:
Four lamas (one of them is very experienced in doing this kind of liberation and he knows the nomads well) will travel by car to the border area.
5) How is this done:
We will purchase the goat/sheep from the nomads, but after the ceremony the same nomads are responsible to take care of the goat/sheep by sending them for the daily grazing until the animals' end of life.
The monks will mark these animals bought during the ceremony and give them blessing. People in that region are well aware of the meaning of the marks and they will not sell, steal nor eat the animals, as this will create extremely bad karma for them.
6) How can you see the ceremony:
I have requested our main coordinator Dr. (Geshe) Ngawang Yeshi to send someone who will handle the camera to capture the ceremony for us to see.
7) How shall you put the name(s) of the donors:
Since we have limited number of animals to be liberated, we urge you not to book several animals under one name. We try to let more people to participate to share this merit.
Please give us Romanised names (no Chinese characters please) because we need to translate into phonetic sound in Tibetan to facilitate the lamas to read it out loud.
We do not have placards as we have done in Sri Lanks before as it is meaningless to spend a lot of time to construct the pents and catch the animals to put them inside and after the ceremony the animal will join the rest of the herd that belongs to the same owner. There will not be an change of owner in this case.
8) Cost per goat/sheep:
S$180/- .
This is inclusive of:- (A) all the travel expenditures:- transportation, lodging and meals for the 4 monks, (B) the offering items and materials required for the ceremony and (C) the dana to the monks who take time off to perform this ceremony for us.
9) Number of animals to be liberated:
40 goats and sheep.
We will not be increasing the number as this is our first partnership with the monks and we do not want to over stretch them with the logistics which they may not be able to manage.
10) Closing date:
15th May 2015.
We need to close the accounts by this day and collect all the money to be sent over to Ladakh in time for their departure for the nomad region.
Please contact Rita at 96731648 should you need clarification on this. Thank you for your continual support and may this meritorious deed brings much happiness and good health to help you in your practice of dharma in the future.
