Varada Effort: June 2015

Wednesday, June 17, 2015

A Special Thanks to All Who Helped to Make this Event A Success

Since I have mentioned that all the monks who have helped in the liberation did not accept any of our offering, we have decided to treat not only them but the entire Spituk monastery (the branch in Saboo) to a dinner they well deserved.

At the same time we also made an offering to the 30 monks there to partake in this great joy for all.

These are some of the photos that were sent to us by Geshe Ngawang Yeshi. They were performing the kunrik puja prior to the dinner. Undoubtedly all the donors are blessed one more time!

THE LONG LIFE PUJA FOR HHDL'S 80th BIRTHDAY

On 24th May 2015 before the VE liberation 2015 took place, the Spituk Monastery in Ladakh was going to conduct a long life puja for High Holiness the Dalai Lama for his coming 80th birthday. Varada Effort have originally plan to set aside an amount to do long life puja for all the donors and our beloved guru as we have done two years ago.

Since this opportunity arise, Geshe Ngawang Yeshi was suggesting that we could sponsor some of the costs in the puja rather than to "book" a puja from our part. We of course happily agreed and we made an offering to all the monks and layperson who took part in the chanting for the day and also we provided tea and bread for their break.

The photos took some time to arrive due to their wifi problem and it is not easy to download pictures when the connection has been intermittent.

But at long last! It did arrived and must say the place is really magnificent and the sight of the prayer flags in the opening is simply breath taking.

It is a set of pictures worth waiting for. Hope we can have the good fortune to visit the monastery one day.

Thursday, June 11, 2015

More Pictures of the liberation

Did we chose the lucky ones?

Hopefully these children will grow up fully appreciate the meaning of giving life

These will be my contribution

Another household counting their contribution

Must say they are a well behaved lot

The entire 103 herd

The valley where they graze

We are under the blue sky on the other side of Himalaya

Looks like the job is done

Heading home

Their lives have been saved but not left alone to survive. They are still being taken care of by the nomads for life

We are very grateful for all these wonderful pictures taken by Geshe Ngawang Yeshi that gives us a good idea of what went on even we were not there to take part in the whole even. Hopefully next year we can be there.

Our Liberation was a big success! 103 animals freed!

It was a long journey headed by Geshe (Dr.) Ngawang Yeshi. The 5 monks left Leh early in the morning of 28th May. Luckily the road was smooth and good. They arrived at the Chushul nomad village in Chantang in the same evening after an 8 hours car journey. Puja was performed after that and meeting was held with the nomads.

We were promised with only 40 sheep and goats originally and we were not able to add on more even more people was hoping to join this program after we have hit the quota and closed all registration one week after the news was announced.

This is due to the fact that there is no telephone network over there. So any form of communication has to be physically present to talk to them. The time was too pressed to send another person to go there as normal buses only travel to that area once a week.

In the end we dared not take in any extra donors as we were afraid that we may not be able to fulfil the order and that will be very bad on our part. Hopefully, those disappointed this time round will sign up as soon as we put up the announcement next year. We will also try to increase the number of animals since we know the demand is great.

But the greatest surprise came after the meeting with the nomads! When they heard that we were doing this to save life and dedicating the merits to the long life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, they all wanted to join in the program as well. As we did not provided enough for the extra cost of the animals but we had well provided for the journey back and forth and various expenditure for the monks, in case they get stuck on the road due to weather condition, Geshe Yeshi had made an on the spot decision for arriving at an acceptable cost for all the 103 animals with a 1 to 3 goat and sheep mix combination. Therefore the nomads will bear the balance of the cost and they have become our co-sponsors!! It was a truly win win situation for all and a happy ending for a good deed.

So the next morning all the nomads, started to get their animals ready for the ceremony. The animals were marked, blessed and also a blue ribbon were tied on their head to celebrate the beginning of their new lives!

You will be able to enjoy the photos attached to see what kind of environment the animals will be living for the rest of their lives. I am sure you feel happy for them too.

Our gratitude to the following who made this possible:

1) Geshe Yeshi's coordination that we managed to do this meritorious deed in the month of Sagadawa. His bargaining with the car driver for the transport cost and packing of food for the journey to save time and money.

2) Ven. Dondup who took the trouble to travel to the nomad area for us on his own expense to determine the number of animals to be liberated.

3) The rest of the 3 monks who absolutely refused to accept our offering to them. They said they are just too happy to be able to take part in this.

4)The all mighty above who oversaw the weather condition and road condition to make this liberation such a smooth one. In fact, the week before they left and few days after they got back it snowed. So we are truly very blessed.

Last but not least, your fervent support for this event.

As most of you would have received my previous email and know that we did use part of your contribution to sponsor the long life puja that was performed in Spituk Monastery on the 24th of May. May your good deeds bring you good health and wealth and more important, peace and love to this earth.

In order to show our gratitude to the monks concerned, we have arranged for a thank you dinner for the monastery where they come from and made offering to the 30 monks there so they can share this joy with us.