The cultural and spiritual traditions
that had been all but forbidden in Mongolia during the earlier years of
the 20th century, have begun to
re-emerge, in phoenix-like fashion!
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Mongolians have a great hunger to reclaim this part of their lives denied them for several generations. Tibetans and Mongolians have a long common history. Many Mongolians studied in Tibetan monasteries in the past. Today some are able to go learn the Dharma once again in re-established Tibetan monasteries in India. |
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People everywhere are hungry to learn.
The Maitreya Charity is helping Ven.Panchen Otrul Rinpoche assist in the
re-establishment of Buddhism in Mongolia.
Panchen 
Otrul
Rinpoche cannot fulfill all the invitations he receives to visit monastic
communities in Mongolia. He is one of very few visiting Lamas who visits
that can give ordinations
and initiations in Tibetan Buddhism.
The major challenge remains the lack of ustainable
activities to support the human community in these remote areas, and the
lack of funding to restore the monastic buildings that are a crucial piece
of Mongolia's spiritual and cultural heritage. There is always a
very thin line between success and failure.
In 2005 Rinpoche once again visited the
Gobi region: Hanbaat in Omnogobi, Ondershill and Choyr in Dundgobi. In
Ondershill healso consecrated the Stupa which we have helped to build
there.
In the province of Overhangai he re-visited the temples in Khogh-na-Khaan,
Hurjitt
and Shank Khiid.
He was again asked to help in the re-building of monasteries in these
places.
Hurjitt's young Abbott desperately needs $5,000 to put a roof on a rapidly
deteriorating building which is half built and cannot now be completed
through lack of money.
In Terelj he was invited to the new Retreat Temple, which
he consecrated last year.
During these visits he taught hundreds of lay people, and it is obvious
there is a growing need for the people to have places of worship again
to fulfil their spiritual needs.
In Ulaanbaatar he was invited to Lam Rim and Bakula Monasteries, and in
Ganden Teaching University he ordained over 60 monks from all over Mongolia
who had come especially for this ceremony. He was also invited to take
part in a ceremony at a small monastery at the newly built crematorium.
At his own Kunjab Jampa Ling centre in Ulaanbaatar he taught each Saturday
and Sunday to lay people , monks and nuns. Increasingly, younger people
are now coming for teachings.
They express a need for Dharma books translated into Mongolian. These
books need to be free or very cheap. This year Rinpoche had a donation
from His Holiness the Dalai Lama in order to buy a small printing machine.Hopefully
booklets will be printed which can be given freely wherever he travels
in Mongolia, to enable people to have access to the teachings of the Buddha.
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Geshe Lhawang Gyaltsen, Rinpoche's senior Tibetan monk in Mongolia teaches dharma throughout the year, to monks at Lam Rim Monastery. He also teaches at the weekend to lay people, addressing their social problems within the teachings as much as possible. He now has many students, some very elderly and very poor. He teaches them and helps them to physically survive, providing warm clothes, books for school children, money for bus-fares.
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