Mongolian Sangha Food Offering
Therefore, your contribution to the Food Fund will help Sangha members not only study longer, but much more effectively, because they have enough food to concentrate on their studies. For more information on the food programs in each college, please read below.
Each month approx $875 is offered to the monasteries to provide a nutritious lunch to over 230 monks six days per week which works out at approx 18 cents per lunch per monk per day.
Unfortunately these monasteries are not yet in the financial position to be able to offer the entire cost of the lunches. It is the FPMT Mongolia's long-term goal to work closely with these monasteries assisting them to raise sufficient local and international sponsorship to establish a food fund which can be invested at attractive interest rates here in Mongolia. The interest will provide sufficient income to provide lunches to all the monks.
Idgaa Choizinling
In 1910 Trultim Zansrum Idgaa Choizinling Dratsang was founded by the order of the 8th Bogda Khan in Ikh Khuree (the capital city now known as Ulaanbaatar).
In 1937 the monastery was completely destroyed. At the beginning of 1990, when Mongolia began to revive its historic traditions, Idgaa Choizinling restarted its activities and the process of rebuilding its Dratsang began in 2002 and was completed in 2003 with support from the FPMT.
There are currently 101 full time monks studying in Idgaa Choizinling with an additional 31 monks from the monastery doing further studies in Sera Je monastery in South India. Each year approximately 20 new young monks join the monastery and Idgaa Choizinling now also has two new monasteries in the countryside which are used for intensive summer teachings and retreats.
FPMT Mongolia has sponsored the lunch in Idgaa Choizinling since October 2001. Prior to this sponsorship, lunch was not provided to the monks and there was no formal structured Buddhist philosophy education in place. Due to the lunch offerings, Idgaa were able to provide a formal teaching structure in the monastery with all the monks remaining at the monastery for the entire day without leaving the monastery for lunch.
Dashi Choepeling (Tashi Choepeling)
Dashi Choepeling was originally established in Mongolia in 1756. The monastery was totally destroyed in 1937 during the religious purges of the communist era. It was reestablished in 1992 and the current building within the Ganden complex was completed in 1995.
Currently, there are over 130 monks studying in Dashi Choepeling with an additional 40 monks from the monastery studying in India.
FPMT Mongolia has sponsored lunch in Dashi Choepeling since July 2003. Prior to this sponsorship lunch was not provided to the monks by the monastery and many monks returned home to their families for meals at lunchtime. This interrupted the monk's studies and diluted the monastic community. The lunch fund has provided lunch for between 90 and 130 monks over the past two years.
Please Make an Offering
With your help, we can continue to offer lunch to the monks on a daily basis to help them continue their monastic education and training and gain deeper understanding of the Buddha Dharma which is vital to the long term development of Buddhism in Mongolia.
This custom of giving food to the Sangha was highly praised by Sakyamuni Buddha himself, so please make an offering of today.
- $875 will provide over 4800 lunches to all the 230 monks for an entire month.
- $100 will provide lunches to 25 monks for an entire month.
- $25 will provide lunch to the 230 monks in Dashi Choepeling for one day.
- $10 will provide lunch for almost 60 of the Idgaa monks for one day.
Click here to view Mongolian Sangha Food Offering Photos
Click here to view a report on the Mongolian Monks Food Fund (PDF File)
