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Welcome to

Background

With the support of H.H. the Dalai Lama and senior lamas of all traditions, Gompa - Tibetan Monastery Services has been established as a not-for-profit partnership of charitable organisations, with more than sixty-five participating monasteries, nunneries and international teaching centres. The primary aims of the Gompa partnership are:

To help build a closer connection between the monasteries and nunneries of India and Nepal and their followers worldwide and with all those who have an interest in classical Tibetan knowledge, practice, culture and arts around the world, and

To help in the development of educational resources available in the monasteries and nunneries and to help support the range of social welfare and environmental projects both within each partner monastery and nunnery and within the local communities which they serve.

As of February 2022, Gompa’s online services have raised over GBP £300,000 (USD $410,000) in additional support for the partner monasteries and nunneries, support which is playing an ever-increasing role in providing for the monks and nuns and also in supporting education and social welfare, both in the partner monasteries and nunneries and the local communities which they serve.

Since its formation, Gompa - Tibetan Monastery Services has:

webcast over 240 courses and teachings and other special events at forty-two different partner monasteries and nunneries and international webcast hosts,

arranged over 850 sponsored prayers and pujas to be performed at the partner monasteries and nunneries,

transferred over 6,000 individual offerings or donations to the partner monasteries and nunneries, with no transfer fees.

Advisory Council of Gompa - Tibetan Monastery Services

[Select here to see the current partner monasteries and nunneries] [Select here to see messages from senior lamas.]

In partnership with over sixty monasteries and nunneries, the services provided by Gompa so far include:

• online arrangement of prayers and pujas, with the option to view photographs or videos of the sponsored prayers and pujas;
• year round high production quality webcasts of current courses, teachings and empowerments by eminent rinpoches and senior teachers at the partner monasteries, nunneries and international centres;
• continuous year round access to the Gompa’s extensive library of past teachings by eminent rinpoches, senior lamas and teachers;
• opportunities to support and participate in special events at the partner monasteries and nunneries such as major pujas and ceremonies, enthronements, prayer flag raising and animal releasing activities, with the option to view webcasts of select special events;
• an online service for sending offerings (together with personal wishes or dedication) with no transfer fees to the partner monasteries and nunneries, at any time or on the occasion of special puja days.

As advised by the senior lamas, the Gompa partnership aims to make it as easy as possible for all those with an interest, to participate in the teachings, rituals, empowerments and ceremonies held at the monasteries and nunneries; to sponsor prayers and rituals at times of special significance or difficulty in life; and to make meritorious offerings on auspicious days or special occasions, just as one could do if the monastery or nunnery was in your own village, town or city.

Gompa's online services are specifically designed for connecting with the dharma activities of the lamas and the monasteries and nunneries. The services are free from advertising (unlike the commercial channels such as Facebook, YouTube and Google) and the webcast channel has been especially created as an appropriate environment for the webcasting of the teachings, empowerments and the other special events held at the monasteries and nunneries. Also, the personal data gathered on the Gompa site is never sold or shared nor used for marketing and advertising – as it is on commercial channels.

All of the Gompa partnership’s high definition recordings of teachings and special events are archived and copies of the recordings distributed to the partner monastery and nunnery libraries, so that the recordings can continue to play an educational role for current and future generations. In addition, all the Gompa webcasts are freely available to view by the over 20,000 monks and nuns at the partner monasteries and nunneries in India and Nepal.

Gompa - Tibetan Monastery Services is also supporting a new, vitally important initiative recently established under the auspices of H.H the Dalai Lama: the creation of the Tibetan International Digital Library. The Tibetan International Digital Library has been formed in order to provide an unprecedented digital library platform offering unified access to, and archival conservation for, the major Tibetan cultural resource collections worldwide. See www.tidl.org for details.

Management and Initial Funding

Gompa is managed, in partnership with the major Tibetan monasteries and nunneries of India and Nepal, by Tibetan Monastery Services Ltd, UK, a subsidiary of the Orient Foundation for Arts and Culture, registered charity #287817, see www.orient.org.

Initial funding for the launch of Gompa was raised by the Orient Foundation for Arts and Culture, in part from supporters of the Private Office of H.H. the Dalai Lama and also from the Foundation's own trustees.

Gompa keeps its operating costs to a minimum and sets its requested member support donations and fees for services as low as possible based on the requirement to sustainably provide, develop and expand the online services over the long term. Any additional revenue generated through member-supporter contributions and the provision of services is donated towards the development of multimedia educational resources, in support of the partner monasteries and nunneries in India and Nepal; and towards the archival conservation of, and provision of access to classical Tibetan knowledge and arts study resources for scholars, students and the Sangha worldwide.

Sustaining and Developing Gompa – Tibetan Monastery Services

Gompa is now primarily dependent on its member-supporters in order to be able to continue to provide its services and thereby continue to raise sponsorships and donations in support of education and social welfare at the partner monasteries and nunneries and the local communities which they serve.

We invite you therefore to please support the continuation and expansion of Gompa - Tibetan Monastery Services by joining us as a member-supporter and/or giving a gift of Gompa membership and/or by donating to Gompa.

We are also currently seeking grants or loans in order to develop two important new services: a Chinese language version of the entire Gompa site; and the special 'Diamond Path' service. If you would like to know more about these important new services and how you can help to support their development, please write to us at: admin [at] gompaservices.com.

Network of Partner Monasteries and Nunneries

In India, Gompa's online services are available from the partner monasteries and nunneries at Dehradun, Bylakuppe, Hunsur, Mundgod, Himachal Pradesh, Odisha, Bodhgaya, West Bengal, Sikkim and Ladakh, and in Nepal, in the Kathmandu valley, and at Lumbini, Lapchi, Nubri and Namo Buddha. Online services from further partners in India and Nepal are continuously being added. [Select here to see current partner monasteries and nunneries]

The Gompa head office is at Dehradun (North India) with webcast hubs also at Mundgod (South India) and Kathmandu (Nepal).

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