Tibet House: About us

Begun in 1970 Drepung Monastery is one of two monastic complexes that have been built in the Tibetan refugee settlement near Mundgod in the south Indian state of Karnataka. Drepung Monastery is one of the few institutions that enable the practice - and therefore the survival - of the Indo-Tibetan Buddhist culture in exile.

The monastic complex consists of several individual monasteries: the Loseling, Gomang, Ratoe, and Sakya monasteries housing a total of 4,700 monks. The complex consists of 300 buildings, among them assembly halls, temples, housing for the monks, kitchens, schools, libraries, guesthouses, and workshops.

Due to the continuing influx of people from Tibet and northern India, it was necessary to continually and rapidly expand the monastic complex with very limited financial resources. The expansion resulted in an urban infrastructure with the following problems:

• A Sewage treatment and disposal worthy of the name are non-existent.
• The ground table is receding dramatically, since both the monastery and the entire region depend on wells for their water supplies.
• The sewage system is dysfunctional: Waste water from showers, toilets and kitchens is disposed of in crumbling, fragile, open canals.
• Inadequate garbage disposal causes increased littering on the streets and in public areas resulting in an unacceptable hygienic situation.
• Most of the streets and road networks are provisional in nature and in a poor state of repair. During the rainy season they are practically impassable.

Individual Goals

1. The necessary measures are to be developed within an environmentally sustainable concept including urban structures, their infrastructure, and finally water and refuse management.
   
2. Development of water cycle:
   - Solution of the wastewater problem through construction of a modern sewage system.
   - Ecological water management through the support of horticultural and agricultural projects.
   
3. Stages of waste management: Development of a waste management system.
   
4. Education in environmental awareness of monks and lay people, with an emphasis on garbage reduction and sorting for recycling. Development of a hygienic awareness.
   
5. Establishing a technical and horticultural facility in the monastery to implement and maintain the newly introduced measures.

First Steps

1. Creation of a master plan to redevelop the monastic complex step-by-step.
2. Detailed planning and realization of the individual project stages.

Severe Diseases

Increasing groundwater contamination and a lack of hygienic awareness have resulted in a high rate of illness. Last year the following cases were treated in the LOSELING Clinic, located in the monastery:

• Tuberculosis (>100)
• Typhus (200)
• Malaria (150)
• Diarrhea (250)
• Hepatitis A and B (300 and 500)
• Every second patient suffers from skin diseases.
  

The means of existence are threatened by water problems

The groundwater table is receding continually since rain water is neither being collected nor stored. Increasing water shortages are endangering everyone’s long-term survival, not only in the monasteries, but in the entire settlement!

Fundamental changes in urban structures are urgently needed!

Support this project to redevelop the monastic complex’ infrastructure to a sustainable level – i.e. the construction of a modern sewage system - and the creation of an environmentally sustainable water and waste management system for Drepung Monastery in southern India through your contributions:

Donation Account (Tibethaus):

Drepung – Ecological Sewage System

Account Number: 6200010076

Routing Number: 501 900 00

Frankfurter Volksbank

Reference: Environmental Project Drepung Monastery

Please remember to include your name and adress on your transfer so that we can send you a receipt!

Please bear in mind that starting the project depends completely on a private and public support; the project cannot be initiated if the funding remains insufficient. In that case your contribution(s) will be diverted to another current aid project for Tibetans.

We would be happy to inform you about each step of the project. Please send us an e-mail to umweltprojekttibethaus.com with the subject: “Drepung Newsletter”, or give us a call at: ++49.69.71 91 35 95.

You can also help us by informing your friends and acquaintances about the project –

Every Euro, Pound Sterling, and Dollar helps!

We love to inform you, by e-mail, about every progress step in planning and realizing this projekt. To request  the Newsletter please write an e-mail to infotibethaus.com with the subject: Drepung-Newsletter.

For further information or questions please write an e-mail to: Umweltprojekttibethaus.com

Sponsoring Organization:

Tibethaus Deutschland e.V.

Spiritual Director and Project Initiator:

H. E. Dagyab Kyabgön Rinpoche

Project Coordination for Germany:

Annette Kirsch

Klaus von Varendorff

Project Partners:

Planning and execution in Germany:

Prof. Dr. ing. Detlef Glücklich

Chair, Basics of Environmental Building and Construction, Faculty of Architecture, College of Building and Construction, University of Weimar

Project coordination in India:

Former Abbot Geshe Konchok Paksam Drepung Monastery

Planning, execution of construction measures in India: Construction Engineer Shankarnarayan M. Hegde

Training in Environmental Awareness:

Ivo Rodrigues, Focus Group (a non-governmental organization / NGO)