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The Dalai Lama spends the great majority of his time traveling the
world, sharing Buddhist teachings and inspiring reflection and compassion
in almost everyone he meets. One of the many temples he visits is
the Gaden Jangtse monastery in the southern Indian state of Karnataka.
The monastery was built in 1969 to house 300 Buddhist monks who fled
Tibet in the years after the Chinese takeover. The monastery has
since grown to more than 3,000 monks, requiring construction in 1997
of a new, larger prayer hall. This striking new building is at once
simple and splendid, and hearing the resounding chants of the monks
while strolling corridors lined with thousands of Buddha statues ranging
from the tiny to the monumental is unforgettable.
While the monastery is connected to a utility grid, reliable power is
available for only four hours a day, leaving the monks with just dim
kerosene lamplight to pray, dine, and read after nightfall. Solar
power provided a solution to this problem for both the new prayer
hall and the Dalai Lama’s private quarters, thanks to a generous
grant from Steven & Mary Swig. Planning, system
design and installation were carried out by SELCO-India.
His Holiness blessed the new prayer hall earlier this year, at
a ceremony in which Bob Freling, SELF's executive director, was privileged
to be included. His Holiness later voiced keen interest in
the part that appropriate technologies like solar power can play in
improving welfare for the Tibetans scattered among more than 50 refugee
settlements in India, Nepal, and Bhutan.
Subsequent conversations with representatives of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile
have led to a request that SELF undertake a project in Sonamling, a refugee
settlement in a beautiful region of northern India known as
Ladakh.
Learn more about the project in Ladakh.
The Power Is YOURS...
 You
can help fund SELF's Projects. Here are some examples of how your investment
will help:
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$25 can purchase a full
lighting kit, including ballast, fixture, and bulbs for a rural
villiage home.
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$50 can purchase a deep-cycle
battery that will store solar electricity for use in the evenings,
or on days with heavy cloud cover.
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$100 can purchase high quality
solar lantern that will allow villagers to have portable light at
night.
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$500 can purchase a complete
solar home system for one family, including: 50 watt solar module,
battery, controller, switch, wiring, and bulbs.
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$1000 can pay for the program
to train local citizens in the installation and maintenance of their
solar home systems.
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Did you know a gift of $10 buys two efficient fluorescent light bulbs for a village school, home, or clinic?
Learn more>>>
A study for the U.S. government calculated that the gasoline equivalent of the energy saved over the lifetime of one 24-watt compact fluorescent bulb is sufficient to drive a Prius from New York to San Francisco.
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