Living Expenses for Masters Studies
Donation protected
Hey, my name is Champa Lhundrup and I was born into a semi-nomadic family from Dakpo in central Tibet. I am the youngest son of six sons, none of whom attended school. My father used to be a monk in Dakpo before Dakpo monastery was destroyed during the cultural revolution, and from him I received my basic Buddhist education. As modern secular schools were built in villages during my childhood, I was sent to school.
Under my own parents’s full financial support, I did my early schoolings in Dakpo, Lhoka, and then college in Chengdu in Sichuan.
Yet, none of this education truly gave me much satisfaction. So, after college unlike all my schoolmates, who opted for easy and comfortable lives, I started learning English with a great determination in a small private language school in Lhasa in 2008. After about one and half years of studying English, I earned an English tour guide license and guided western tourists to every part of central Tibet. Yet, in my three summers’ of tour guide experience, I witnessed throughout Tibet a dangerous decline of traditional Tibetan culture and religion in the face of modern activities.
Seeing this decline, I felt a sense of agony, and in 2013 I made my way to Nepal specifically to study Buddhism. This is because I truly believe that humanity has great hope for a better future through good Buddhist education. The Buddhist view of emptiness in combination with compassionate conduct is able to eliminate the countless types of suffering that we experience due to conceptual confusion and egocentrism.
Thanks to the generosity of the Khyentse Foundation, my loving parents, and also my own small saving from the tour guide job, I successfully completed my BA in Buddhist Studies at Rangjung Yeshe Institute last year. I did it in less than usual minimum duration for the program with high grades. However, given the rapid decline of traditional Buddhist eduction in my homeland Tibet, I feel compelled to pursue a higher Buddhist education in order to help effectively to restore the Buddhadharma back on the roof the world. My goal is to complete the MA program in Buddhist Studies at RYI that I have already been admitted into with a scholarship from the Khyentse Foundation for tuition. Once complete, I then plan to dedicate myself to the restoration of Dharma in my own hometown of Dakpo, the birthplace the famous Kagyu schools. I am sure that the spirit and kindness of Gampopa—the founder of the first Kagyu school from Dakpo—is nowadays as strong as it was in ancient times. I believe that the Dharma shining once again from this place where it has shined for many centuries can benefit our humanity greater than ever before. 
Despite this great MA opportunity with the tuition funding, I am still burdened by the living cost associated with pursuing this precious opportunity of MA studies. After four years of full time study, my financial options appear extremely limited as I hear the great news of admission into the MA program.
Therefore, I am hereby humbly appealing to my Dharma brothers and sisters and also to all friends of humanity to support me in this noble opportunity. I am fully determined and unafraid of any hardship on this path. However, the financial hurdle in front of me is quite daunting.
According to my past four years’ living expenses, I need to raise 702,000NRs ($6810) just for living expense for the entire three year MA program. That is 230,000NRs ($2,270) annually. Rent costs me 7,500NRs ($73) per month or 90,000NRs ($878) per year. Food expenses typically cost me 12,000NRs ($116) per month or 144,000NRs ($1,400) per year. The money will be put into my friend Robert Offner's US bank account and he will serve as my beneficiary for ease of recieving the funds donated.
Your kindness of even a penny will no doubt bring immense happiness and hope not only to me, but to our community at large.
Studying here at RYI has given me the greatest joy in life. I believe without the slightest doubt that continuing into the MA program will deepen my knowledge and shorten my path to become someone, who can help the Dharma to glorify once again on the roof of the world.
Under my own parents’s full financial support, I did my early schoolings in Dakpo, Lhoka, and then college in Chengdu in Sichuan.
Yet, none of this education truly gave me much satisfaction. So, after college unlike all my schoolmates, who opted for easy and comfortable lives, I started learning English with a great determination in a small private language school in Lhasa in 2008. After about one and half years of studying English, I earned an English tour guide license and guided western tourists to every part of central Tibet. Yet, in my three summers’ of tour guide experience, I witnessed throughout Tibet a dangerous decline of traditional Tibetan culture and religion in the face of modern activities.Seeing this decline, I felt a sense of agony, and in 2013 I made my way to Nepal specifically to study Buddhism. This is because I truly believe that humanity has great hope for a better future through good Buddhist education. The Buddhist view of emptiness in combination with compassionate conduct is able to eliminate the countless types of suffering that we experience due to conceptual confusion and egocentrism.Thanks to the generosity of the Khyentse Foundation, my loving parents, and also my own small saving from the tour guide job, I successfully completed my BA in Buddhist Studies at Rangjung Yeshe Institute last year. I did it in less than usual minimum duration for the program with high grades. However, given the rapid decline of traditional Buddhist eduction in my homeland Tibet, I feel compelled to pursue a higher Buddhist education in order to help effectively to restore the Buddhadharma back on the roof the world. My goal is to complete the MA program in Buddhist Studies at RYI that I have already been admitted into with a scholarship from the Khyentse Foundation for tuition. Once complete, I then plan to dedicate myself to the restoration of Dharma in my own hometown of Dakpo, the birthplace the famous Kagyu schools. I am sure that the spirit and kindness of Gampopa—the founder of the first Kagyu school from Dakpo—is nowadays as strong as it was in ancient times. I believe that the Dharma shining once again from this place where it has shined for many centuries can benefit our humanity greater than ever before. Despite this great MA opportunity with the tuition funding, I am still burdened by the living cost associated with pursuing this precious opportunity of MA studies. After four years of full time study, my financial options appear extremely limited as I hear the great news of admission into the MA program. Therefore, I am hereby humbly appealing to my Dharma brothers and sisters and also to all friends of humanity to support me in this noble opportunity. I am fully determined and unafraid of any hardship on this path. However, the financial hurdle in front of me is quite daunting.
According to my past four years’ living expenses, I need to raise 702,000NRs ($6810) just for living expense for the entire three year MA program. That is 230,000NRs ($2,270) annually. Rent costs me 7,500NRs ($73) per month or 90,000NRs ($878) per year. Food expenses typically cost me 12,000NRs ($116) per month or 144,000NRs ($1,400) per year. The money will be put into my friend Robert Offner's US bank account and he will serve as my beneficiary for ease of recieving the funds donated. Your kindness of even a penny will no doubt bring immense happiness and hope not only to me, but to our community at large.
Studying here at RYI has given me the greatest joy in life. I believe without the slightest doubt that continuing into the MA program will deepen my knowledge and shorten my path to become someone, who can help the Dharma to glorify once again on the roof of the world.
Organizer and beneficiary
Champa Lhundrup
Organizer
Robert Offner
Beneficiary
