The Norgyeling Tibetan Settlement of Bhandara

The Road to Freedom   Finding Tibet  A Sacred Journey through  Southern India

Adored with photos of Dalai Lama, colored with Peace Flags and vibrating with Buddhist prayers, mantras and assorted wooden instruments, Tibet is ranked the lowest among China’s 31 provinces. The Norgyeling Tibetan Settlement of Bhandara, located near the Nagpur city in Maharashtra India, is the poorest and hottest region of India with 60 to 70 percent of the families suffering from extreme poverty. Due to lack of accommodations, six people live in one small room with only one hour of electricity daily in temperature 110 to 120 degrees.

When the Dalai Lama was forced to flee Tibet in 1959, around 80,000 Tibetans followed their beloved spiritual leader into exile enduring great hardships crossing the Himalayas on foot. Of those who survived, many found their way to refugee settlements in India. In 1972, some of the early Tibetan refugees settled in Bhandara and put down new roots in agricultural, farming rice several times a year. His Holiness Dalia Lama declared Bhandara a settlement in 1982, and today 1.200 refugees occupy two camps surviving on farming and a sweater business.

Evidence suggests that 67 out of 70 refugees in Bhandara are in difficult financial straits and struggling to survive, with monthly expenses of 50 to 60,000 rupees with few donations. Since most homes are made of mud, they have water leakage from the roofs, holes in the walls where rats the size of puppies live, and  white insects that eat all of the mud and around the windows and doors. Due to the financial restrains, they are not in a position to refurbish their homes so that they and their families can live in sufferable conditions.

Although the government has plans for  raising the standards of living in southern India to that of national level by the year 2020, when Tempa Dorjee, the owner of Tibet Handicrafts in Laguna Beach California, took a group of Americans to his native Bhandara, and they witnessed the destitution, they concluded it simply was dehumanizing to prolong the suffering. Upon their return to the States, they organized a strategy to sustain the community of Bhandara:  for a diminutive amount of $500 a family, Bhandara  can be gifted with Solar Energy and a brighter future than their current lens.

The development of Solar Energy is inexhaustible with huge longer-term benefits. Daylighting systems collect and distribute sunlight to provide interior illumination. With Solar Energy’s passive technology directly offsetting energy use by replacing artificial lighting, and indirectly offsetting non-solar energy use, six people in Bhandara living in one small room in temperatures 110 to 120 degrees can live under accommodations suitable for human conditions.

Annually Tempa Dorjee promotes a trip to his native country in hopes of educating many on the conditions his childhood community suffers. 20 to 30% of the proceeds from the trip go to supplying Solar Energy to Bhandara. A guided 15-day sacred journey through Southern India is scheduled for February 2013. PLEASE contact Tempa Dorjee @ 949.715.1043 if your heart, vision, and compassion are open to a trip of a lifetime.

IMAGE a world in which ALL live by the same conditions. A world in which a species carefully woven as ONE, recognizes the crucial rights of ALL beings to simple necessities like food, clothing, and shelter. A world educated by sight, voice, and compassion. The world only a Journey away.   www. Tibet-handicrafts.com    949.715.1043