A note on Labsum Gomdrub Ling
Welcome to the website of LGL - it is great to see that you are interested in advancing Buddhist Studies. Sadly we have had to stop the activities of LGL at the moment and on 19th of April we issued the following note to all supporters:
Good day to you all from Labsum Gomdrub Ling International Buddhist Institute,
We are writing to say a big thank you to all of you who have helped us with your advice, signed up for the newsletter, volunteered, donated or benefited LGL in some other way. It is wonderful to see so many people wishing to be generous and help the great vision given by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Thank you to all! The last months have been very eventful for the LGL project and we would like to share with you the outcomes.
First lets have a short look into the history. The idea of LGL was started by a group of non-Tibetan students of Dharma in Drepung monastery in Southern India. The initial idea was to provide foreigners with a possibility to learn the Dharma in conducive conditions and over time the scope of the project continued to expand. After finding initial supporters two and a half years ago the group met with His Holiness the Dalai Lama who blessed the project, gave it the name Labsum Gomdrub Ling, and agreed to become the Patron. A year later there was a second audience where His Holiness expanded the vision and outlined the need to create an institute where all the Buddhist traditions, as well as modern science, could come together in practice, study and dialogue.
A trust in India was formed with two people from the original group foreigners and three people from India serving as trustees. Most of fundraising and publicity efforts were executed in Taiwan as the core team had the most contacts there. By the end of 2010 the founders felt that the project had to make two important steps forward – by widening the international outlook and by moving on with purchasing land for the future campus of LGL.
These new steps, particularly the purchasing of land, have led to many realizations about the strength of Indian bureaucracy and the complications for a basically-foreign organization involved in project work in India. An important permission to allow LGL in India to receive funds from foreign countries and donations from foreigners was denied, mainly due to foreigner’s involvement as members of the trust. Further research and consultations have also shown that obtaining and then keeping any kind of educational status is going to be very difficult unless the organization has a very strong base of Indian involvement.
Based on these complications, and particularly the permission refusal to receive foreign currency, the trustees of LGL in India felt that there was no way forward for the project in its current format and regretably decided that it was best if the trust be dissolved.
His Holiness’ vision for a great institution bringing together all the traditions of Buddhism as well as science is still there. Over the last 2.5 years we have gotten only very positive feedback for the vision. We hope that when the karma for this is right, the conditions will come together for the vision to become a reality in India, or perhaps in another country, as a seperate institute or as part of another institution. We are looking at other possibilities of how the vision might be fulfilled and will keep you all updated.
We want to once again thank everyone who has demonstrated generosity by supporting LGL –If you have any questions or comments that you would like to share with us, please do not hesitate to let us know.
With best wishes,
On behalf of all of those at Labsum Gomdrub Ling
Good day to you all from Labsum Gomdrub Ling International Buddhist Institute,
We are writing to say a big thank you to all of you who have helped us with your advice, signed up for the newsletter, volunteered, donated or benefited LGL in some other way. It is wonderful to see so many people wishing to be generous and help the great vision given by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Thank you to all! The last months have been very eventful for the LGL project and we would like to share with you the outcomes.
First lets have a short look into the history. The idea of LGL was started by a group of non-Tibetan students of Dharma in Drepung monastery in Southern India. The initial idea was to provide foreigners with a possibility to learn the Dharma in conducive conditions and over time the scope of the project continued to expand. After finding initial supporters two and a half years ago the group met with His Holiness the Dalai Lama who blessed the project, gave it the name Labsum Gomdrub Ling, and agreed to become the Patron. A year later there was a second audience where His Holiness expanded the vision and outlined the need to create an institute where all the Buddhist traditions, as well as modern science, could come together in practice, study and dialogue.
A trust in India was formed with two people from the original group foreigners and three people from India serving as trustees. Most of fundraising and publicity efforts were executed in Taiwan as the core team had the most contacts there. By the end of 2010 the founders felt that the project had to make two important steps forward – by widening the international outlook and by moving on with purchasing land for the future campus of LGL.
These new steps, particularly the purchasing of land, have led to many realizations about the strength of Indian bureaucracy and the complications for a basically-foreign organization involved in project work in India. An important permission to allow LGL in India to receive funds from foreign countries and donations from foreigners was denied, mainly due to foreigner’s involvement as members of the trust. Further research and consultations have also shown that obtaining and then keeping any kind of educational status is going to be very difficult unless the organization has a very strong base of Indian involvement.
Based on these complications, and particularly the permission refusal to receive foreign currency, the trustees of LGL in India felt that there was no way forward for the project in its current format and regretably decided that it was best if the trust be dissolved.
His Holiness’ vision for a great institution bringing together all the traditions of Buddhism as well as science is still there. Over the last 2.5 years we have gotten only very positive feedback for the vision. We hope that when the karma for this is right, the conditions will come together for the vision to become a reality in India, or perhaps in another country, as a seperate institute or as part of another institution. We are looking at other possibilities of how the vision might be fulfilled and will keep you all updated.
We want to once again thank everyone who has demonstrated generosity by supporting LGL –If you have any questions or comments that you would like to share with us, please do not hesitate to let us know.
With best wishes,
On behalf of all of those at Labsum Gomdrub Ling