- Organizing Religious Conference:
The Tibetan Religious Conference was instituted after coming to India and the first conference was held in the palace of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama on August 14, 1963. Since then eight conferences have occurred in the course of 48 years in exile. The latest, 9th conference, took place on 26th June 2006.
This is a forum for the religious institutions. Representatives of four greater religious schools of Tibetan Buddhism and Bon come together to do discussions on matters concerning monastic institution and community, and formulate policies and programs. DoRC sponsors and take care of the arrangements during the conference.
- Rituals and Prayers for National Interest:
There are several ritual and prayer specially organized by DoRC. One of it is Chotrul Monlam Chenmo, which is the continuation of traditional prayer ceremony first started by Great Jhe Tsongkhapa in 15th century. Chotrul is the time when Lord Buddha subdued the forders and evil spirit with miraculous displays. The prayer ceremony takes place in the first month of Tibetan calendar, usually after end of Losar (Tibetan new year). In India, this ceremony was first convened in 1971 on advice of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Since then it has been taking place every year in Dharamsala.
The other important ritual ceremony organized on regular basis is Guru Bumtsok, the practice of Rigdzin Dungdrub or Sadhana of the lineage of Awareness holders; the Awareness holder lineage liturgy (sadhana) sharing the same view of benefiting all sentient beings. It takes place during fifth month of Tibetan calendar. The venue of the ceremony may not be similar for all the times but majority of them took place in Tsuk-Lha Khang or central cathedral of Dharamsala.
DoRC also takes care of the timely rituals and prayers that has to be done for the benefit of Long life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and spiritual leaders, and for the prosperity of Tibetan government and people. This normally happens when state oracles and important spiritual leaders provide transmission (ka-lung) on account of national interest. Until now, the department has organized many prayers and ritual ceremony dedicated for the cultivation of karma for the whole of Tibet, and for world peace and happiness.
- Research:
The current subject of the research is "Bhikshuni Ordination in Tibetan Buddhist Tradition". Its aim is to find whether Bhikshuni ordination could be instituted in current Tibetan Vinaya tradition. The esoteric Tibetan Buddhism has different school of Vinaya lineage, which is known as Mulasarvastivada in Sanskrit.
Due to growing interest of nun's community following Tibetan Vinaya lineage, the research work was instituted on advice of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. It has been going on for a decade now. In the course of this work, we have produced four theses and conducted several conferences of Vinaya masters on the issue.
Nevertheless, as laid out in activity schedule, the final decision will be made by an International Vinaya masters conference, which could be convened after having a consensual decision of Tibetan Vinaya masters upon the issue.
- Scholarship for Newly escaped monks and nuns:
Since coming to exile, this office has been helping Tibetan refugees who are monks and nuns, or decides to join, in relocating to various monasteries and nunneries. Tibetan comes to exile unabated because of religious persecution and ethnic cleansing policies adopted by Chinese. Tibetans have become minority race in their own homeland, which was once occupied by six million Tibetans, after the huge influx of Chinese migrants. Some religious institution that operates inside Tibet is strictly controlled in accordance to malicious policies to uproot the traditional system of monasticism.
On average 500 students (only between 6 and 25 years old) join monasteries and nunneries in India and Nepal every year. During 2006-2007, 1386 new students were enrolled in 34 monasteries and 7 nunneries, and all of them were registered for scholarship program. Each student receives Rs. 200 per month for 15 years. This support program has been going on for some decades now, thereby, catering to about 10000 students until today. The current beneficiaries stand at 9300 students.
The annual outlay for this program is around Rs. 223 lakhs or 572,310 US dollars. We are indeed very thankful to United States Humanitarian Aids (USHA), Norway Foreign Office (received through Norwegian Church Aids), and Ministry of External Affairs - GOI for their unfailing and continued support. This program is aimed to provide traditional and modern education to all the young Tibetan monks and nuns who have fled Tibet.
- Support to aged / destitute Monks and Nuns:
The sangha community also has many elder monks and nuns not registered with any institutions. They are mostly retired people who took monastic vow in later stage of their life. Some are also newly arrived monks and nuns who are aged to continue with the monastic education. Therefore, many of them receive initiation from spiritual teachers and stay on long retreat or meditation practices.
There are around 200 beneficiaries as of now and each individual receive Rs. 300 per month. The total outlay on this scheme is around Rs. 720,000 or 18,460 US dollars per annum. We are thankful to Global Peace Foundation - US for being the sole collaborator in this support program.
- Support to Russian and Mongolian students:
The society of Mongolia and some parts of Russia are greatly influenced by Tibetan culture since many decades. Many of the people from these countries have come to India for the purpose of doing higher Tibetan studies. This trend was prevalent from the time when Tibet was a sovereign state. There are many scholars in Tibetan Buddhism hailing from Mongolian and Russian regions.
In order to facilitate them with some form of support while doing education, we have started a program giving monthly scholarship of Rs. 600 each for the Mongolian and Russian students registered here. At present, around 209 students are registered for the support scheme. The Tibet Foundation - UK has long been involved with us in operating this scheme. We are indeed thankful to them for their continued support. Due to growing list of applicants and to bring uniformity in our support programs to sangha community, who more or less live in same condition in a monastery, the monthly allowance was reduced Rs. 200 for each individual from January 2008. The total outlay for the scheme is around Rs. 501,600 or 12,860 US dollars.
- Timely and Special Grants:
Giving preferences to smaller and financially weaker institutions, in a year, around Rs. 15,00,000 or 38,460 US dollars are allotted to various institutions and Tibetan settlements undertaking construction, renovation and restoration of murals, idols, temples, prayer halls, etc.
Financial supports are also given to organizations doing awareness campaign on Tibetan religion and culture, publication of scarce and sacred scriptures, and reviving scarce lineage of initiations.
- Teachers / Chamberlain's Stipend:
Smaller monasteries are financially weaker than the others, and in order to help these institutions maintain a good education system, DoRC provides stipend to religious teachers coming from other monasteries or to lay teachers working as teacher of modern disciplines in the institutions.
In recent development, Tibetan sanghas are encouraged to learn Chinese language with aim of benefiting Chinese language speaking people in the field of Buddhist philosophies and spiritualism education. DoRC is arranging and providing salary for the Chinese language teachers at monasteries and nunneries.
There are also several temples and monasteries within the Tibetan settlement in India that requires caretaker, and for them DoRC gives monthly stipend.
- Formation of Teaching Organizing Committee:
Aiming to bring greater awareness of philosophy and science underlying the Tibetan Buddhism and to instil interest amongst the lay people to take up philosophical studies like sangha members, DoRC initiated a program along with Tibetan settlement offices to establish Teaching Organizing Committee in various Tibetan Settlements. The department provided seed capital of Rs. 20,000 to each committee for the purpose of conducting discourse programs in their respective settlement. As of now, 36 settlements have already formed such committee.
- Training Programs for Sangha Community:
It is also our priority to give special training or workshop to Sangha members, on subjects like modern teaching methods and others. In this year, DoRC convened a group of young religious teachers and gave a three days workshop on teaching methods. They were introduced to western people thinking, culture and about teaching methods adopted by teachers in modern schools of lay people. DoRC will continue organizing such trainings and workshops.
