The New Prayer Hall Construction Project
Origin & the cause of the project:
As a Khangtsen, it is necessary to have an
Assembly hall where all the monks of the Khangtsen could gather for
different kinds of religious and non religious activities of the
Khangtsen. Spiritual activities includes Debating gatherings, many
kinds of Ritual gatherings, gatherings for teachings and classes
etc. and non- religious gatherings includes gatherings for extra
classes, classes for teaching modern educations and so on. In short,
a Khangtsen cannot survive without an Assembly hall.
The present Assembly Hall:
During those times in Tibet, all the large and
small Khangtsens have their own Assembly Halls where all of its
monks could assemble together. In the early 1980s, monks of Drati
Khangtsen assemble together for their religious activities in a
small room which is being used as an Assembly or Gathering Hall.
Almost all the Khangtsens at Sera Je had built their own Assembly
Halls except us. In the early year of 1990s, the number of our monks
increased manifolds and it was impossible to hold religious
activities within a small room. So, we burrowed other khangtsen’s
Hall and held our religious ceremonies there.
In early 1990s, the need for a Gathering hall became unavoidable and
we start a project by collecting donations from many parts of India
for a new Hall. With the main financial contribution by Lama Zopa
Rinpoche and smaller amounts from other benefactors, we built our
first Assembly Hall in 1992.
Conditions of the present Assembly Hall:
Our present assembly hall was constructed at a
very low cost due to financial constraints. It was built without any
pillars and most of human labourers were done by the monks of the
Khangtsen at that time.
Problems
face by Drati Khangtsen:
Size: The capacity of the present hall is only 150
monks. Due to the rapid increase with the arrival of new students,
the present Hall could not accommodate all the monks together. With
the increase of number of rows from 10 to 14 with 15 monks in each
row, we could accommodate about 200 monks at a time sitting tightly
with little space between the rows.
Since last ８ years, about one third of the total monks have to stay
outside during the gatherings.
Structure: The problem of the
capacity has been compounded by the fact that our old Assembly Hall
has been greatly worn out by the weather. Since the construction of
the temple 14 years ago, we have been unable to replace our roof due
to financial constraints. Our 14 year old Cement Asbestos roof has
been greatly worn out by the rains and sun. During rainy seasons,
rain water leaks from all parts of the roof and damages our mats and
tables below. During hot seasons, we face difficulties in holding
any Gatherings or pujas during day time due to unbearable hotness.
The sheets are in so bad condition that it develops cracks if we
climb on it for repairing.
The brick walls are supported by ｃｌay mixture with only a thin
cement plastering. The mud walls and floors have developed wide
cracks and are in very bad conditions. We repair them frequently but
the cracks returns after one or two weeks of repairing them.
Providing Accommodations: The number of monks
dwelling accommodation or monk quarters in our Khangtsen are very
limited. We have about 50 new entrants every year and due to lack of
monks’ quarters, we have been facing lots of hardships in providing
proper accommodations to the new students.
It was a great relief and help for us when our most Venerable Kyabje
Lama Zopa Rinpoche sponsored 12 rooms monks quarters in the year
2002. Still now, each room has an average of about 5 monks and some
new arrivals are staying in the main prayer hall due to inadequate
accommodations. It cause huge inconvenience and hindrance to the
studies and health of our monks who have to share the same size and
rooms year after year.
Inability in accepting new students:
It is the traditional rule of Sera Je Monastery that
every Khangtsen should accept any new students belonging to its` own
sources. Although, Our Khangtsen covers a large area
of Tibet and Indian regions plus Bhutan, Sikkim from which monks are
to be admitted to our Khangtsen, due to acute problems of monks`
accommodations plus lack of space in the assembly Hall, we had not
been able to admit a large number of new student monks who had come
here and who originally belongs to our Khangtsen.
Solution:
Project Proposals for the construction of New Sera Je Drati
Khangtsen Assembly Hall:
Renovating our old Assembly Hall would cost us a huge amount of
money and moreover there is no space left in the surrounding area
for extension of the same Hall as all the immediate spaces have been
used for monks` quarters. Hence, instate of planning to renovate the
old one and carrying out extension plan which is not possible in the
given situation, we consider it is wiser to spend money on building
a new one with a larger capacity that will fulfill our needs at the
present and in the future.
Since last 8 years, we have been willing to construct a new Assembly
Hall and especially since last few years, we felt the urgent needs
of construction of a new Assembly Hall. So, in December 2004, we
boldly launched our Project of Construction of a new Assembly Hall.
Needs of larger Assembly Hall:
We plan to build a new and a more spacious Assembly Hall which could
accommodate about 546 monks at a time. Some already constructed
temples of other Khangtsens face problems of size. We plan for a
larger Hall as we have about inflows of about 50 new students every
year.
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