Jonang School of Tibetan Buddhism in India
Located in Sanjauli, Shimla also known as the Queen of the Hills, the capital of Himachal Pradesh. Lama Jinpa founded the monastery in 1962. Initially the monastery was called Sangye Choeling. In 1990, Lama Jinpa offered the monastery to H.H. Dalai Lama on his birthday. H.H. Dalai Lama oversaw the monastery for the next 7 years. In 1997, H.H Dalai Lama appointed H.H the Khalka Jetsun Dhampa as the head of the Jonang School and gave him the monastery to establish a seat for the Jonang School in India. The Name was changed to Jonang Takten Phuntsok Choeling (Commonly known as the Jonang Monastery) consequently, it became the first ever Jonang monastery in India.
Currently H.H. Khalkha Jetsun Dhampa has the responsibility to supervise the institution.There are over 120 monks from Tibet, Himalayan regions, and Mongolia at the monastery. The monastery consists of 2 sections, one for scripture studies and one for meditative practices. The monks in the scriptural studies study literary and colloquial Tibetan, Buddhism, and English. The section for meditative practices undertakes the arduous 3 years retreat of the Six Unions of the Kalachakra Tantra under supervision of the Vajra Master Choekyi Nangpa, former Abbot of the monastery. His Holiness the Dalai Lama appointed Geshe Kunga Rinchen the current Abbot of the Jonang Monastery.
The Jonangpa were until recently thought to be an extinct heretical sect. Thus, Tibetologists were astonished when fieldwork turned up several active Jonangpa monasteries, including the main monastery called Tsangwa located in Tibet, Dzamthang County. Almost 40 monasteries, comprising about 5,000 monks, have subsequently been found, including some in the Amdo and Gyarong districts of Qinghai and the Tibet Autonomous Region.
Interestingly, one of the primary supporters of the Jonang lineage in exile has been the 14th Dalai Lama of the Gelugpa lineage. The Dalai Lama donated buildings in Himachal Pradesh state in Shimla, India for use as a Jonang monastery (now known as the Main Takten Phuntsok Choeling Monastery) and has visited during one of his recent teaching tours. The Karmapa of the Karma Kagyu lineage has also visited there.
The Jonang tradition has recently officially registered with the Tibetan Government in exile to be recognized as the fifth living Buddhist tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. The 14th Dalai Lama assigned Khalkha Jetsun Dampa Rinpoche or the ‘Bogd Gegeen’ of Mongolia (who is considered to be an incarnation of Taranatha) as the leader of the Jonang tradition.
Much of the literature of the Jonang has also survived, including the Treatise on Other-Emptiness and the Buddha-Matrix by Döl-bo-ba Śay-rap-gyen-tsen, consisting of arguments (all supported by quotations taken from the generally-accepted orthodox canonical Vaipūlya Sūtra-s) against “self-emptiness” and in favor of “other-emptiness”, which has been published in English translation under the title Mountain Doctrine.
WHY THE JONANG MONASTERY?
The main reason for choosing this specific monastery is because it’s the only Jonang monastery in India and has historic significance. Being the only one of its kind the Jonang Monastery receives donations from other organizations but that’s clearly not enough to sustain them and their establishment. This is made clear each time we visit and stay at the monastery.
As the monastery did not ask for help, FOTOCAUSE has taken it upon itself to raise funds for them. We plan to help in the following manner:
1:Funds will help preserve and improve what is a heritage Monastery.
2:Upgrades in sanitation and waste management will lead to a healthier living among the monks, most of whom are very young.
3:Renewable sources of energy will help them cut costs in electric bills.
FOTOCAUSE 