We sponsor young monks who study and live at a wonderful monastery called Namgyal Monastic School, based in Upper Mustang, Nepal. Each year the young monks make journeys to visit surrounding villages, to perform puja; religious prayers and ceremonies. The puja goes on for around two days and are for the welfare of the village and their crops for the year ahead.
This year, the young monks went on a journey to a remote village called Samdzong in the eastern part of Mustang, close to the Tibetan border. It takes around two hours to get there by horseback from the school.
Mustang and Samzong are hard to reach, with a harsh, rocky terrain, dry climate and high altitude. Samzong is home to the ‘Sky caves of Nepal’, a collection of some 10,000 man-made caves dug into the towering sides of the valley. Explorations of the caves have led to the discovery of valuable Buddhist paintings, sculptures and manuscripts and from the 12th to the 14th centuries. The caves are also burial sites, the resting place for people descending from the Tibetan plateau as early as 3,000 years ago!
Needless to say, the young monks all thoroughly enjoyed their great adventure and are already looking forward to their next expedition!
