“Without health life is not life; it is only a state of languor and suffering, it is an image of death.”
– Buddha

We support a variety of healthcare projects aimed at providing immediate delivery of treatments where needed, as well as sustaining a longer-term healthcare improvement within Nepal, through our Vajra Varahi Healthcare Clinic, our annual Dental and Medical Camps, as well as our ongoing Tibetan Medicine Training Program.

Vajra Varahi Healthcare Clinic (VVHC)

“Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.”
– Dalai Lama

Read the Project Factsheet

Vajra Varahi Healthcare Clinic is a project inspired by Kyabgön Phakchok Rinpoche to put “Compassion Into Action”. Our clinic in Chapagaon, south of the Kathmandu Valley co-ordinates delivery of effective low cost and free healthcare to those who need it most.

VVHC’s vision is “making accessible and effective healthcare, a reality for everyone”. They aim to put this into practice through sustainable projects and sharing thoroughly researched information about treatments of common ailments from different medical traditions.

They work alongside volunteer practitioners and supporters from all over the world who treat patients using acupuncture and TCM, massage and sacro-cranial therapies and homoeopathy.

What makes Vajra Varahi healthcare special?

VVHC is unique in training our interpreters to international standards to support English speaking practitioners.This means that our patients and doctors can communicate fully and accurately with each other.

VVHC is unique in offering a range of medical traditions under one roof. Practitioners are able to refer patients to each other, delivering the best mix of care to each patient and improving their own understanding of healthcare.

VVHC’s research aims are unique in that we will be able to compare the effectiveness not just of a particular treatment tradition – Tibetan, Ayurvedic, Chinese, Homoeopathic and Western medicines – but to compare them one against the other.

VVHC’s skill sharing is unique -we have trained twelve interpreters since we opened and two are learning acupuncture while they work, and four have studied and now deliver therapeutic massage.

You can contribute by donating or volunteering with us. What your donations will do:

• US$3.50 sponsors a single treatment
• US$30 pays a Tibetan, Homoeopathic or Ayurvedic doctor for two sessions, treating 40 patients
• US$50 buys another otoscope or blood pressure monitor
• US$100 will employ an interpreter for a month – and help a practitioner treat 480 patients!
• US$155 pays all clinic bills for a day

Learn more from the clinic’s own website.

Dental & Medical Camps

Great strides have been made in healthcare – the treatments available, and the supply and distribution of the treatments worldwide. However, many rural areas still suffer from lack of access to good quality healthcare, resulting in unnecessary suffering and death in many cases. As one of the poorest country in the world, villagers in rural Nepal are unable to access reliable, quality medical doctors and dentists. Such “outback” postings are fraught with difficulties for the medical practitioners, and the mountainous landscape in Nepal pose a huge challenge for the delivery of effective medical and dental care to the villagers.

As part of our mission to benefit all those in need, Kyabgön Phakchok Rinpoche initiated outreach dental and medical camps to remote areas of Nepal in 2006, with dentists from Singapore. Since then, we have held one dental and medical camp annually to different parts of Nepal, with the support of kind-hearted medical professionals from Singapore, Malaysia and Germany. Every mission is supported by the interpreters and staff from Vajravarahi Healthcare Clinic, and the monks from Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling Monastery (Boudhanath) and Pal Do-Ngak Nyida Mindrol Norbuling Monastery (Chapagaon). Local Nepali medical practitioners also lend their skills.

This joint effort between medical practitioners of different race, faiths and background with our Nepal based volunteers and ordained sangha, is a showcase of how the language of compassion transcends cultural barriers. Since 2006, medical professionals have joined us in serving nearly 10,000 patients in Shivapuri, Pharping, Pokhara, Lumbini and Langtang. You can help too!

Tibetan Medicine Program – Serving the Community

“Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship.”
-Buddha

This is a project that we support, as part of our Foundation’s ongoing efforts to enable communities to access affordable, effective healthcare, improving their overall standard of living. This project is a brainchild of Kyabgön Phakchok Rinpoche, and aims to provide training in Tibetan medicine to interested members of the ordained sangha as well as villagers from remote areas in Nepal who do not have access to quality healthcare treatment.

The students will learn all aspects of Tibetan Medicine in traditional setting, including the making of medicine. This will enable them to serve and operate independently, especially in remote areas, where the doctors will have to make medicine from scratch using the available herbs in their surrounding area. Our choice of training them in Tibetan Medicine also stems from the fact that the medicine supply can also be self-sustaining, a necessity in remote areas of Nepal.

After undergoing this training, these Tibetan doctors will then go on to serve the people at their respective monasteries and villagers, the wider community or at the Vajravarahi Healthcare Clinic in Chapagaon, thus providing continuing healthcare treatment to their respective communities.

We currently have ten students, comprising of laypeople and ordained monks and nuns, who are aiming to complete this rigorous seven-year training program. Sponsoring this program allows you to support up to ten students or more at one go, that would mean an equivalent of giving a medical scholarship for ten students, for this seven year program. That is just the direct benefit. Indirectly, your contribution will be able to help thousands, when these professional doctors graduate and go on to serve the sick and needy in the Nepal.

USD$75 would sponsor one student for a month, including food, accommodation, educational supplies and teacher’s salary.

“Give a bowl of rice to a man and you will feed him for a day. Teach him how to grow his own rice and you will save his life.” – Confucius

We support both religious and secular education through our Monastic Education Fund. In order to fulfill the goals of Preservation of the Buddha, Propagation of the Dharma, and Proliferation of the Sangha, Phakchok Rinpoche has also initiated the creation of the Dharma School of the Future – Chapagaon

Additionally, CGLF’s secular affiliate Basic Goodness Foundation provides education support for Nepali youth.

Monastic Education Fund

The Fund currently supports over 60 monks distributed over two monasteries; Pal Do-Ngak Nyida Mindrol Norbuling Monastery located in Chapagaon, Lalitpur, on the outskirt of the Kathmandu Valley and Pal Kadgyu Shedrup Tashi Phunstsok Ling Monastery (Riwoche) in Boudhanath, Kathmandu. The sangha provides the solid foundation needed for the preservation and propagation of the Buddhadharma. As our Lord Buddha taught, without the sangha the Buddhadharma cannot survive. As Phakchok Rinpoche says, “A monastery without monks is just an empty building.” Our mission through the Monastic Education Fund is to provide a suitable environment for the sangha to flourish, and in that way become authentic Dharma teachers and practitioners upholding the Buddhadharma. A single Dharma teacher benefits thousands through his teaching, and therefore the merit in supporting and nurturing our Dharma-teachers-to-be is immense. And by preserving the lineage of the Buddha’s teaching, one is not only helping the beings in this current time, but also in the future generations to come. A single person with a good heart benefits his surroundings and everyone he comes in contact with. His actions will inspire many, and thus give rise to the ripples of goodness which will spread throughout the world. Supporting a monk for a year is equivalent to giving alms to 365 monks for a day. Every single day and during every single meal, the young monks dedicate the merit of their sponsors and supporters, thus multiplying your merit immeasurably. You can support a monk for all his expenses on a quarterly basis (US$200/quarter), or make an annual donation of US$800 to the Monastic Education Fund. If you would like to only sponsor food for a monk, you can donate US$40/month, US$120/quarter or US$480/year.

Click here to make a donation.