Liquid Spark Foundation is pleased to support a special project at Dhamo Nunnery in Eastern Tibet, in the historical Tibetan region of Amdo.  Dhamo Nunnery is a located at 10,000 feet near the top of a mountain, overlooking Deibu County Town in Gansu Province on the Eastern Tibetan Plateau. The nunnery was built in 1990, and follows the Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism. One hundred and twenty nuns live there, mostly from the surrounding Amdo region.

How the Nuns Live at Dhamo Nunnery

The nunnery is very simple, and the nuns each live in their own small houses. These houses typically have one main room with a wood stove for cooking and heat, another sleeping room, and a small entry way room. There is a small gated courtyard in front of each nun’s house with another wood stove for outside cooking, a little storage area for tools, a tiny garden patch and a large wood pile to feed the wood stove that runs year-round. It’s the only cooking source for each nun. The simple houses are built by the nun’s family – so nuns for poor families struggle to get adequate houses built.  Very few of the nuns have a bathroom at their house. In fact, it was only in the last two years (yes, this is not a typo- 2 years!) that the nuns got a shower house at the nunnery. For the last 26 years, since the nunnery was first founded, there were no showers at all!  The toilets were upgraded only last year by government funds, they are simple cement structures of two stalls with an open mountainside hole that you squat over. There are only 3 for the entire nunnery and any visitors.  The upgrades were a welcome improvement over the crude wooden, dilapidated structures that made me fear I’d fall in and down the mountainside in my visits to the nunnery in the past years!

Ani Shi Shi has lived at the nunnery for 27 years, arriving at age 18 in 1991, the year after the nunnery opened. She has never had a bathroom at her house, and has never even had access to a shower house the entire time she’s lived there!

The Eastern Tibet Women’s Pilgrimage Tour that I created with my Tibetan colleagues Tsering and Nyima Tashi – stays with Ani Shi Shi at her house each year. She has been wanting to have her own bathroom, similar to some new ones that a few other nuns have recently built, at her house. She is absolutely thrilled that Liquid Spark Foundation is able to support her bathroom project!  I decided to do more than that though, and our sister organization, Liquid Spark (the marketing agency), has donated $4000 in matching funds to help fund several more private bathrooms in nun’s humble tiny houses, at Dhamo Nunnery.

Here is what a new bathroom looks like at the nunnery. Ani Shi Shi herself filmed this recently built bathroom at another nun’s house this winter. She wanted to show me what the finished bathroom looks like and what it has in it. She is very shy – so she doesn’t talk about anything in the bathroom and tries hard not to be seen in the video!

Video Showing a New Bathroom at Dhamo Nunnery

Ani Shi Shi will hire nearby villagers to come build her new bathroom this spring. They can’t build anything in the middle of winter in Tibet at 10,000 feet elevation!

Ani Shi Shi’s Bathroom Construction Budget:

  • Western Toilet 800 RMB
  • Solar Hot Water Heater:  3500 RMB
  • Wash Basin: 1000 RMB
  • Sand, brick, cement and tile: 4000 RMB
  • Labor: 2000 RMB
  • Transportation fee from Deibu to the Nunnery: 500 RMB

Total Cost: 11,800 RMB, or  US$1800

Yes, wouldn’t you love to have a new bathroom with sink, shower, solar hot water heater, tiled floor, and western style toilet for $1,800 here in the US? Imagine having NEVER had a bathroom toilet or a shower, EVER, in your house! You can make the difference for nuns at Dhamo in Eastern Tibet today.

Please consider donating to this project – every dollar counts and will be matched up to $4000 by Liquid Spark Foundation.  Ani Shi Shi’s new bathroom is a definite go to build this spring. Other nuns also need bathrooms, and cannot afford to build them. Please consider making an immediate daily difference in the life of the wonderful nuns at Dhamo! Liquid Spark Foundation is a 501C3 and your donation is tax deductible. 100% of the funds donated will go to each nun’s bathroom construction project at Dhamo Nunnery.

DONATE TO DHAMO NUNNERY BATHROOM PROJECT VIA PAYPAL




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