High Dreams Coming From The Himalayas Snowland Children

It was the occasion for celebration. In 2021, Lhabab Duchen Day commemorates the anniversary of Buddha Shakyamuni's descent from heaven after repaying his mother's kindness by liberating her from Samsara and teaching Dharma to the gods. It is yet another auspicious occasion and one of the four major Buddhist festivals.

In the early evening, I received an SMS message from a former English language student who is now based in Nepal and working as a general practitioner doctor, assisting in the care of some young Nepalese monks' children at the small town , just near to the Gaden Shartse monastery in Mundgod, Karnataka, India.

The sms message read ; Offering for Boys to Become Sangha 供养让男生出家成僧人 Esp in the Himalayan regions, families are willing to offer their son(s) to the monastery. As many are poor, they are unable to foot expenses & the monastery appeals for help to support the boys to become Sangha. ​.. for to support one boy…the price will be USD 100-00

This message reminded me of Galchen when he was a small boy, when he began young with a similar condition,just as a small little boy with high dreams coming down from the mountains for a journey that did change his life and how I met him 26 years ago, during my first visit to Gaden Shartse Monastry in India.

I was on a vocation attachment then and taught English in a small school for three months there, giving me the opportunity to gain a better understanding and practice of Buddhism at the same time ,where occasionally i can visit the Monastry after all the classes

Children in the Himalayan region are initiated into monastic life at a young age.

Galden lived in Singming, a village in the upper Dolpa Buddha Municipality. I understood He had to walk for four days through hilly terrains from the district headquarters in Dunai to get there. The area still lacks basic infrastructure such as transportation, communication, health, education, and energy. In those days , there was no ordinary school when Galchen was born. Enrollment is usually pre-notified to the village master, who will inform their small boys' parents of the opportunity and prepare their children for the upcoming trip, which will typically require them to travel by foot or horseback through the mountains to a nearby town in order to meet up with Gaden's monks before being transported by vehicle to the monastery. The entire journey takes between 150 and 400 kilometers passing through the vast countryside of the mountainous areas where there are many different settlements from various villages with thousand of children facing similar situation.

Monks in Tibet and Nepal are almost always enrolled as very young children by their parents or guardians. It was thought necessary to recruit monks prior to their maturing age of twelve years, as their minds may linger in search of information beyond their childish thoughts during this time, and thus monks were brought to the monastery as young boys, typically aged six to twelve.

However, Himalayan mountain villages in Nepal's northwestern region are among the most isolated places on the planet.

Families in the Himalayas must make an impossible decision for their children: Should they attend school or stay in the village?

Many Himalayan children are taken from their parents' custody between the ages of four and six.Most will never see their families again if they do not have enough money or other resources to send them for their return trip and it has been hard for many families there because of geographical constraints and a lack of communication, transportation, and sanitation in those communities, schools are not possible in remote rural areas of North-West Nepal.

Even if schools are built, it is likely that they will not be used until the region's infrastructure is improved , as they lack teachers also . Schools are the primary source of secluded funding from local government in the region, but it is difficult to live in the area for an extended period of time without proper communication and transportation; this is why teaching jobs are more common in populated cities.

Although education is the best way for people to develop, people in the Himalayan region face a problem because it is frequently insufficient to educate children in the remote areas. As a result, such areas are mostly sacrificed in order to help the population develop and provide them with the best skills to succeed mostly in the major town or city.

Meanwhile traditionaly ,many parents deemed it as unnecessary to consider the boys' feelings about a lifetime commitment to celibate monasticism, and they were essentially made monks regardless of their sexual orientation, personality, temperament, or tendency of an individual but for buddhism, many believe that once one is introduced into the religion, the route to one's enlightenment and practice is still very much with one's own practice and their own karma.

Sometimes certain parents will discussed the issue with their children, but more often than not, they simply informed him of their decision. Monks must enter of their own free will, according to monastic rules, and usually the tedious hardship of living in the mountains since they were born has left them an inspiration for them to be enrolled as a monk is like a blessing as it allows them to have access to some education and a lifestyle that is much respected and honored among siblings and friends.

When leaving their parents and home for at least twelve years or more, such a trip to the temple is always a long tedious one.

Galchen need to travel for four days from their small remote village in Nepal's Dolpa district, they will need to walk through tough terrain and passing by various settlements where most hilly tribe with vast open land, on the hilly paths, passing through rivers and tight side path, which are strenuous for a child leaving home to a remote school for at least ten to twelve years. The long trip will take average up to 12 days including coming down form the mountain to the pick up points before heading on their main hilly roads to the city about 380 kilometere away

For example, if a novice monk finds the transition to monastic life difficult, despite the boy's dissatisfaction with their new found life and some attempts to flee, the monastery did not interpret this as evidence that he did not intend to become a monk and thus allowed him to leave. Rather, it always dispatched senior monks to locate them and compel the return of the escaped child monks. It is not always easy , as the parents although are allowed to visit them , they will only usually be allowed after their few months stay to get them settled , some parents cannot even afford for such trips ,and allow the head villagers to represent them at times

The practice of recruiting child monks was not unique to the various monasteries in Tibet and Nepal. Enrolling young boys as lifelong monks made sense from the monks' perspective. This mass monastic ideology, however, created practical difficulties in daily life.

Over the years, the ruling governments in both countries have encouraged monasteries to create events to raise donations and sponsorship, ensuring that they are not run in the manner of communes complete with community kitchens.Monks, on the other hand, were not required to go on daily begging trips to obtain food.

But what about other children? Since most monasteries prefer boys, is there another option for other children?

Every child born in this remote area has their own remarkable childhood story, detailing their extraordinary resilience and determination to survive in a life that would surely break a less hardened child.

In contrast to what we would call traditional villages at lower altitudes, it is not uncommon for children to live without shelter or school.

Seeing these smiling faces valiantly facing poverty and starvation with the warmth of their community will most likely give us pause and inspire awe and admiration in those of us who come from other regional countries with busy cities or those with much friendlier circumstances.

Galchen faced a life of hardship in the mountains after enduring a difficult childhood in Nepal as a child. Despite his hardships, he managed to get his early years in attending his class and manage to get into Vishalnagar, a local institution, over a twelve-year period. He struggled to find work after graduating from high school. As a result of this struggle, all of his five other sisters and his parents in his family were forced to work in the fields in order to support his entire family.

As a child, the young boy is not permitted to speak to men unless they are relatives; however, this young boy has learned with some education and can further his chance after his graduation to try various enrollment in different universities in India. To get away from the situation, the young boy is sent to a Buddhist monastry , where he was taught in a small class of fifiteen among hundreds of young buddhist monk ,nuturing him to be a doctor today

This sparks a conversation about how this child will inevitably grow up to from a "snow mountain child." to be a doctor one day ,as not all the children are send to the monastry , some have the opportunity to go to be educated in the city of Kathmandu

Many other children were sent to school instead in the city for 12 years and never see their families for the same duration . When the children return home from school at the age of 16, they have emotional reunions; despite what they've been through, the majority of them want to go back to school.

Galden recalls the day when he had to pack his belongings and prepare for the long journey back to their mountain village. They have a map prepared by the schools, and according to the seniors monk, they will be brought to the town closest to their settlement and will need to be guided by a local guide. Some of these grown up teens will opt out because they travel in groups with friends, while those who are traveling alone are offered a local guide to help them cross the mountains to the main location point, where certain tracks will lead them back to their home.

Galchen was the youngest child of Karma and Sawa, and his five sisters' upbringing is based on growing herbs and agriculture and his father's caravan. In Tibet, his father used to sell sheep wool, herbs, and ghee. They brought retail goods and salt from there and sold them to the people. Galchen recalls being taken to a monastery in Kathmandu when he was about four years old. "It's difficult for Lama," he observed. It's difficult for him because everyone has to look after himself, that was the first trip when he was only four, but he knew then , actually his father was already getting him mentally prepared for his life enduring trip of twelve years of monkhood

Galden was given the opportunity to go home after graduating from his studies to meet his parents and reunite with them for two months before returning to the temple , as the monastry has organized his post-secondary studies. He started his secondary education at the Himalayan White House, where IVWR arranged for him to study science. "At school, I was always in the top two," the student remarked. He received a nice distinction in the first division when he graduated from White House College in 2014. Galchen enjoyed music and art in addition to academics throughout high school and college and he has set to put his dream on track after he met his mentorship in medicine . I remember his frustration quote ; " If you were born in my remote village, seeing a real doctor was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity"

Furthermore, a doctor can only be a dream come true for a poor family. Galchen, too, had no idea what he was getting himself into as a villager. So, when did he first consider becoming a doctor? Will his dream become a reality

A foreign woman volunteer doctor ran into Galchen while he was working at the small clinic to help out and to earn some extra money, and the lady inspired him during her stay at the monastery. While assisting her in cleaning up the clinic after a small surgery one day, she asked Galden, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" Is it possible for me to be like You? Greetings, Madam. That was all he could think about as he watched her treat her patients and gave relief for them in the afternoon, and how his fellow villagers' faces lit up with awe and respect and hope each time she helped them find relief from their pain and sickness.

After two years later , Dr Martina's email arrived one day. Galden was initially perplexed as to the origin of the emails. He was convinced as soon as Dr Martina's email was read to him by his Guru , Geshe Dorje at the monastry.

Dr Martina had emailed the schoolmaster to inquire about his whereabouts and to inform him that her recommendation to get him to Mumbai as she has managed to find some sponsors who had approved to provide him with a scholarship to the School of Medicine there

Before his trip to Mumbai , Galchen returned to inform his family of the scholarship sponsor . On his return, he discovered that there were no medical facilities in the remote village.,since he last left, there was not much progress to improve the standard of living for these nomadic village,it's like they were forsaken .As a result, many pregnant women would perish due to difficulties at final stage of delivery ,there were too many cases of miscarriage and failed delivery due the the hard life to work in the field . In the midst of all of this, he decided to pursue a career in medicine. His dream will be to come back one day and find a way to help these villagers in these remote settlements

But who will carry out this decision? Nonetheless, there is always the possibility of a better future.

Nobody could deny Galchen's desire to become a doctor, and he was praised for it. Soon after, he returned to Kathmandu. During this return trip, Galden learned about the difficulties that the majority of the villagers are experiencing due to a lack of doctors, medical care, and healthcare. Galchen had a strong desire to work in healthcare even at that young age. He appeared to be filming the heartwarming scenes he witnessed and felt in the village which motivate him to be focus with his objective to be the saviour here and bring back medical health relief to the people of the forsaken world

Even if the practice was limited due to his educational qualifications, he stated that he could work for a doctor there. Galchen began working on his studies in order to prepare for the MBBS intras.

Galchen's MBBS education will be funded by the Australian non-profit organization .He began his MBBS studies at Gandaki Medical College at the end of 2014. He received his medical school diploma in 2016. Dr. Galchen also completed a one-year internship at Gandaki Medical College.

While studying medicine, he was also named the college's Student of the Year. Galden paid a visit to Dr Martina after graduation, and both returned to Nepal with respective funding from Dr Martina's supporting community and group of associate doctors . Galden meanwhile managed to motivate some villagers to setup some local community clinics, so that Galchen will make routine trips into the mountains every 2 months to help the poor and sick, and he will reside at the small clinic near the monastery when he also helps in community works in Nepal.

The story of Galchen is just one of many.

Children in poor countries have two of the most pressing needs: education and housing. What would we do if we came across these happy people walking down the street?

Is it possible that the wonderful feelings we have within us will cause us to radiate outward?

Thousands of children have faced the same situation in their childhood and continue to do so today. We hope that this story will inspire readers to sponsor some of the children for a good cause, and today we hope to refer to a community sponsor by a group of trekkers who have set up a website called "Snowland Journeys" specifically to help these children and their families.

Every child would be educated at home with their families in an ideal world.

Snowland Journeys teaches Himalayan children about their rights to family, community, and culture, in addition to their academic rights, in the Himalayas.

While attending university, Nepalese students have the option of continuing their education for at least a year or up to three years. Because higher education is prohibitively expensive, they pursue Post-secondary education after passing the compulsory Secondary Education exam at the age of 16.

Before they leave to return to their home village, they should be emotionally and physically prepared for reintegration into their home countries. They must spend a month exploring the lands outside their families, have cooking and trekking supplies, porters to carry their luggage, be instructed by a travel partner, purchase warm clothing and have good pair of shoes or boots , and go through a difficult cost-overflow process in order to fund a return trip to reunite with their family

The journey can last up to 15 days and is costly due to the youth's lack of resources. Without assistance, they will never be able to return home; thus, Snowland Journey wishes to contribute to their safe return in order for them to be with their families before embarking on their next journey to adulthood or further studies.