Purchase of a Solar Water Heating System for the Gaden Jangtse Monastery

Project location: India, Mundgod
Project start date: January 2008 - Project end date: December 2009
Project number: 2008-25
Beneficiary: Gaden Jangtse Norling College

The original Gaden Monastery was founded in the year 1409 near Lhasa. The communist Chinese invasion in the year 1959 and the military occupation, followed by the destruction of the Tibetan Culture and tradition forced His Holiness The Dalai Lama and the Buddhist monks to flee to India.
In 1982 the Gaden Jangtse Norling College Monastery, built on 107 acres of land given by the Indian Government, was inaugurated. It offers education from first standard up to the equivalent of a PhD, in the Buddhist studies and also western education.

The total population of the Gaden Jangtse Monastery is of about 2023 monks aged between 6 to 96. The monks are divided into 12 houses (khangsten). The number of monks varies from House to House. The whole monastery has only one common kitchen, where food is supplied for monks. Cooks are monks themselves, who prepare food for the community on a rotation basis.

In 1993, the monks installed 20 Solar Water Heaters and 2 water tanks with a capacity of 1250 liters on top of the main Kitchen of Gaden Jangtse Monastery, thanks to a grant awarded by the Stichting Tibet Fonds "Dolma" of The Netherlands. The collectors worked well for a long period of time and were of great help for the monastery.
Yet, unfortunately, starting from 2008 the collectors became badly damaged, hence hot water was not running as before. The monks contacted the Saba Solar Water Heater company at Bangalore, which suggested to replace all the 20 collectors and install a new collector in its place.

In the same year, NPF decided to award a grant to cover the expenses for purchasing the new Solar Water Heater System for the Monastery. Its installation on top of the main kitchen of Gaden Jangtse Monastery was successfully completed in less than one month, on October 19, 2008.
The project was of immense benefit for the 2023 residential monks of Gaden Jangtse Monastery. The hot water system saves not only time but also the consumption of Gas, which in turn saves lots of money for the monastery.


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