A notebook for a monastery - want to help too?

gesang

May 30, 2009 at 05:51 AM posted in General Discussion

Hello everybody! 大家好！Tashidelek!

Few days ago I started a post about notebooks in China http://chinesepod.com/community/conversations/post/4863#comment-117858

. In the introduction I included why:

This year I will go back to Tholing monastery in Ngari, Westtibet fort he 4th time to work in a wallpainting restoration project.

Last year one of the monks asked me to bring him a notebook when I come back next year. He and some other monks (there are only 9 monks still living in Tholing monastery and one at least is to old to use a computer ;-)) hope to be able to pay about 4000yuan.

I knew there are some small notebooks for few hundred CHF available in Switzerland and planned to give them a very good price... so I told them I will do my best to get it.

After the information in the other post I think I will try to get it in Lhasa (I have a friend checking some shops right now) or, if not possible there, I will find another way to buy it in China and send it to Lhasa to take it with me to Tholing.

Now, in this other post about the notebook, user chanelle77 suggested to start a charity project and collect money to get that notebook fort he monks: „I belive that many people doing a SMALL thing can make a BIG difference.“ she wrote...

..and i loved this.

Every time I was in Tholing this small group of monks cared so nice for us. They love to hang around and watch us at work and do everything to help us. Of course I love the idea of giving them this present (or, depending how much I can get, at least a very very good price).

So I thought: why not give it a try up here!!

While I checked if I am alowed to start my little charity project here in the threads, chanelle77 already started it :-) and paypaled me 10 EUR! (Thanks again!!)

And after getting an O.K. from Ken (Thank you very much!) I am now starting the

Tholing Monastery Notebook Project:

If you are willing to send a small amount to support this project please send this to my paypal account using: (collection stopped 30.5.09)

Or you pm me your email used for your paypal account and the amount you like to spend and I will send you a paypal-pay request from my account.

I guarantee I will spend this money for Tholing monastery. I will do everything in my powers to get this notebook.

I will keep you posted about the project and I hope I will be able to post a picture of a group of monks smiling at a brand new notebook sometime in June! :-)

Thank you

Gesa

changye

June 09, 2009 at 02:12 PM

Hi gesang

Are you in Tibet now? Wow, that's just great! I envy you for having such a challenging profession. I'd like to visit Tibet someday in the future, but I'm afraid that probably I can't adapt to such a high altitude place, hehe. Enjoy your stay in Tibet!

gesang

June 09, 2009 at 01:53 PM

Hello from Westtibet!

I gave the notebook to the monks! They were very happy and last night me and my team were invited for dinner by them.

I am happy to be back here! Love this village, the monastery and the landscape...and love my work here!

I hope i can add some new picture soon. it is kind of hard here because the computers are old, connection is slow...

Gesa

gesang

June 02, 2009 at 03:09 AM

Arrived in Lhasa and will get a good notebook delivered to my hotel for 3500y tomorrow! Have a friend in the hotel he gets good price!

Will travel on to Tholing in 2-3 days

gesa

gesang

May 28, 2009 at 04:50 AM

Thank you very much for your support in the last hours of the collection ;-) to S.R. !!! :-)!

gesang

May 26, 2009 at 03:22 PM

I love this one too and I especially love to see it again on MONDAY! :-) (view: 30min. before landing in Lhasa)

I want to thank all the Poddies again who supported my little project. We collected about 1/4 to 1/3 of a notebook :-)! I will close down the collection on thursday.

I will drop a post after I went on a notebook shopping tour next week! :)

Gesa

calkins

May 26, 2009 at 02:30 PM

Miss Gesa, I love these photos ;-)

RJ

May 25, 2009 at 10:14 AM

gesa

good luck on your trip. Hope you get some last minute donations. At least you were able to defray some of the cost of the computer. Maybe this one last bump will help.

gesang

May 21, 2009 at 12:02 PM

Zhada county, 7 a.m., fall '08... (about 20 km from Tholing), another beautiful picture from my friend in Berlin :)

gesang

May 18, 2009 at 04:19 PM

Finally I got notebook-information from a friend in Lhasa. I should be able to buy the notebook there. My friend will take me on a shopping tour and he is also great in bargaining :-)!

Will be up there in about 2-3 weeks...

Last days for the collection ;-)

smilebaby

May 16, 2009 at 09:44 AM

i m chinese . i know u go to there . xi zang . i hope u love china . if u want to know more about chinese culture i sure tell u more supersecret . write to me i sure reply to u .my email address hometown.ren@yahoo.com.cn

gesang

May 15, 2009 at 07:48 AM

My goal to get support: yes :-) ... but still continue the collection until end of month to get the monks the best deal possible :-)

Last night I had dinner with a team member 2008 in Berlin. She brought me some of her Tibet photos on a USB stick... here are all the monks of Tholing monastery (2008) ;-)

RJ

May 12, 2009 at 05:28 PM

Gesa

Have you reached your goal?

gesang

May 10, 2009 at 01:12 PM

No, this is in the monastery. First one is the door to the monks kitchen and to the inner courtyard of Red Temple, second one is the second inner courtyard with the monks flats and the monastery shop (they sell incense and candy and a book about the monastery).

We don´t stay in the monastery. We stay in a small guesthouse in the village with the fancy name "Traffic hotel" ;-).

christian

May 10, 2009 at 10:23 AM

Is this the house where you stay when over there, Gesang?

gesang

May 10, 2009 at 10:14 AM

gesang

May 07, 2009 at 09:08 PM

Thank you very much to Patti for the donation! :)

gesang

May 07, 2009 at 07:10 PM

Thank you and save travel to Europe! ;-)

chanelle77

May 07, 2009 at 05:11 AM

Hey Gesa, I hope you will get enough donations to get the monastery the notebook! Also, have a good time back home! I fly back to Europe in 10 days, so I think we are 1 day in the same timezone ;-). Good luck with the charity project and you preparations for Tibet. ;-)