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Nepal, the only Hindu kingdom and 6th poorest country in the world, is a place of extreme poverty. Hindus and Buddhists marry, share temples and go about their daily lives in an easy harmony. This mountain kingdom has a population of 23 million people, of which 85% live in rural areas growing subsistence crops to feed their families. The Kathmandu valley, which is home to 500 000 people, is hugely polluted due to the primitive forms of energy used for cooking and keeping warm through the freezing winter. As a result there is widespread suffering from chest related illnesses like bronchitis, pneumonia, TB and within a short while we too, were reeling from coughing bouts.

The Great Stupa – the heart of Boudha

At the heart of Boudhanath is the ‘Great Stupa’, the inspiration around which all dharmic life is centred. It is constantly being cleaned and clad in a colourful canopy of prayer flags. All day devout pilgrims, kids,

ROKPA Children’s Home

One of the highlights of our journey was the opening celebration of the Rokpa Children’s home. A five-minute walk from Boudha stupa, this five-storey ‘dream come true’ provides 50 children with a place they can call home. Nepal does not offer children a free education and therefore most of the population are deprived of literacy that we regard as a basic human right. This home not only provides the children with an education but also with love and tenderness, creating an environment were they can shine with their own special beauty. Yes, Akong Rinpoche and Lea Wyler have founded a very special ‘home’, not merely an orphanage. This essential difference shines in the faces of the children. They seem to carry a quiet confidence and a dignity that cuts out the label of ‘orphan’. They have a home in which they are fed, loved and educated. They are taught the international language of English that can extend them beyond the borders of Nepal if they so choose. After our visit to Nepal one of the children courageously made her first ever flight to South Africa to visit us. She shone in a unique way, communicating in good English and filling our lives

with her joy.

monks, nuns, beggars and mange-ridden dogs walk clockwise round it, fingering mala beads and murmuring prayers. Bright eyes shine out of the ancient faces of old ladies who in traditional Tibetan dress, shuffle round the Stupa turning prayer wheels while reciting the "om mani" mantra. Somehow the continual movement and sounds of voices, yelping of dogs and music emanating from the surrounding stalls, does not disturb the profound overall peacefulness. There is a very strong sense of the ever-flowing, continually changing stream of life where the suffering, absolute devotion, joy and sadness is felt……. and before you can grasp it, it changes.

ROKPA Soup Kitchen

It is here where the people, ravaged by ongoing poverty, corruption and political instability crept into the hearts of Akong Rinpoche and Lea Wyler. Under his guidance, Lea established a soup kitchen and medical tent that operate during the intensely cold winter months. Volunteers from all over the world assist with basic medical care and serve two nutritious meals a day to hundreds of people. Nepal does not offer any free medical care, which means that most of it’s population is excluded from even the most primary medical treatment. It was our privilege to be part of this team of volunteers and to ‘Help where help is needed’ (Rokpa’s motto) the gifts we received in return were immeasurable. We soon realised that it was not to help, but in fact to serve these beautiful people, who despite their wretchedness never failed to cup their hands near their heart and bow their heads thanking us with a bright ‘namaste’. We were touched when small children brought us flowers and mothers offered us blessing scarves.

The joy of our day in the soup kitchen was the washing of the hands of the people we had come to serve. Down the rows from toddler to aged, we would pour water from a kettle over their hands before serving food. Eager little child hands would shoot out and voraciously wash themselves while we poured the water. Their inner sparkle was a blessing many times over, as we moved from one person to the next. An openhearted vulnerability ‘spoke’ in silence of preciousness beyond words. What richness and beauty can be seen in things ‘as they are’, even in crude and harsh circumstances! What a gift it was to learn a different way of seeing! Just pitching up and ‘doing’ changed us.

At the 25th anniversary celebrations the Rokpa children lit up the stage showing maturity and inner confidence facing a large audience of their patrons, Lea, Akong Rinpoche, Lama Yeshe Rinpoche, together with other valued dignitaries and volunteers from around the world. Their dancing and acting delighted and amused us. These very same dances earned them accolades at the Edinburgh Arts Festival this year. On the left of the stage the blessing of a puja continued unabated throughout the show. All Tibetan activities blend the spiritual and the worldly with profound reverence, but without importance.

The Lama as the source of it all

Dr Akong Tulku Rinpoche is a High Lama and qualified Tibetan doctor, who as a reincarnated bodhisattva is a force of great compassion supporting charity projects throughout the world including Zimbabwe and South Africa. He was born in 1939 in eastern Tibet and recognised as the reincarnation of the previous Akong who had been Abbot of Dolma Lhakang monastery. In 1959 he escaped to India – after a nine-

In 1980 Akong Rinpoche and Lea Wyler founded ROKPA TRUST, an international charity with head office in Zurich. It is now one of the top 50 charity institutions in the United Kingdom and has hundreds of other projects in Tibet, Nepal, Zimbabwe and South Africa. In Tibet Akong Rinpoche is known as ‘the saviour of the Tibetan culture’. He manages to travel to Tibet for a few months each year visiting and funding his 130 projects. Rokpa Zimbabwe has a list of humanitarian projects that are in progress.

Rokpa Johannesburg has run an outreach programme for street children, a soup kitchen + medical treatment for some 5 years in the inner city of Johannesburg.

A new project involves our indigenous medicinal plants, starting with Sutherlandia, also known as cancer bush, unwele, insiswa. This plant has amazing immune-boosting properties and can benefit those suffering from HIV/Aids, TB and cancer.

Most strikingly this has been accomplished by a man who never appears to be in a hurry and is often mistaken for a very ordinary person as he applies himself to paperwork, bricklaying, digging ditches or cleaning. Nobody who has worked with him can fail to be awed by his steady determination, boundless energy and humour in even the most daunting circumstances. Above all whatever he undertakes has the signature of deep compassion, which expects nothing for itself.

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month gruelling journey over the Himalayas only 13 from the original party of 300 survived. Based on this experience he committed that if he got out of this ordeal alive, he would spend his life alleviating suffering in all its many forms. In 1963 Akong went to Oxford and while his friend Chogyam Trungpa studied at university, he worked as a hospital porter as his Tibetan medical qualifications were not recognized. Nevertheless people recognised Rinpoche’s enlightened wisdom and consequently he was offered land in Scotland to build a monastery. Today Samye Ling is the largest Tibetan Buddhist centre in the West where his brother, Lama Yeshe Rinpoche is now abbot. This beautiful monastery is home to many dedicated monks and nuns (who have equal status), as well as to many lay practitioners.