The Drukpa Charitable Foundation

The Drukpa Charitable Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization, seeks to achieve global harmony through providing tools for regional empowerment and positive action. This includes supporting educational facilities, humanitarian and medical aid, cultural preservation programs, and the promotion of gender equality. The Drukpa Charitable Foundation focuses largely on the remote and underrepresented cultures of the Himalayas as a symbol for spiritual endurance during a time of rapid modernization.

Education
The Drukpa Charitable Foundation supports the Druk White Lotus School in Ladakh, India – a treasured Himalayan region known as Little Tibet. This first-of-its kind school provides students with a modern education while still grounded in the values of local Ladakhi culture. The school's mission is critical at a time when rapid modernization has left the indigenous population underrepresented and at risk of marginalization. Ladakh is not only one of the last remaining regions that freely practices Tibetan Buddhism, but is also home to numerous strongholds of ancient art, architecture, and geographical graces unseen in any other places in the world. The ultimate goal of Druk White Lotus School is to provide students with skills to help the region modernize in a sustainable way without losing its rare cultural identity.
The school currently enrolls over 500 students through the 7th grade. When completed, it will enroll nearly 800 students through high school. The students are drawn from a wide region, including from several nomadic tribes in the high plateau along the Tibetan border. Many of the students board at the school and receive scholarships to attend.

The school is located in the fragile Himalayan environment – one particularly affected by global warming – and therefore the school also focuses on environmental sustainability. It is built primarily of local materials adapting local building techniques. It has won numerous accolades for its earth-conscious architecture, including the 2002 World Architecture Award for the Best Green Building in the World, the 2009 Inspiring Design Award by the British Council for School Environments and the 2009 Design for Asia Grand Award by the Hong Kong Design Centre.
In the coming years, additional branches of the school will be built in very remote areas in order to provide basic education for children who are too far away to attend the Druk White Lotus School. These branch schools will focus, in particular, on providing an education for girls, who often are not afforded the same academic opportunities as boys.

Medical Facilities
The Drukpa Charitable Foundation also supports the construction and operation of medical facilities in the Himalayan region. In particular, it supports a medical clinic at the Druk Amitabha Mountain, which services a community outside of Kathmandu that does not have ready access to hospital care. This medical clinic combines Western and Tibetan medical techniques and focuses on providing medical care for digestive illness, kerosene burns, and eye illnesses -- the most common medical problems in the region.

The Foundation is in the process of assembling an eye clinic, and has future plans to expand its support for necessary surgical and medical care for kerosene burns. Because most of the heating and cooking in the Himalayan region is provided through portable kerosene-powered stoves and heaters, many people, including children, suffer from grievous burns. The Foundation intends to provide education and treatment opportunities for these individuals.

Art Preservation
Long-term, the Drukpa Charitable Foundation intends to support cultural preservation and disaster relief efforts. In particular, the Himalayan region around Ladakh contains some of the last extant Buddhist art along the famous trade routes of antiquity. The root influences of Middle Eastern and Greco-Roman aesthetics can be found throughout these regions, and it is a point of critical interest amongst art historians, preservationists, and enthusiasts alike. Preservation is of particular importance since most examples of this rare Buddhist art has been destroyed in the neighboring regions of Pakistan and Afganitstan due to political conflict. The Drukpa Charitable Foudation plans to spearhead art preservation programs to protect the remaining artifacts.

The Gyalwang Drukpa The work of the Drukpa Charitable Foundation is inspired by the Gyalwang Drukpa. The Gyalwang Drukpa is the spiritual head of the Drukpa Buddist Lineage originating in Tibet over eight hundred years ago. He has advanced peace, gender equality, education, medical aid and resources, and environmental awareness for decades through numerous large-scale humanitarian efforts in the Himalayas. Outside of the Himalayas, Drukpa organizations across the world serve regional needs through community-tailored “Live to Love” activities, ranging from tree-plantings, to organizing free medical clinics, to feeding the homeless. Drukpa centers are currently active in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Switzerland, Monaco, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Malaysia, Australia, Peru, Mexico, and the United States.