It has seemed forever waiting for actual news from Mustang after the horrendous earthquake.  Our dear school secretary, Angya, has just returned from a visit and brings welcome news.

All the girls are very healthy and happy in school and no injuries were sustained in the earthquake – we are so happy to report confirmation of this.

And 2 new young girls have just been admitted bringing our total to 38 girls.  It seems such an amazing growth from the 18 girls when we opened in August 2012, just 3 short years ago.

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On 18th June 2015, under the guidance of Khenpo la and management of Namgyal Monastery and our nunnery school conducted a 6 days long Buddhist religious programme of chanting mantras of Avalokiteshvara (personification of perfect compassion) and Padamasambhava (the patriarch of Tibetan Buddhism).

Huge numbers of local people (over 900!!, which seems almost the population of Upper Mustang!) flocked to the  school to take part and it’s wonderful to see our school making such a contribution to the local community.

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The programme took place over 4 days and monks of Namgyal Monastery also attended.  On the 5th day Khenpo la conducted a puja (prayer ceremonies) dedicated to the 9000+ people who lost their life in the recent earthquake

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Before returning to Pokhara, Khenpo la, Angya all the girls from school together with staff went on a day trek to nearby mountain.  I think you can see that everyone enjoyed themselves enormously in the beautiful and harsh, rugged Mustang landscape

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The sad news is that in the earthquake the Namgyal Monastery was almost destroyed and will need to be rebuilt.   Monks and local people have removed the sacred scriptures but there will be a long rebuild ahead.

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Check out more photos in the gallery post here about daily life in school and the puja ceremony and day out in the mountains.