I first met the Venerable Tulku Popa Rabjam several years ago. I can recall the long journey through the Himalayas and finally reaching Tashi Jong, it felt like I was entering Shangri-La .
I was put into contact with him through the Ven. Robina Courtin after a meeting with her near Albany NY. I heard about a Monk who was the president of a Tibetan refugee community. Avery special community that had grown in size and culture combining Tibetan Refugees and settlers from a once nomadic Himalayan tribal people . a very special village with an incredible linage. I mention it because I found Popa much the same, a very special Monk with an incredible linage.
I have been all around the world and my experiences are colored by a litany of shaman, social elite, and long titled individuals of varied background. I am not one to be impressed by a title for name or position. Popa has both, and under the heavy wording is a spirit and a light from an individual so bright as to be unburdened by the baggage rank.
I found Popa to be the embodiment of the iconic peoples hero revolutionary. Che in a maroon robe if you will. Here was a man at the higher echelon of an ancient wisdom tradition who was breaking all the rules and at the same time baptizing them into the super fine gold at the heart of Buddhist philosophy.
Popa had created a movement of compassionate works that was working to unite the two different fragmented cultures present in the community with each other and the world as a whole. No small task coming from a part of the world that traces its heritage of social stratification and isolation to the very beginning of civilization.
Seeing the physical, social, and spiritual needs of all the people of his village being met with difficulty Popa reached out across all barriers working with grass roots organizers from the Indian community to complete works of great importance for the village.
Together this collective group forming as the Friends of Nub Gon Monastery had successful projects like day medical retreats, reforestation campaigns, waste disposal projects and a community center for outreach and much more under its belt.
The support came from all over as something so good and pure has a way of manifesting just the right measure at just the right time. The Friends of Nub Gon Monastery (FNM) under the guidance and leadership of Popa has come to create one of the most inspiring models for sustainable development I have ever seen. I have come to call this program Direct Trade. Let me give you an example…
After creating a job skills training opportunity with a focus on reviving certain local skills Popa has created a project sure to empower people and reverse the trends of poverty and depression. Members of about a dozen families’ now find steady employment working to help create a very sacred monastic traditional incense, Lama Chodpa Incense. The full circle of this vision is brought to bear as the proceeds derived by FNM from the sale of Lama Chodpa Incense are used to further community initiatives both in Tibet and directly in the village.
The result is that through the teaching and revival of these skills, local people are finding opportunity and gainful employment in creating natural products.
Being able to address their own basic needs and knowing that the needs of other villagers and community projects as a whole are being supported directly through their efforts is incredibly empowering and contagious.
To be given the tools needed to succeed; being shown how and given an opportunity to use them for the betterment of the community has helped to birth a wide range of community and sustainability programs. Like a free school, and even one local man Rana Ranbir has created a much needed sanitary program to help bring toilets to villages without the knowledge or ability to create this necessary infrastructure.
To learn more of The Venerable Tulku Popa Rabjam go here
