Overview
Moving Mountains funded the building of this monastery in Bumburi over the period of about 3 years in the mid 2000s and it is now a working 'gompa' which a large mani wheel and refurbished stupa. The money came from donations relating to Gavin Bate's six Everest expeditions from 2000 to 2011.
Bumburi Monastery sits in the village of Bumburi with a fabulous view over the surrounding mountains.
The remade stupa with dramatic clouds across the valley
The village of Bumburi is very rural with a mix of Sherpas and Rai people who live and farm the mountainside.
People here live a traditional life, there's almost no tourism and most of the houses have been passed down the generations for well over a century. The people generally live a subsistent lifestyle, although the advent of the school and electricity which Moving Mountains funded has made a big difference, with many Sherpa families now supported by their children who have become educated and earn money.
The building was made using traditional methods of dry stone building and wood felled from the forest, but the roof was made with corrugated iron. The painting is traditional bright colours for a monastery.
In 2009 we finished renovating the monastery in Bumburi, our second monastery renovation in this beautiful part of the world. Moving Mountains held the opening ceremony, or Puja, in 2009 after Gavin's fifth Everest Expedition which paid for the project. Fittingly, the lama who conducted the ceremony was the same lama who opened the other monastery we finished in Bupsa in 2005.
Inside, the interior was covered in an intricate painting depicting the words and teachings of Buddha, work which was carried out by a special lama over six months. We also supplied all the ceremonial accouterments necessary for a monastery of this age and importance.
Would you like to get involved? Would you like to help? Would your school, university, family group, or a group of friends like to visit these places? Why not fundraise for a project and come out, get involved and help deliver it? Contact us on info@movingmountainstrust.org for more details, or have a look at some of the Moving Mountains trips that we run through our partner Adventure Alternative (who manage our international trips) here: Volunteering Trips. Schools Trips. Medical Trips.