Help Supply Volunteers with Dog Food for Street Dogs in Nepal on Chokhor Duchen

A volunteer feeding a street dog, Street Dog Care e-newsletter.

Friday, July 24, 2020, is Chokhor Duchen, the day people around the world will commemorate the anniversary of Shakyamuni Buddha's first teaching.

Chokhor Duchen is a merit multiplying day. The merit received for any positive actions done on July 24 will be multiplied. This week, I will be sharing some opportunities to create merit.

Help Supply Volunteers with Dog Food for Street Dogs in Nepal

Street Dog Care is a no-kill dog shelter in Kathmandu, Nepal, that follows Buddhist philosophy and treats street dogs with skin diseases, infections, and injuries. The NGO aims to improve the health and living conditions of street dogs in Nepal, creating a healthier environment for all sentient beings.

I volunteered with Street Dog Care in December 2014 while staying at Kopan Monastery in Kathmandu. 

Nepal has been in lockdown since March 23, but Street Dog Care is open and out on the streets helping dogs in need by providing food and medical care. 

Many animals are starving every day. Street Dog Care is buying bags of dog food and offering them for free to anyone who is willing to feed the street dogs in their community. Together with the help of the amazing volunteers, more than one thousand street dogs are being fed in Kathmandu daily.

Donate even a small amount on Chokhor Duchen to help buy bags of dog food for the volunteers to feed the street dogs.

A volunteer feeding street dogs, Street Dog Care e-newsletter.

Here is an update from Street Dog Care's Summer 2020 e-newsletter.

Lockdown in Kathmandu & Feeding Dogs

"Starting march 23rd the government of Nepal decided to start lockdown for safety reasons of COVID-19. Since then the lockdown has been extented again and again, now until July 22th. So we have been almost four months in lockdown. The roads are empty with very few people and vehicles.

"We had to close our Saturday camp activity, but continued with our regular work on the roads to help sick dogs. We are also feeding our dogs daily, so they are not deprived of food. With all the hotels and shops closed many animals are starving on the roads everyday. The dogs near our SDC Boudha office and the Stupa dogs, altogether 58 dogs, are getting each day a hot meal, which we cook - they get rice and meat with some salt and turmeric.

"We are also very thankful to all our donors for donating big packs of dog food so we can distribute it to our animal helpers, who give it to the street dogs. We are also very thankful to the great community team for feeding the dogs. Working together we are able to feed more than 1,000 dogs a day now, all over Kathmandu. Thank you everyone for your great support and love!

Bags of donated dog food, Street Dog Care e-newsletter.

"You can also see a list of areas and roads that our helpers cover:

Area 1 and 3: Street Dog Care (58 dogs)
-SDC Boudha office
-Siddhartha hall
-inside the Boudha Stupa
-near Dilyak monastery and Amrita house
-Arab bank

Area 2: Karma Yangzem (4 dogs)
-behind Himalayan Java
-near Arya Chaitya guest house

Area 4: Sonam Sherpa (20 dogs)
-near tashi school
-Sundartole
-on the way to Teenchuli from White Monastery

Area 5: Rojina Tamang (10 dogs)
-near Gyanmala school
and Ramhiti area

A volunteer picking up donated dog food, Street Dog Care Facebook.

Area 6: Snilu Shah (30 dogs)

Area 7: Raisa (20 dogs)
-near Arunima school

Area 8: Melanie (RYI) (37 dogs)
-main road from Pasang Lhamu chowk to Mahankal Chowk

Area 9: Lucky Sherpa (20 dogs)
- Narayantar to Chhare Club

Area 10: Gwen and Tara (10 dogs)
-near Shechen Monastery

Area 11: Sabita (20 dogs)
-Gaurighat area near Pashupati

Volunteers picking up donated dog food, Street Dog Care e-newsletter.

Area 12: Rumba Tamang (15 dogs)
-from Kukurika Restaurant to the fruit shop on the way to Boudha

Area 13: Sabina (20 dogs)
-Nayabasti area

Area 14: Neha Shrestha (30 dogs)
-Maitidevi area

Area 15: Ani Catherine (23-32 dogs)
-Bodhi guest house to Teenchuli Chowk

Area 16: Tina Didi (10 dogs)
-behind Hyatt hotel

Area 17: Lopon Dorje (10 dogs)
-White Monastery road/Mahankal side

Street dog enjoying a meal at the Boudha Stupa, Street Dog Care e-newsletter.

Area 18: Daniel (50 dogs)
-Royal gym, Pipalbot

Area 19: Daniel (60 dogs)
-Tusal, Prithvi hall, Kumari Temple, Laurey Tole

Area 20: Roshan Singh Basnet (8 dogs)
-Narayantar near orthopedic hospital

Area 21: Pemba Sherpa (6 dogs)
-from Paika chowk to Ramnagar party palace

Area 22: Bishnu (8 dogs)
-Ramhiti

Area 23: Rabin Lama (5 dogs)
-Tusal

Area 24: Puja (8 dogs)
-from Tamang Monastery to shiva mandir

A volunteer feeding street puppies, Street Dog Care e-newsletter.

Area 25: Jyoti Kunja (15 dogs)
-Boudha simlattar

Area 26: Pasang Lamo (30-40 dogs)
-near Mahankal road

Area 27: Reecha (10 dogs)
-Golfutar (near neuro hospital)

Area 28: Nirupa (12 dogs)
-Kalanki

Area 29: Mingmar Sherpa (5 dogs)
-Teenchuli

Area 30: Buddha (20 dogs)
-Kapan

Area 31: Jagdish (7-8 dogs)
-Chabahil near ringroad

Area 32: Pranisha Bhandari (10 dogs)
-Sundarijal/Gokarna area

Area 33: Chandrakala (10 dogs)
-Bhaktapur Kausalatar-Tersatar

Area 34: Upendra Pathak (5 dogs)
- near women's foundation

Two street dogs enjoying their meals, Street Dog Care e-newsletter.

Area 35: Manisha from Suryabainayak Bhaktapur (25 dogs)
-Bhaktapur Area

Area 36: Mile Bajraacharya and Siddhartha Manandar from Putalisadak Bhrikutimandap (15 dogs)
-near Tripureshwor

Area 37: Sachina from Kirtipur (30 dogs)
-towards Lalitpur side

Area 38: Tina didi from G cafe (5 dogs)
-Boudhanagar

Area 39: Sunmaya Tamang (15 dogs)
-Mahankal Chowk to Bhrikuti Chowk and Milan chowk

Area 40: Nima Sherpa (8 dogs)
-Jorpati Sundartole

Area 41: Chelish (6 dogs)
-Swayambhu near Chhauni Museum

Street Dogs enjoying their meals, Street Dog Care Facebook.

Area 42: Coralie (7-8 dogs)
-from hotel tibet to Chhuchepati petrol pump

Area 43: Suresh (25 dogs)
-Arab bank meat shop

Area 44: KFC Building owner in Tusal (3 dogs)
-in front of KFC Tusal

Area 45: Shakuntala and Bijaya (100 dogs)
-Satungel, Thankot

Area 46: Ruby Karanjip (5 dogs)
-Gopikrishna

Area 47: Abhishek Shrestha (20 dogs)
- Gokarna-Jagdol

Area 48: Saurav (15 dogs)
-Gokarna forest

Volunteers picking up donated dog food, Street Dog Care e-newsletter.

Area 49: Gori Sanu (15 dogs)
- Nayabasti

Area 50: Ram Suman and Suman (12-15 dogs)
-Danchhi, Sankhu

Area 51: Sandesh (15-20 dogs)
- Rastrayapati Bhawan

Area 52: Hira (10 dogs)
- Near Venus school

Area 53: Sanumaya (13 dogs)
-Aani gumba Kapan

Area 54: Nima (12-15 dogs)
- Sundartole

Area 55: Pramila (7 dogs)
-Barack petrol pump

"Wonderful helpers all around Kathmandu!

Thank you for loving and helping our street dogs during the lockdown and beyond.

You can see the map below, the circle in blue marks Boudhanath.

Areas and roads Street Dog Care helpers cover, Street Dog Care e-newsletter.

You can see the food that we could buy thanks to all of you kind donors, we are handing out each day to people, who help us feeding the dogs - they come from all over Kathmandu."

Street Dog Care shelter, Street Dog Care e-newsletter.

For more heartwarming photos of volunteers providing street dogs with love and meals visit the Street Dog Care Facebook page.

Nepal Adventure in Photos

I arrived at the Kathmandu, Nepal airport last November 5 ready for the month long "November Course" at Tibetan Buddhism study center Kopan Monastery in Kathmandu.

I lived at Kopan Monastery for the following 45 days.

I left Kopan Monastery on December 20 for Gaden Jangtse monastery in south India to continue my studies with His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama.

These are the highlights of my time in Nepal - in photos.

Welcome to Nepal and Kopan Monastery, my home for the following 45 days.

A tour of Kopan Monastery's campus.

A tour of nearby Khachoe Chakyil Ling Nunnery (Kopan Nunnery), which like Kopan Monastery was founded by Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Lama Yeshe and is part of NGO Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition.

The November Course was held in the main gompa at Kopan Monastery. The middle row is a photo of my seat and books.

November 16, 2014 Thought for the Day written on the Kopan Monastery office message board.

Life during the Kopan Monastery November Course. That's my bed in the bottom right corner, and an amazing book I was reading, The Search for the Panchen Lama, in the top right corner.

Kopan Monastery is a functioning monastery for young men from Tibet, India, and Nepal. They live, study, work, and practice Tibetan Buddhism at Kopan Monastery year-round.

Friends and my Kopan Monastery November Course Discussion Group. We met daily to discuss the material taught by our teacher, western monk Venerable Thubten Gyatso, who is in the middle right photo.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche arrived at Kopan Monastery on Thanksgiving Day, Nov 27. He taught us daily from Nov 30 until Dec 9. 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave his first teaching during this year's November Course in the Kopan Monastery stupa garden on the evening of Nov 27.

I looked at this Wheel of Life painted on the outside of the Kopan Monastery main gompa each time I placed or retrieved my shoes from the shoe rack below it. 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching in the Kopan Monastery gompa as part of the November Course.

We took a tour of nearby Enlightenment for Animals on Nov 26, home to rescued goats. Injured cow Christmas lives at Kopan Monastery. Enlightenment for Animals, Kopan monks and nuns, friend Lama Dhundup, fellow students, neighbors and I looked after a sick male calf discarded outside of the Kopan Nunnery. Some male calves are not valued because they don't produce milk. In the USA they are sold for their flesh and hides, used to make "buttery soft" leather goods.

Kopan November Course field trip to practice at nearby UNESCO world heritage site Boudha Stupa, the holiest site for Tibetan Buddhists outside of Tibet.

Kopan Monastery November Course field trip to practice at nearby Swayambhunath Stupa.

We concluded the 2014 November Course on Dec 11 with a Long Life Puja for Lama Zopa Rinpoche, held in the Kopan Monastery main gompa.

The Long Life Puja celebration continued outside of Kopan Monastery with guests of honor the very young Geshe Lama Konchog and his student Tenzin Zopa whose stories are told in the 2008 film Unmistaken Child.

Celebrating Lama Tsongkhapa Day with Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Kopan monks and fellow students at Kopan Monastery.

Exploring Kathmandu, Nepal before the November Course began on Nov 11 and after it finished on Dec 11. Students taking the November Course are not permitted to leave Kopan Monastery's campus during the course.

Historic Durbar Square, Kathmandu.

Volunteering with Street Dog Care in Kathmandu.

Visiting Room to Read's Nepal office, Teach for Nepal, Padmaknya Multiple Campus (women's college), and the US Educational Foundation center in Nepal.

Visiting Lama Dhundup's Bo Gangkar Manjushree School for Nepali youth from rural Nepal. More in an upcoming post.

Visiting and practicing at Swayambhunath Stupa with Sumi.

Nuns and youth entering the site of the sacred Boudha Stupa.

Visiting and practicing at Boudha Stupa.

Boudha Stupa at night.

If you would like to read the stories behind these photos then you can check out my three blog posts from Nepal: My First Week in Nepal, Kopan Monastery November Course and Last 5 Days in Nepal.

The Kopan Monastery November Course is an annual event. This year's November Course runs from November 14 - December 14. Registration begins on August 15. The course fills quickly so register as soon as possible if you intend to take the course this year.