Senior citizens' home in monastery supports aged monks- People's Daily Online

Senior citizens' home in monastery supports aged monks

16:28, April 08, 2009

Braised eggplants, stirfried bamboo shoots, steamed bread and tsampa (roasted barley with butter and cheese)… aged Tibetan monks, sitting around a table, are enjoying their food while talking and laughing.

The monks are from the Home for Senior Citizens in the Wutunxia Monastery in Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, southeast Qinghai Province. Although they have no children to support them like most aged people around China, they can still enjoy a good life in their old age.

The idea of building a home for senior citizens was proposed by Gasang Luose, former abbot of the monastery. After one year of construction and decoration, the five-bungalow home officially opened in April, 2008, with donations from the former abbot and other people. All monks over the age of 55 in the monastery and neighboring monasteries can get free food and medicines there.

Gasang Luose has been studying sutras, the Han language, drawing of thangka since he was a young man. He became a monk at the age of 18 and studied in the best institution for Tibetan Buddhism in China -- Senior Tibetan Buddhism College of China.

He learned management of monasteries from Han Buddhist monasteries in inland China. Having seen monks in those monasteries eating food together and visited senior citizens' homes in big inland cities, he came up with the idea to build a similar one for aged monks.

"Monks in monasteries engaged in the Yellow Sect (Gelug Sect) are not in the tradition of dining together. As they are childless, they have to cook and take care of themselves when they are getting old. Therefore, building a senior citizens' home can not only support the aged monks, but also relieve young monks of their worry about aging, thus they can concentrate on studying Buddhism," said Gasang Luose.

Gangsang Luose hired a cook for the senior citizens' home. The food includes not only traditional one like tsampa and butter, but also cooked dishes, rice and steamed bread. By now, there are about ten aged monks eating everyday.

"Before (the building of the senior citizens' home), I had to cook for myself. But now, we have someone cook for us. We don't have to worry about it any more. Moreover, the cook buys us almond juice and other fruit juice and biscuits from time to time. Everyday we have enough to eat and eat well," said 57-year-old Xiawucai in unfluent Han language, with his face beaming with joy.

There is also a drug store in the senior citizen home. In a double-deck Tibetan style storage cabinet, there are a dozen types of medicine, with daily medicines for cold and inflammation available.

"Monks with minor illness like cold, high fever, stomache and ache in abdomen can get free medicines from the drug store. At present, we don't have a large variety of medicine, but we will have more medicine gradually, " said Gasang Luose.

The founder of the senior citizen home hopes that, with his efforts and the help of people outside the monastery, the home for the aged can become a real senior citizens' home. Aged monks can not only gain good support, but also enjoy a happy and diverse life.

Source:Xinhua