ABOUT US:

 

Perched high above the semi-nomadic Tibetan village of GarGon at 4,200 meters sits Garchen Institute Tibet. Founded by Garchen Rinpoche as a monastic university, Garchen Institute Tibet has transformed to become a center for Eco-Dharma. Courses are offered to all who desire to deepen their connection with nature and their understanding of Buddhist practice and philosophy.

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Pureland Travels promotes physical and spiritual well-being through recognizing the interdependent relationship between humans and nature. We leverage best practices to support Tibetan nomads in Tibet and spread their wisdom to the Western world. Our aspiration is to support sustainable living practices in Tibet and the Americas. 

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The Institute's purpose is to support and encourage sustainable living rooted in human-nature connection. We provide sustainability and wellness education and resources to Tibetan nomadic people while sharing their wisdom of sustainable practices to the rest of the world. 

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OUR OFFERINGS:

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The Garchen Institute Tibet is based on the concept of ahimsa, or non-violence. Each teacher, student, or practitioner involved in the Center will take on temporary vows: sobriety, vegetarianism, no sexual misconduct, zero waste, no lying, no cheating, no bigotry, and no stealing. 

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Our primary objective in opening the Garchen Institute Tibet is to offer a variety of courses and skill-shares to foreign and domestic tourists as well as local Tibetan communities. The curriculum will support cultural resilience while providing economic support through employment and business opportunities. Our aim is to increase connections between humans and nature. We seek to build resiliency by providing our students with an education in the contemplative arts and sciences, and the traditional skills of the nomad.

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Learn more about each area of study below.

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མགར་འཚེ་མེད་ལེ་གནས་ནི་ཞི་བ་དང་འཚེ་བ་མེད་པའི་གཞི་རྩའི་ཐོག་ཚུགས་ཤིང་། འདི་ལ་ཞུགས་པའི་དགེ་རྒན་དང་སློབ་མ། ཉམས་ལེན་པ་སུ་ཡིན་རུང་གནས་སྐབས་ཀྱི་སྡོམ་ཁྲིམས་རེ་ལེན་དགོས། དུད་ཆང་ལ་མི་རོལ་བ། དམར་ཟས་སྤངས་བ། ལོག་གཡེམ་སྤངས་བ། སྤྱོད་ངན་དོར་བ། གད་སྙིགས་མེད་པ། རྫུན་མི་སྨྲ་བ། མགོ་གཡོག་མི་བྱེད་པ། ཕྲ་མ་མི་བཅུག་པ་དང་མ་བྱིན་པ་ལེན་པ་སྤངས་དགོས། 

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ང་ཚོས་མགར་འཚེ་མེད་ལྟེ་གནས་འདིའི་ཐོག་མའི་དམིགས་ཡུལ་འདི་ཕྱི་འོང་ལྗོངས་རྒྱུ་བ་དང་ཡུལ་མི་དག་ལ་ལག་རྩལ་དང་ནང་ཆོས་ཀྱི་གཟབ་སྦྱོང་བྱེད་རྒྱུ་དང་། ས་གནས་ཀྱི་དཔལ་འབྱོར་དང་རིག་གནས་ལ་ཕན་ཐོགས་པའི་སྦྱང་གཞི་བསྒྲིག་གཏན་བྱེད་རྒྱུ་དང་ཡུལ་མི་ལ་ལས་ཀའི་གོ་སྐབས་འབུལ་རྒྱུ་ཡིན། ང་ཚོས་མི་དང་རང་བྱུང་གཅིག་གྱུར་ལ་འབད་ཅིང་ང་ཚོས་བསམ་བློ་ཚན་རིག་ཟུང་སྡེབ་ཀྱིས་འབྲོག་པ་དག་དེང་རབས་དང་སྲོལ་རྒྱུན་གྱི་ཤེས་བྱ་དང་ལག་རྩལ་ལྡན་པར་བཟོ་བའི་དམིགས་ཡུལ་ཡོད།

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Courses will fall under four areas of transformation: 

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Body / Wellness: Natural Medicine, Adventure Education, Recovery and Wilderness Therapy, Traditional Culinary Arts.

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Mind / Academic: Tibetan & Bon Philosophy; Tibetan, Chinese, and  English Language.

 

Spirit / Contemplative Arts and Sciences: Mindfulness, Yoga, Recovery Programs. 

 

Culture: Makers Workshops, Exchange in Indigenous Arts, Children’s nomad camps.

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7am yoga in the temple room:

A one hour hatha all levels class is taught by a Yoga Alliance certified yoga instructor each morning. You are very welcome to try yoga for the first time, or to deepen your practice. We will work on strengthening not only our physical bodies, but also our minds through focused asana/ body postures, pranayama/ breathwork and meditation. Instruction will be offered in English and translation will be available. 100RMB

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8am meditation in the temple room:

A one hour guided meditation is offered each morning. The instructor will have over 20 years of meditation experience and has been authorized by Garchen Rinpoche to share meditation techniques. From simple mindfulness meditation to deep dives into the heart, we will work with you to decrease your stress and increase your happiness. Instruction will be offered in English and translation will be available. 100RMB

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10am philosophy in the temple room:

Tibetan Philosophy is quite complex. Our teachers have masters and doctoral level of study in philosophy. You can listen to their commentary of the Buddhas teachings and also have a question and answer session with them afterwards. Discussion and differing views are ALWAYS WELCOME. 100RMB

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1-3pm nomadic handicraft and survival lessons in workshop rooms *all fees include materials and transportation if necessary. Please call ahead to schedule the lesson:

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There are millions of skills only nomads have. Some are easier to study in an afternoon than others. Our cultural teachers are experts at skills that the world is losing. But your interest fuels the survival of such knowledge. 

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Wild Foraging:

Have you ever wondered what plants you can eat when you are walking in the mountains? Come take a walk with a nomad and they will find abundant food for you and show you how to identify and eat it. 200rmb

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Clay statue making:

Try making your own tsa tsa, collect earth, pound it into clay and make a beautiful statue that you will dry in the sunshine. 200rmb

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Weaving:

Process wool into yarn and learn how to use a traditional loom to weave a small masterpiece! 300rmb

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WoodWorking:

This is one of the skills that was almost lost in this region. Yet through technology we are trying to revive this art and you can help! Learn the skills of a Tibetan carpenter, learn how you can carve your own tools.350rmb

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Cooking:

Tibetan cooking may look simple...but those dumplings are to die for. Learn how to make momos, and noodle soup, and tibetan bread among other delicious recipes. 200rmb

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Thangka Painting:

Thangka painting is a skill that takes years to master. Yet you can learn to apply color to a pre sketched drawing of a simple mandala. Take classes for a day or weeks to learn these skills from a young, but traditional painter! 300rmb

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English Classes:

English Classes will be held daily for free monday through friday for the local community. Dates To Be Announced.

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Financial Literacy Course:

There will be a free weekend-long financial literacy course for the local community. Dates To Be Announced.

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Women's Soccar & Baseketball Camp:

We will be offering a camp throughout the month of June to teach middle school girls Basketball and Football(Soccer). 30 local girls will be accepted into the program.

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Computer Bootcamp:

There will be a free 10 day long computer course taught for local community members. Basics of typing, word processing in Tibetan and Chinese will be taught as well as how to use software like excel and word.

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