No One Practises Alone

A monastery is built from more than prayer halls, classrooms and living quarters. It is built from relationships.

At Dzongkar Choede, more than 300 monks of different ages and backgrounds share one life. They study and pray together, prepare food, maintain common spaces, care for the young and elderly, and take responsibility for the practical work through which the community continues.

Community life is where spiritual aspirations take form — in patience, responsibility and care for others. It teaches patience when differences arise, generosity when another person needs help and humility in the countless tasks that attract no attention. Harmony is not assumed; it is renewed through listening, responsibility and mutual care.

Every monk follows his own path of learning and transformation, but no one walks that path alone. Each life becomes part of something larger: a community shaped by shared discipline, shared purpose and the understanding that our well-being is inseparable from the well-being of others.

What Holds It Together

Tasks, Assigned

Everyone here has jobs. Cooking, sweeping, carrying, setting out the hall before a ceremony, sitting with an elder who can no longer walk to the dining room easily. The tasks are assigned, they rotate, and they are done.

What a visitor notices is what is missing: the flicker of this is beneath me. It is community service, in the plain sense of both words — service, in service of living together.

Where Monks Come From

Monks arrive from the Himalayan border regions — the Monpa community of Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh, from Nepal, and from the Tsum valley — and from Tibetan settlements across India. Some come as children, some as adults.

They join a khangtsen, a residential house within the monastery, and that is where the practical business of being looked after and learning to look after others actually happens.

Community

Dzongkar Choede is a living monastic community of more than 300 monks. Alongside study, prayer and ritual, the monastery sustains the practical structures that make that life possible — Buddhist education, a western-style school, and care for the health of the Sangha.

Explore the Community

Life Together

The monastery is shaped by a daily rhythm of prayer, study, debate, ritual, work, and shared responsibility. Read about life together at the monastery.

Buddhist Education

Young monks are formed through Buddhist philosophy, logic, debate, meditation, ritual practice, memorization, chanting, and the traditional ritual arts.

Western School

Alongside monastic training, the school teaches Tibetan reading and writing, English, Chinese, history, mathematics, and computer studies.

Healthcare Center

The monastery's Health Clinic cares for the welfare of the Sangha through daily hygiene support, minor treatment, health guidance, and hospital referrals.

If this resonates with you

The monastery has stood since 1270 and will quietly continue on its path. If something here speaks to you, consider making a contribution — and walking part of the way with us.

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