2-D Animation videos

After attending the basic animation training, LME was able to produce two short 2D animation videos. The animations are based on stories that have Buddhist morals and values. Both the videos are intended for educational purposes and augmentation of the LME curriculum. The aim of the project is to create materials that meet the preference of current young people and kids’ mindset. Thus, we are exploring using modern tools to educate the ancient wisdom tradition for our young students.

Of the two animations, the first one is about Milarepa’s first meet with his teacher the Marpa that took place in a field. Here, the Marpa asked Milarepa to plough the field. Thus, this simple task in the field became the auspicious link to Milarepa fulfilling the great task of liberating sentient beings. The video conveys the message of interdependence, power of causes and effects, and devotion.

The second video, titled “Busuku”, is about a Shantideva, who taught the Buddhist text the Bodhicharyavatara. The video (1:11 minutes) shows Busuku appearing on the high thorn, teaching a large audience, and disappearing into the sky. The video has a message of how one must not throw judgment on others.

We will keep on producing similar short animations for educational purposes.

Student’s Community Based Project Work

Lhomon Education students are engaged in a few project works in and around the Institute as a part of the Lhomon curriculum. The project is aimed to engage students in practical applications of what they have learned in the classroom. It is to create an opportunity for students to think about learning beyond the classroom, to help develop the knowledge, behaviours, ideas, and to make them see the connection between the classroom and real-life learning. Project-based learning is not only intended to provide opportunities for students to collaborate or drive their own learning, but it also is to teach them skills and values such as problem-solving, helping others, learning to give back and developing additional skills integral to their future, such as critical thinking and time management.

The project works included, constructing an incense shelter, maintaining a footpath, making a flower garden, stitching prostration cushion, constructing a birdhouse,  designing Embroider, developing a mini-organic garden, designing a compost pit, constructing a material recovery facility (MRF) and maintaining a compost toilet in the institute. All these ideas are brainstormed and proposed by our students as a part of the project process. For students, the entire process—from brainstorming to sharing ideas, taking responsibility to collaborate, and planning to implement the project—were all enriching and learning experiences.

Here are some statements made by a few students as they were executing their respective project work.

Karma Wangchuk, who worked on the cushion project, said, “My plan was to stitch, hand gloves out of the waste blanket. First, I could not come up with a hand glove as it was too big. I made mistake in measurement. When I did the second time, it was accurate measurement and could come up with a pair of good hand gloves to be used for prostration.”

Eugene Chophel, who worked on a flower garden project, said, “I did not know that sawdust can be used to prepare manure for the garden until I did this project.”

Jigme Tshering, who worked on an embroidery project, said, “Before last year, I saw my elder brothers working on an embroidery project, I did not learn from them then. Now when I do this project myself, it is not so easy. However, with the help of my friends, finally, I could come up with small beautiful embroidery of the flower.”

Pema Tashi, after working on a mini-garden project. said, “Now I realize how difficult it is to plant vegetables and consume them.” Jangchub Dorji, another student who worked on the same project, said, “We have to appreciate our farmers for the vegetables that they provide to us.”

Chador, who worked on the footpath project, said, “I feel proud of myself and I think that Memi (old man) will walk freely without any problem on this footpath”. Tashi Dorji, from the same project, stated, “From this project, I learned how to benefit others through kindness and compassion. I have been able to solve at least a few sufferings.” Analyzing all these statements carefully, we can conclude that our students are exposed to wide ranges of learning opportunities that taught them skills and values that are fun, interactive, inquiry-based, experiential, and contextual. 

A Student meets his teacher in a field

 

The first encounter between yogi Milarepa and his teacher, the Marpa took place in a field. Here, the teacher asked his student to plow the field. Thus, this simple task in the field became the auspicious link to Milarepa fulfilling the great task of liberating sentient beings. The video conveys the message of interdependence, power of causes and effects, and devotion.

The Busuku

 

The video, titled “Busuku”, is about a Shantideva, who taught the Buddhist text the Bodhicharyavatara. The video (1:11 minutes) shows Busuku appearing on the high thorn, teaching a large audience, and disappearing into the sky. The video has a message of how one must not throw judgment on others based on a few physical circumstances.

After attending the basic animation training, LME was able to produce two short 2D animation videos. One video will be uploaded soon. The animations are based on stories that have Buddhist morals and values. Both the videos are intended for educational purposes and augmentation of the LME curriculum. The aim of the project is to create materials that meet the preference of current young people and kids’ mindset. Thus, we are exploring to use of modern tools to educate the ancient wisdom tradition for our young students.

We will keep on producing similar short animations for educational purposes.

Kitchen Garden Project

If there is a simple choice to harvest vegetables, it is from our own garden. This is a matter of our own conscious efforts in what we need to eat. We must know that the real nutritious, healthy, and organic food originates from our own garden.

In the wake of pandemic restriction on the import of vegetables from India, cultivating them in our backyard has become a simple possibility. The restriction is in many ways blessing in disguise. Had it not been for the situation, many of us would have been consciously or unconsciously importing food and exporting our money. As a result, we would have played our roles that continue to impact our local economy, environment, indigenous knowledge, and our own health.

As we’ve witnessed, the pandemic has imposed us to produce our own food. It was our farmers who worked hard to produce our foods. They have saved us from going without essential foods.

While farmers are playing their roles to meet the need of nations, it is our responsibility to play our parts. For LME teachers, we have explored a mini kitchen garden at home. We planted chilli, bean, spinach, and other vegetables for our consumption. There were enough vegetables for our own consumption during the lockdown.

Now, we are exploring to set up a kitchen garden for Khenchen and lamas’ residence as a student project. Phase one is completed by setting up a backyard garden for Khenchen and sowing some seeds. Besides, we distributed 15 boxes (52cm by 35cm), filled with soil and manure to seven senior lamas. These boxes are sown with seeds including spinach, radish, beans, and coriander. The lamas were responsible to water the garden, take care of it and harvest the products for themselves.

Moving on, we will explore more such options to encourage ourselves to produce our own food in our small ways and cut down imports as much as possible.

After all, it’s very healthy to consume food that has the shortest journey. This journey begins with your choice.

Digital Illustration Program

The Lhomon Education and Chokyi Gyatso Institute has organized a basic Graphic Designing and Animation training program for the monks and teachers in the Institute for the last few months. The training focused on providing opportunities to learn about illustrations and animations to uplift their knowledge of technology and e-learning materials. The students are trained in creating digital illustrations using their sketches, online references and basics motion graphics using software like Photoshop and Aftereffects.

In particular, the training has benefited our students to reconsider and revive their interest in doing art. The new form of art has particularly inspired those students who lack manual art skills as well as other students who take interest in the art. Jigme Dorji, 16 years old, one of the participants has to say “I am very poor in art. So, I did not give much interest to learn the art. After joining the illustration class, my interest regained. I got many new ideas to do things digitally. It was my new experience to do art on the computer. I hope it will benefit those who do not like to do art manually. I would like to urge all the youth to take part in the Photoshop class as it gives new life to art”.

Many of our students are doing digital art for the first time, so whatever they have been learning are new things for them. Our students seem to have a lot of fun particularly exploring new tools to create designs, shapes, shades, figures, and arts. Here is what Tashi Dendup, 15 years old has to say “I got an opportunity to learn about digital art (Photoshop) for the very first time and it was a fun and great class for me. In this digital world, I must say that digital works are very important and it would be a great benefit for us to receive further courses.”

Another participant, Tenzin Jamtsho, 18, said, “I never had any idea about Photoshop before. I wasn’t interested. To be frank, I was a bit irritated when I heard the news of taking IT classes, but once I joined the classes, it was interesting. I gained a lot of ideas and knowledge, as well as it was fun. “

 Tshering Dorji, 23, said, “It was my very first time to attend such class (related to artworks and digital) and I felt satisfied with it. It was a good opportunity to have such a course for me. I am expressing my gratitude to the facilitator, Sherab Sir, and my Institute for letting me take part in the training.”

Sanga Dorji, 24, one of the senior monks, who had some experience in Photoshop said, “I have yearned to learn Photoshop for two years. I would like to offer my heartiest gratitude for this wonderful opportunity. I am happy and like to thank my Institute for letting me learn Photoshop. It was a great class for me. As I like Artworks myself, I am sure that I can make great use out of them to help my Institute. And I also would like to suggest making such courses available to youths. As we are moving in the digital world, I found it as a mandatory tool”

The training is facilitated by Mr Sherab Thai, a Creative Director/Designer of AwesomeBhutan. We would like to thank AwesomeBhutan.

This is the 21^st century and to make possible this kind of digital education for our young people is a necessary step. We will keep on exploring such opportunities for our students in the future.

Online Mindfulness Talk – By Khenpo Sonam Phuntsho

Lhomon Education (LME) organized an online talk with Khenpo Sonam Phuntsho on 21st June 2020, coinciding with the end of the Festival of Vaishakha (Saga Dawa Duchen) and the solar eclipse. The talk was organized as a follow-up of the winter mindfulness retreat that happened in December 2019 at Chokyi Gyatso Institute, Dewathang.

The objective of the talk was to remind the participants of the importance of mindfulness practice during this COVID situation and to encourage them to practice it consistently. It was also to celebrate the Vaishakha month and the birth anniversary of our root guru, Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche.

Khenpo talked about mindfulness practices within the frame of view, meditation, and action. He emphasized the importance of understanding the view as a basic foundation for the practice to develop genuine wisdom and insight.

The Khenpo reminded us about the seven body postures, steps to develop concentration and to apply vigilance and awareness in the practice.

Khenpo said one of the obstacles to practice is laziness (lack of interest); therefore it is important for beginners to put effort and be determined in the practice. Khenpo advised the participants to keep the practice short and consistent.

As a part of the Q&A session, one of the participants, who have practised for the last six months, said she feels discouraged to continue with no improvement in her practice. To this, Khenpo advised her to continue her practice with no expectation. He also said that, if you KNOW that your practice is not going well, it means your practice is happening. So, he encouraged her to put effort without thinking about goals. The past retreat participants including teachers, monks, and youth from different schools attended the talk through the Zoom application.

The LME is encouraged to organize such online sessions using technology and social media platform. It gave us new ideas and experience as we explore different modes of educating people, particularly during this pandemic situation. This experience will be useful in the post-pandemic as well.

A practice for LME

One unique LME quality that we believe sets us apart from conventional secular approaches to education is that to teach effectively, we believe our LME teachers should not only be well versed in western/modern educational processes but must also be familiar with basic eastern philosophies that have been central to Buddha’s wisdom traditions for thousands of years.

To provide this opportunity, LME often creates a platform to practice on several occasions. One such occasion was on 5th June 2020, where meditation, prayer, and smoke offering practices were carried with few people from the neighbourhood corresponding to the 15th day of the Festival of Vaishakha month.

The practice was organized near the Martang community, approximately 25 kilometres away from Dewathang. It has a huge open cave with space to practice. The cave has three tall statues built against the cave wall, including Guru Rinpoche in the centre. There were shrine and shelter attached to the cave to perform rituals and do practices. It was a serene and beautiful place to practice with its intact nature, tall trees, surrounding rocks, and chirping birds.

Along the road, as we traveled to the practice site, we fed homemade food to more than 15 hungry stray dogs. The dogs were loitering along the roads away from the settlement in search of food. For the last two months, all the schools and educational institutions remained closed in Bhutan because of the pandemic. Thus the stray dogs were going hungry with no reliable food source.

The practice was attended by a small group of people, including farmers, businessmen, students, teachers, and the LME team. There were few of them in the group who never tried meditation practice. So, it was a good opportunity for LME to talk about the importance of the mind, meditation, its practices, and the rich tradition we have in Buddhism. Thereafter, we did a short and repeated practice for quite some time. Later, a few participants shared their thoughts on the practice. Many said that it was difficult for them to concentrate and focus their mind on the object of meditation. A couple of them shared that, they feel strange and feel like laughing.

The meditation practice was followed by smoke offering practice and other prayer recitation. This small step for LME is an opportunity to bring together the cognitive, contemplative and meditative dimensions of learning that are a hallmark of LME to its teachers and also to expand our help to other people in the locality. We will keep on expanding this opportunity.

 

Exploring Social Media for Education

Besides, LME teachers were successful in organizing their daily meetings using Zoom to discuss classes, work on lesson plans, organize professional development, reflection, and other LME activities. We are still in the process of exploring and using it. Flipgrid is another social learning platform that LME is using it. It allows teachers to create assignments to facilitate video discussion. Each assignment is like a message board where teachers can pose questions and their students can post video responses that appear in the display. Initially, we have been using the application to share a short reflection for the teachers; however, we extended its use to students to do 1 minute 30 seconds reading on a daily basis. Now, we have more than 40 students and 5 teachers who read every day using the application and share them on the display. It has several advantages of using it, first, the teacher can use the recorded video to help students improve reading, and second, it helps both students and teachers see improvement over time, third there is flexi-time to upload the video, next it is easy to use and facilitate interactive doable activity.

It has been a good learning experience for us to reconsider and recognize the importance of how we can make use of social media in education. We are excited and looking forward to the post-pandemic. Definitely, we see a lot of potential in this approach to education.

The COVID-19 virus, as it spreads across the globe, was an unexpected obstacle and disruption to many people and their work. For Lhomon Education (LME), we stopped our classes and teaching sessions as we came to know about few cases for Bhutanese travelling from abroad. Thereafter, Chokyi Gyatso Institute (where we teach), closed its gate for outside visitors and restricted its monks from leaving the campus. This necessary precautionary measure interrupted our normal classes and forced us to explore alternative means to organize classes and to engage our teachers and students.

So, we took this lockdown as an opportunity to work out our plan B to maneuver the current challenges. This is how we started to explore and use social media platforms. First, we used the Zoom application (teleconferencing software) to organize meetings with fellow teachers as an experiment. Then, gradually we used it to organize the classes with the students. The Zoom video conferencing provides a user-friendly interface with easy to use, high-quality HD video and audio, and collaboration facilities such as text chat and screen sharing. We were able to use these facilities to make interactive classes by sharing short videos, presentation slides, storyboards, images, texts, and audio. In the process of organizing several classes, we also learned how to conduct online classes interactively with slide shows, projecting photos, short videos, engaging in discussion, and keeping the session short.

Besides, we have used Messenger (Messaging app), Google Drive, email, WeChat, and Google classroom to communicate daily, exchange documents, and carry on the lesson plan. We will keep on using these applications and look for other platforms.

Shamata Meditation instruction by Khenpo Sonam Phuntsho

 

Khenpo Sonam Phuntsho presided over the 6th Winter Mindfulness Retreat at Chokyi Gyatso Institute, Dewathang for Bhutanese teachers, youth, and others in December 2019. Here is a short video instruction on shamata meditation that Khenpo gave to the participants of the retreat.

The winter mindfulness Retreat is a special opportunity for all of us to explore and understand our own Minds. It offers a space of simplicity and clarity, rarely experienced in our ordinary lives. Our goal is simply to give everyone a chance to experiment and explore the inner working of minds so that we may benefit ourselves, our students, community members, and others through our examples.

The Samtse Workshop on Art, Writing, Film and Spirituality

Samtse 2020 was a gathering of Bhutanese artists, writers, actors, singers, poets, filmmakers, explorers, musicians, painters, dancers, and creators, all coming together to celebrate our expressions and our reflections. This was coming together to celebrate Bhutanese creativity and spirituality.  It was all about reintroducing and reviving the connection between the creators and storytellers of today with the spiritual wisdom tradition of the past. It was a great opportunity for Lhomon Education (LME) to be a part of this program in understanding how education should unfold and accommodate these creativities into the curriculum and its activity.

Mr Dawa represented LME at the workshop which was a joint initiative between The Samtse (Khey-chi Khey-chi) and the Royal University of Bhutan. The inaugural workshop was scheduled at the Samtse College of Education (SCOE), from the 7th of March to the 10th of March, 2020. The workshop saw leading Bhutanese and foreign figures from the fields of art, writing, filmmaking and other spheres of creativity, together with the future teachers of Bhutan who is present students of SCOE.

The four-day workshop was to provide an opportunity for attendees to exchange views, experiences and ideas in ways that can encourage and foster creativity and

spirituality in their lives and their respective fields of interest. Through interactive sessions, film screenings, creative performances and discussions, the workshop was to reintroduce and revive the ancient connections between the storytellers and the future teachers of Bhutan on the one hand and the wisdom traditions of our rich spiritual heritage on the other.

The workshop was also to bridge and connect leading Bhutanese artists and creators with acclaimed international artists, especially artists who have been true in keeping the element of ‘spirituality as their primary inspiration for creativity. Through such interactions, the organizers seek to empower and inspire our own homegrown talents and creators to take the initiative to create authentic Bhutanese stories on their own unique canvases.

Following the inaugural workshop, the Samtse in collaboration with the Royal University of Bhutan will create a calendar of activities to work towards establishing Samtse as a centre for contemplation and art to nurture and promote spirituality and creativity with a focus on our youth.

Bird House Project

 

A Birdhouse project is a mini project initiated by Lhomon Education students. In this short video, you will be able to see the process of work involved in it.  The project is carried out with an aspiration to benefit birds and other beings in and around Chokyi Gyatso Institute. The materials used for the construction of the birdhouses are done consciously. Thus, the use of plastics, rubbers, and paints are discouraged.

Place-Based Education Training of Trainer (ToT)

 Tara Nidi, a teacher with Lhomon Education took part in Place-Based Education Training of Trainer (ToT) at Samdrup Jongkhar from 6^th to 10^th of January 2020 offered by the Royal Education Council (REC).

PBE is one of the best practices LME has adopted since its inception, It is organized in such a way that it cuts across subject matters, bringing together many aspects of subject matters into a meaningful association that focus on broad areas of studies.

Thus, it was a good opportunity for LME to take part in Place-Based Education Training of Trainer to enhance understanding of our existing practices, learn how PBE happens in mainstream education, and adopt new ideas and method in our curriculum.