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Terdrom Consensus Community
An overview of the Terdrom Consensus Community, including eco-tourism hotel, cultural center, medical clinic and hot springs.
Terdrom Eco-tourism lodge is in its final stages of construction
By restoring historical buildings, traditional architecture is preserved.
Cultural center and medical clinic in construction phase.
Terdom’s environmentally unique hot springs and adjacent grottos and rock formations.
Construction phase example of traditional window treatments and stone masonry.
Location: Terdrom, Tibetan Autonomous Region, China
Commenced Date: 2008
Project Vision:
Terdrom belongs to Medro Kongkar County, the poorest region of the Lhasa Prefecture. The project site is located a half-day’s drive from Lhasa in a rural, mountainous location approximately 4,200 meters above sea level.
The Terdrom valley has a rich cultural history connected to the Nyingma and Drigung-Kagyu lineages of Tibetan Buddhism and is also revered as a power place associated with mythical, serpent-like beings known as nagas. The region’s extraordinary geography, medicinal thermal springs, and meditation sites associated with Padmasambhava, the 8th century “Lotus-Born” master credited with bringing Buddhism to Tibet, deserve both protection and culturally sustainable development.
Shambhala’s eco-tourism lodge at Terdrom will provide a defense against crass commercialization while protecting the region’s cultural and natural heritage. Without such efforts, Terdrom will be developed recklessly by Chinese entrepreneurs, as is occurring in most areas of natural and cultural importance in Tibet, with serious environmental consequences.
One of the most serious concerns is the potential damage to sacred meditation grounds that are of immeasurable importance to the Tibetan people. There is also an acute need to protect Terdom’s environmentally unique hot springs and adjacent grottos and rock formations that are currently threatened by insensitive Chinese tourism initiatives.
The eco-lodge at Terdrom is built almost entirely from salvaged wood and stone from historic buildings in the Lhasa region. The lodge is centered around natural, therapeutic hot springs, while revered meditation caves permeate the surrounding cliffs and rock formations. The healing, thermal waters are channeled into many of the rooms. Additional facilities include a Tibetan Medical Spa, yoga hall, and library and research center. The eco-lodge will offer structured retreat programs and training in Tibetan yoga and provides an optimal setting for exploring the Terdrom valley’s extraordinary natural, cultural, and spiritual resources.
Adjacent to the eco-tourism lodge, Shambhala has constructed a cultural center, made possible through the support of the Royal Netherlands Embassy in Beijing. The eco-tourism lodge and cultural center encourage sustainable development in the following ways:
- Preserving a large tract of undeveloped land that includes historic meditation caves and sacred hot springs associated with the origins of Buddhism in Tibet.
- Empowering local Tibetan women by establishing markets for endangered arts and crafts.
- Reviving local Tibetan medical and healing traditions by training Terdrom’s resident nuns and yoginis in the sustainable harvesting and cultivation of medicinal herbs and the preparation of traditional medicines.
- Promoting culturally and environmentally sensitive eco-tourism through the activities and facilities of the eco-lodge and cultural center.
- Providing a centre for encouraging respect and understanding of Nyingma and Drigung-Kagyu spiritual practice, Buddhist philosophy, and yogic traditions.
- Assuring that economic returns from the centre’s sustainable cultural projects directly benefit Bara Village, a settlement of relocated nomads where 3 out of 5 persons, mostly women, are handicapped as a result of environmental pollution in another region of Tibet.
- Providing positive economic development in the impoverished county of Medro Kongkar by employing and training local staff.
Healthcare initiatives:
With support from The Embassy of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, Shambhala has developed the program, “Empower Monks as Medics.” Clinics connected to monasteries and nunneries will provide out reach to village communities in the Terdrom valley through monks and nuns trained as paramedics, providing holistic Tibetan medicine treatment.
Why monks and nuns? Historically, monasteries in Tibet provided medical care to their communities, and Tibetan medicine itself was developed and propagated from monasteries according to Buddhist tradition. As a natural consequence of their vows to benefit all beings, monks and nuns served as psychotherapists, spiritual counselors and, very often, as traditional physicians. This project re-empowers monks and nuns with a vocation that was already theirs and which lies at the heart of their tradition.
“Empower Monks as Medics” has achieved the following:
- Trained local monks and nuns as paramedics, providing income to neglected monasteries and nunneries, positively impacting affecting local traditions and cultural sustainability.
- Provided accessible rural health care to populations in urgent need given their remoteness from clinical care units and handicapped condition.
- Promoted the use of therapeutic hot springs and environmentally sustainable harvesting and use of medicinal plants to provide holistic cures and sustain and develop the knowledge of traditional Tibetan medicine.
Cultural heritage projects:
With the support of the Embassy of Britain in Beijing, the Terdom cultural center will empower a village of settled, predominantly handicapped, nomads through sustainable micro-enterprises that revive and provide markets for traditional crafts skills and crafts.
These micro-enterprise initiatives include:
“Creative yak wool weaving centre” － Traditional Tibetan products, such as saddle carpets and leather shoulder bags, are being developed into fashionable lifestyle products – living room throw rugs, pillowcases, and yoga shoulder bags. These products appeal to sophisticated travelers who visit Tibet and understand how they contribute to sustaining cultural heritage and craftmanship.
“Pottery production line” － Clay is rich and plentiful in the Terdrom region but, to date, pottery products have been limited to basic water containers. This micro-enterprise, set to begin in June 2010, presents an opportunity to adapt traditional designs for a range of products useful locally and attractive to global consumers.
“Natural soap handcrafted by the handicapped” － The crafting of natural handmade soap that uses only natural ingredients and local herbs is part of an initiative to develop holistic health care to handicapped nomads, while providing skill training and sustainable income.
“Incense production line” － The crafting of pure, medicinal incense by marginalized Buddhist nuns provides skill development and steady supplemental income, while providing additional fundraising for local healthcare projects.
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