OMPRAKASH
2311 N. 45th St. Seattle, WA 98103 USA

9 October 2017

Dear Ngawang and all at Lha Charitable Trust,

It is a true privilege for me to share my gratitude and congratulations as you reach the exciting milestone of your 20-year anniversary. I have the unique honor of being a former Lha volunteer and a current Lha collaborator, and it is no exaggeration to say that Lha has profoundly inspired and transformed my personal life and my work as the Founder and Director of Omprakash.

I came to Lha in September 2004 as an 18-year-old volunteer who was excited to teach English to Tibetan refugees but knew relatively little about India, Tibet, or the broader context in which Lha was conducting its work. As a high-school student I was searching for opportunities to volunteer abroad, but I knew I didn’t want to participate in the kind of commodified ‘packaged trip’ that was (and still is) the dominant norm within the growing industry of international volunteering. Fortunately, my friend Dan Furman had visited Lha about a year earlier, and he subsequently put me in contact with JampaTsering, who (I believe) was managing Lha’s English program at the time. Jampa invited me to come teach, and soon afterwards I arrived in McleodGanj with Dan and our other friend Nick Smith. We spent three months living in Tsechokling Monastery and teaching English conversation and grammar to Tibetan refugees at the Lha office on Temple Road. I couldn’t have known it then, but this experience would provide the core inspiration for what has become my life’s work.

When I returned to the United States in December 2004, I was inspired by the ways in which Lha’s volunteer program revolved around authentic human relationships and thus diverged from the dominant model of commodified ‘voluntourism.’ I felt compelled to help other Americans access experiences like my own with Lha, and simultaneously I wanted to help Lhaand other similar organizations recruit more volunteers. These dual impulses led me to create Omprakash (www.omprakash.org): a website allowing people and organizations to connect and build relationships for mutual benefit and mutual education. Lha was our first ‘Partner’ organization, and much of the growth of Omprakash has been guided by lessons learned through our ongoing relationship with Lha.

Today, our network has expanded to include over 160 organizations in nearly 40 countries, and we have also built an online learning platform, a crowdfunding platform, and customized programs with over a dozen universities. Amidst all this organizational change, Lha retains a special place in our hearts and an ongoing source of inspiration. We were honored to have two Lha representatives (Lobsang Rabsel and Demey Tsering) attend our Partner Conference in New Delhi in 2015, and I am personally very grateful to have
maintained a close relationship with Lha team members via email and via occasional visits to India. I am especially grateful for the care and guidance of ‘Uncle Neil,’ who takes no credit for his own contributions to Lha, and will receive none here, except for my acknowledgement of the fact that I have always admired the union of wisdom and action in his life and his overall embodiment of ‘Right Livelihood.’

It is worth noting that the impacts of Lha on my own life also extend into the metaphysical realm. As I write this letter, a photo of ChogyamTrungpa Rinpoche sits on the windowsill behind my desk. I first encountered the teachings of Trungpa Rinpoche when Jampagave me a copy of Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism while I was volunteering with Lha in 2004. In the years since then, I have found myself drawn more and more deeply into the teachings of Trungpa Rinpoche and the Nyingma lineage more broadly, and I find that these teachings continue to resonate on the truest and deepest levels of my human experience.

My own life – along with the lives of many, many others – would be unimaginably different today if not for the ongoing efforts of the many people who make Lha what it is. With this in mind, I offer my heartiest congratulations on this 20-year anniversary, and my most sincere good wishes for the next 20 years and beyond. Your work is a source of inspiration for me and for so many others, and I consider myself extremely fortunate to have been some small part of the journey.

With love and best wishes,

Willy Oppenheim

p: +1-203-554-0350
e: [email protected]

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