Mustang Culture and Education Centre (MCEC), based in Jomsom, Mustang Nepal, is a registered social organization aimed at supporting education of local children, bettering living conditions of the village population and preserving its unique culture and tradition.

The vision of MCEC is to re-establish the vibrant Bonpo community that once flourished here in Mustang. The journey to realizing the fruit of this vision requires many steps. Bon culture and spiritual traditions must be re-built from the foundations:

1. Beginning with solidifying the agricultural system with an irrigation system;
2. Providing a cultural center for the community;
3. Establishing an education system for the children that is supportive of their cultural and spiritual traditions;
4. And finally creating the Bon religious and ritual support for Mustang Valley.

We have successfully completed the first three goals. Please help us in completing the vision of His Holiness Menri Trizin and Geshe Sonam Gurung.

Himalayan Children's Home:

Himalayan Children Home is an ongoing project of the Mustang Culture and Education Centre (Mustang CEC) and one of its goals is to help the children of Mustang receive a quality education near to their families.  Before this, children stayed on the farms to work or in some cases, went to Kathmandu or India far from their families to learn. Children live at the Himalayan Children Home and are close enough to visit their families.  We teach the children Math, Science, Geography, History, and the Tibetan, Nepali and English languages. We provide the children the Bon Buddhist lineage teachings and guide them in spiritual practice mediation and understanding the ancient texts. Successfully established in 2014, the program has grown to now include 38 students. Your support for scholarships for these students is very much appreciated! Because of the success of the program, the program is much in demand by families in Mustang Valley. Additional support will allow us to expand the program to children currently on the waiting list.

Monastery/Spiritual Campus Project:

MCEC’s next step on this journey is to build a monastery/spiritual campus.  Bon, the indigenous and oldest religion of Tibet, has strong roots in Mustang.  The religious practices of Bon centered on local monasteries and have traditionally been the heart of cultural and religious life for the indigenous populations in this region.  However, currently no Bon monastery exists in the area to support these practices for the local population.

The vision for this project comes directly from His Holiness Menri Trizin, the lineage holder for the Bon Tibetan spiritual tradition.  Geshe Sonam, through MCEC, will oversee the project’s construction and ongoing management.  The project will be constructed on land donated by the community and will include a Bon temple, living space for monks to support the ritual and spiritual life of Mustang Valley, the children's dormitory space, and a guest house for Western students.

• The monastery will provide a hub for revitalizing indigenous religious practices.  The lamas and monks will be available to offer the range of prayers and rituals that once were a vital part of every aspect of local life in Mustang, including practices for birth, death, disease prevention, protection, and farming.  The monastery will be a repository for the preservation of old manuscripts, spiritual texts, and traditional arts.  It also will provide a population of lamas and monks to serve the region for future generations. 
• Integrating the dormitory for the school children into this campus will allow MCEC to expand from its current 38 students to 100 students over time.  The new dormitory will be a significant improvement in living conditions for the children and will locate them nearer to the Nepalese school that they attend.  Most importantly, the children will be within the campus and near the monks who will educate them in their heritage traditions. 
• The hope for the guesthouse is to create a demand for advanced teachings from the culture of the cave and hermitage yogis in a way that will revitalize their culture.

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As His Holiness, the Dalai Lama has said, “Bon is considered to be Tibet's oldest spiritual tradition and, as the indigenous source of Tibetan culture, Bon played a significant role in shaping Tibet's unique identity. Consequently I have often stressed the importance of preserving this tradition.”