Trembling with fear, anxiety and panic — that is what hit me when I realized that COVID-19 is here. All I could think was, Is this even real? A world that never stopped had suddenly paused, and the lives that we all had planned stopped working according to plan, leaving the whole world with a feeling of uncertainty.
On International Women’s Day of 2019, Didi Contractor, was presented with the Nari Shakti Puraskar, India’s highest civilian honour recognising women who have made great contributions to India. The award was presented by the President of India, Ram Nath Kovind.
After the invigorating monsoon season, autumn is a natural time for reflective engagement as we return outdoors to work with the earth. Dharmalaya Institute’s autumn 2018 programme season began with a five-day silent meditation retreat, which set a contemplative tone.
Reflecting on the birth of Dharmalaya Institute, from the early design conversations between Dharmalaya Cofounder Mark Moore and award-winning eco-architect Didi Contractor, and the epic volunteer-driven adventure to bring Didi’s inspiring designs to life.
Didi Contractor, co-founding Professor Emeritus of the Internship in Vernacular Eco-Architecture at Dharmalaya Institute, was honoured with WADe Asia’s Lifetime Achievement Award for her work in natural building in the Himalayas.
After years in the making, a new feature-length documentary film entitled, ‘Didi Contractor: Marrying the Earth to the Building’ premiered at the 2016 Dharamshala International Film Festival (DIFF).
The new year is here, and 2015 is shaping up to be our busiest year yet! The institute’s 2015 programme schedule is the fullest ever, with an expanding variety of courses, workshops, retreats, and other events for volunteers, students, interns, learners, and seekers.
In this article, visionary educator Arnie Langberg shares three stories from his days as Principal in two alternative schools in Denver, Colorado. These tales illustrate the critical roles that human connections play in creating effective learning communities.
Anujna, an architect from Pune, recently spent some time at Dharmalaya Institute for the Internship in Vernacular Eco-Architecture. She wrote about the experience on her blog.
In 2011, Dharmalaya held its first-ever international programme: a work retreat in collaboration with SanghaSeva. That experience was so inspiring that we’ve been coming together again every year..
After an unprecedented four-and-a-half-month monsoon, the Dharmalaya Institute is reopening its brand-new (and still-to-be-varnished) doors to volunteers, students, and interns, with a series of volunteer, service-learning, and retreat programmes spanning the next eight months.
The Kangra District of Himachal Pradesh is home to a distinctive and beautiful form of earthen architecture. Over the past decade, this tradition has become an endangered species. To preserve these sustainable traditions, the Dharmalaya Institute in partnership with eco-architect Didi Contractor, is launching the Internship in Vernacular Eco-Architecture.
Smiles all around at the close of our second annual silent meditation retreat with SanghaSeva.
We don’t know what’s more amazing — the way this gentleman climbs the electric pole to string up the wires, or the fact that it only took them a week from the time we submitted the application for our new electrial connection!
The first building on the new eco-campus of the Dharmalaya Institute is just two steps away from being ready to welcome the public, and Dharmalaya needs your help to reach the finish line.
After a marathon rush of construction activity through the winter, the Dharmalaya Institute held the first programmes in the new (and still-unfinished) main building of its Himalayan eco-campus for sustainable and compassionate living.
When we left you with the season finale cliffhanger last June, we had just bundled up our baby building with prayers that she’d survive the monsoon rains without a roof. That was asking a lot from a big mud sandcastle! We put her fate in the hands of a few well-fastened tarps, some slate shingles, and a whole lotta flax husk mud plaster. Well, the monsoon was merciless!
MCLEODGANJ, HP, INDIA: Chatral Rinpoche, now 98 years old, is considered by many to be a living Buddha. On Sunday, 12 December, 2010, at 6:00 pm at KhanaNirvana Community Café, hear and discuss Chatral Rinpoche’s teachings with special guest Geshe Thupten Phelgye, member of Tibetan Parliament, along with Zach Larson, editor of the book Compassionate Action (2009, Shechen Publications).
The Dharmalaya team returned to the building site of the Dharmalaya Institute after extraordinarily heavy monsoon rains to discover that mother nature had delivered a surprise.
Dharmalaya is pleased to announce the completion of the foundations for the Main Building of Dharmalaya Institute, an eco-friendly service-learning campus in the foothills of the Indian Himalayas. The Institute is being constructed in a style based upon the traditional vernacular architecture of the area, known as ‘Kangra style’, using eco-friendly materials and non-mechanized building methods.
We have some big news to share with you about the future of Dharmalaya Institute, and the headline is that we want to invite you to be a part of it!