Buddhist Earthquake Victims on Lombok

Discuss the application of the Dharma to situations of social, political, environmental and economic suffering and injustice.
Post Reply
oldbob
Posts: 952
Joined: Sun May 06, 2012 8:19 am

Buddhist Earthquake Victims on Lombok

Post by oldbob »

Greetings everyone,

You probably heard about the terrible 6.9 magnitude earthquake on Lombok island, Indonesia, one week ago. It caused general destruction and loss of life on the whole island, with strong aftershocks continuing. Confirmed deaths were 347 by yesterday.

You may not know that there is a relatively small community of Buddhist villages among the mainly Islamic population, mostly in the North of the island where the epicentre was located and which was most affected. I am a regular visitor and have been trying to support these rather marginalised people. Last year we organised a seminar with Sasha Pubants, enthusiastically endorsed by Rinpoche.

But now, like most inhabitants, these people have lost all their houses, schools, viharas (temples), livelihoods, everything. They are surviving outside under plastic sheets with a severe shortage of food, water, medicine, blankets, etc. The hospital in the local town is unusable due to damage, and as well as the dead and injured many are now suffering from paralysis symptoms, exhaustion and stomach problems etc.

Hardly any government emergency aid has reached these villages, some of which have no road access. The epicentre of a strong 5.9 aftershock on Thursday was directly under them.

So I would like to ask everyone - let these people have at least the benefit of your awareness of their continued suffering, during whatever practice you may do - they will certainly appreciate it.

Although communication is quite interrupted, we are going ahead to organise basic assistance to the Buddhist community in the short term, so if anyone is interested to contribute in a material way please contact me.

Ciao and thanks for reading - Dick

Email : [email protected]
WhatsApp/Viber/Telegram : +316 1616 1525
Punya
Posts: 1437
Joined: Thu Dec 20, 2012 10:50 pm

Re: Buddhist Earthquake Victims on Lombok

Post by Punya »

Hello Dick.

My local group meets monthly so we can include this community in our prayers. Could we start a crowdfunding page and invite DWers participation? There's a number of us from Australia and Lombok is not far away.

Punya
We abide nowhere. We possess nothing.
~Chatral Rinpoche
Natan
Posts: 3650
Joined: Fri May 23, 2014 5:48 pm

Re: Buddhist Earthquake Victims on Lombok

Post by Natan »

Some way to get funds there.
Vajra fangs deliver vajra venom to your Mara body.
Post Reply

Return to “Engaged Buddhism”