Founding the NGO

Asral NGO was started by Ven. Panchen Otrul Rinpoche, a Tibetan high lama, who first visited Mongolia in 1995 at the request of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to help with the re-establishment of Buddhism in Mongolia. During his initial visits he received many requests for practical assistance from Mongolian people who were beginning to experience great poverty. In response to this he began ad hoc support projects which culminated in 2001 in the established of Asral NGO to co-ordinate these social welfare activities. In 2003 a building was built with the help of a donation from His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the support of many sponsors. Today, Ven. Panchen Otrul Rinpoche continues to lead Asral NGO from his teaching centre in Ireland, and spends two months of every year working in Mongolia. Ven. Panchen Otrul Rinpoche's first teacher as a young monk in Tibet was Mongolian and it has always been his wish to repay the kindness of this teacher.

Panchen Otrul Rinpoche

At the same time Ven. Panchen Otrul Rinpoche also started Gunchab Jampa Ling, a religious non-profit organization teaching mainly to lay people, children and adults, in order to help with the revival of Buddhism in Mongolia. Mongolia is a traditionally Buddhist country; during the Communist period from the 1930s to the end of the 1980s, Buddhism was however severely repressed. There is now a revival of Buddhism in Mongolia. Ven. Panchen Otrul Rinpoche is based in Ireland at Jampa Ling, Buddhist Center and has a fund raising charitable organization in the USA, the Maitreya Trust.

NGO structure

Asral NGO is run by a dedicated team of ten Mongolian staff under the direction of Geshe Lhawang Gyaltsen a senior Tibetan Buddhist monk. Asral NGO hosts several foreign volunteers throughout the year who help implement the projects. Asral works at the grassroots level to ensure the benefits of
our projects go directly to those in need. We work from our purpose-built community centre in Bayangol District on the outskirts of Ulaanbaatar. In addition we operate projects in Gachuurt, 20km from the city, in Ondershil in the Gobi region and in Shankh in central Mongolia. Ven. Geshe Lhawang Gyaltsen Ven. Margery Cross accompanies Rinpoche on his working visits to Mongolia.

Asral’s CEO, Munguntsetseg (left) and social worker, Badamgerel is Asral’s handicraft’s coordinator – here Ontonchimeg (right) distributing vitamins at the local training women in felt-making at the Asral centre in

Ulaanbaatar family clinic. Ondershil.