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After a strenuous week we completed the new staircase. Third layer of clay placed on the roof, dense red clay colored twigs made the finish of the porch and the wooden structure also got its red clay paint. >>>

After some serious effort the new walls of the staircase are standing, and the wooden roof-structure is ready. Last weekend visited the Zangla nunnery school on their picnic at the riverside, and payed a short visit to Dzongkul monastery, the birthplace of the essays published by Csoma as Alexander books. >>>

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The staircase restoration completed!

New memory board and donation box, visit to Bardan and Shila.

After a strenuous week we completed the new staircase. Third layer of clay placed on the roof, dense red clay colored twigs made the finish of the porch and the wooden structure also got its red clay paint.



The sanctuary next to the staircase (on the left side of the picture) was in hard need of a new plaster, after removing the old one, several structural cracks revealed.

Staircase walls and roof structure finished, short visit to Dzongkul

After some serious effort the new walls of the staircase are standing, and the wooden roof-structure is ready. Last weekend visited the Zangla nunnery school on their picnic at the riverside, and payed a short visit to Dzongkul monastery, the birthplace of the essays published by Csoma as Alexander books.

Volunteers keep coming, Sándor Finta will be the team leader in August

The first volunteers arrived and started to work. We finished making the first 1000 bricks. Repaired staircase slab replaced. Sándor Finta will be the team leader in August.

The education program started, we continue the emergency operations at the Palace

During the first week, the students of Zangla got acquainted with the story of Alexander Csoma de Kőrös, which was also an excellent English practice. Now, the children have a different perspective on the old palace hanging over the village, and Csoma`s room inside it. During the classes, we handed our and used the booklet prepared by the School of Alexander Csoma de Kőrös, Budapest. The drawings and paintings of the Hungarian kids found their places on the walls of the Zangla school, too.

First report from Zangla

The palace suffered a lot from the heavy precipitation of the winter 2009/2010. Lots of leaking points and some ruined wall sections tell the story of the unusually wet weather. Luckily the repaired parts survived without further damage, though some newly discovered structural problems came up at the first visit of the season.

Leaving for Zangla

Finally the weather got better, and we found a driver who will take us to Zangla.
A few of us cycled up to the highest pass in the world to improve our acclimatization. Igor, the bicycle rental shop volunteer arrived to Leh.

The owner of Zangla Palace, king Nima Norboo will join us on the 2 day trip to Zangla.

The 2010 Csoma Expedition arrived to Leh

After arriving to Leh, we spent some acclimatizing days visiting the Indus Valley monasteries and talking to the head of one of the most prestigious restoration architects in Leh, John Harrison.

The Indus Valley monastery visits had their most obvious purpose to learn some lessons of good and bad restorations in preparation to the 2010 season of Zangla fortified palace works.

Csoma comic book, first flash

A totally unexpected episode of a long term dream

We would like to present some drawings inspired by Csoma`s adventures. As we have a long term dream of publishing a comic book about Csoma`s adventures, we would be happy to see these artists behind their pencils producing one issue of it. The final decision will probably depend as much on their respective enthusiasm, time, and our ability to find financial support for such a unique experiment.

Csoma, to be continued /// presentation

Birth and success of a Himalayan project

Presentation by Balázs Irimiás and Olga Nagy at Sokszem Foundation.

Date: Thursday, 21 January 2010.
Time: 19:00

Place: Sokszem Foundation main hall.
Budapest, V. district, Fejér György St. 3, above the CD-FŰ tea house, entrance to the left.

Presentation: A complex cultural development project of saving the 15th century buildings where Alexander Csoma de Kőrös used to live and work in the Himalayas.

You are more than welcome to listen and to join the summer volunteer camp!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

2009 was the year when we did our best to turn this project from an enthusiastic enterprise into a legal entity. The enthusiasm and our core activities remained, the registration is still hanging.
The Court of the First Instance of Budapest rejected our proposal requesting minor alteration of the documents. We resubmitted it, got accepted, but the prosecutor intervened in the decision requesting further alterations at some similarly minor points. The High Court accepted the intervention. We made the changes, resubmitted it again, right now the Court of the First Instance is requesting alterations again. One full year and the help of a truly professional experienced lawyer proved to be short to arrange the legal registration of our Foundation.

Just a Brick`s throw!

This year we need it big time. In 2009 we continue the rescue works of Csoma`s Room in the remote Himalayan village of Zangla.

Last year when we lounched the project, brick and beam donations covered all the material, labour and most of the local costs of the restoration. Your donation is the only way for us to continue the restoration this year.

Csoma meeting and movie in Budapest

During the Winter Festival in Hungary a Csoma Meeting will take place at the Budapest Millenaris Center.

Professor Géza Bethlenfalvy came to Zangla with his movie crew, the Oriental Film Society in the summer of 2008 to visit our restoration works.

Their meetings, the research of the Society following Alexander Csoma de Kőrös and Ervin Baktay texts, with the rough Himalayan terrain, the local faces and the restoration works in the background creates the special atmosphere of the movie.

Launch of the Csoma Scholarship

We are building not only walls in Zangla, but also human relationships with the local community. Among them, only few had been familiar with the story of Alexander Csoma de Kőrös, which is our common cultural heritage and source of inspiration.

To commemorate the great traveler, we have founded a scholarship, which enables students who graduated from the 8-class school of Zangla to continue their studies. Many of them can not afford to go to high school, because they must move to another town to do so – just as Csoma had to.

Visit to Phuktal monastery

We decided to take a short brake and visit Csoma`s other Zanskari workplace, the monastery of Phuktal (Phugtal).

It is situated in 3-4 walking days` distance from Zangla, supposedly one of the most spectacular monasteries in the whole Zanskar region. It was built inside a cave and around its opening over a massive rock wall as the founders identified a clear water source inside the cave that offered the possibility of good isolation for the monks looking for undisturbed meditation. The first part of the trip we covered by jeep, the rest on foot in one day, despite all the guides and locals tried to convince us of the impossibility of the journey.

The electro-kinetic prayer-wheel of Kibu arrived to Zangla!

After incredible adventures, the prayer-wheel created by media-artists of Kitchen Budapest has arrived to Zangla.

The restoration continued with less visible but more essential structural intervention.

More bricks and structural stabilization

We managed to form a new local team to continue brickmaking.

Also contracted a person who started carrying the bricks from the quarry to the Palace. This is probably the most exhausting task of the restoration. We can carry water by donkeys to the building, but not the bricks. Thay would brake on the back of an animal. One person can carry 2 or 3 bricks on the back at a time. One round takes at least 30 minutes to scale the 100 metres difference in altitude. 25 rounds a day only takes 50 bricks to the top.

We started making the first adobe bricks.

This week we started making the adobe bricks on a site at the feet of Zangla Palace that probably used to be the brickmaking place at the times of construction.

The other part of the team managed to clean the main entrance stairs from the debris accumulated in the last 30 years. The balcony above the entrance has collapsed as during the reparations conducted by local people in the last decades, they used stones instead of adobe brick on the top floors, and the construction quality was also poor. The stones are heavier than the adobe walls and put extra burden on the Eastern Facade of the Palace, that causes cracks and collapses.

Restoration works have started at Zangla!

The members of the team from left to right: Jigmet Namgyal, (the older son of the King of Zangla), Etienne Samin (architect), Olga Nagy (economist/human relations), Balazs Irimias (architect/project leader), Emese Olosz (structural engineer from the Field Service for Cultural Heritage), Tibor Gulyas (the cameraman if the project) and Gergely Barcza (architect), on the top of Csoma`s Room.

The team arrived to Leh

Everybody arrived safely to Leh, the capital of Ladakh.
We spent some days with acclimatization, and visited all the important monasteries in the neighborhood to collect information on their restoration.
We also contacted some international teams who work in the area and got some invaluable advice concerning our future restoration work.

Preparations

One more week, and we are setting off! Visas, air tickets, vaccinations, equipment, almost everything arranged.

Though the preparations are in order, we spent a lot of energy on hunting down the necessary equipment. We need loads of special devices that enable us to work in such a remote area. Strangely enough, they all seem to be very expensive or unavailable in Europe or Japan. For the photogrammetric survey we need to charge our laptop, GPS and camera batteries, for the documentation the video camera batteries too. This might be tricky in an area where the only electricity is hardly enough for a weak afternoon blinking of the local 12 volts electric system built from donations, powered by a micro-hydro plant from the nearby river. We wanted to avoid the gasoline power generator, so the solar panel became the only option.

Would you like to donate to this project?

We accept donations by Paypal, secure online credit card payment, money order or bank transfer.

If you would like to donate to Csoma`s Room project, please transfer money to the following bank account: MKB: 10300002-20379304-00003285, SWIFT: MKKB HU HB.

Comment: Csoma brick, Csoma beam or Csoma student, according to your choice and to the amount of your support. Custom donations are also welcome. Please send your contact info to the: csomasroom@gmail.com so we can confirm your transfer.

Introductory presentation

24th April 18:00

If you are interested in the project, please come to the Eötvös Lóránt University for an introductory presentation of the Csoma’s room project.

The lecture will be on 24th April 18:00 at 1088 Budapest, Múzeum krt. 4/b., room 217.

1% of your PIT

If you are Hungarian citizen or paying Personal Income Tax in Hungary you can donate the project with 1% of your PIT.

* ANGKOR ALAPÍTVÁNY
* 1061 BUDAPEST HEGEDŰ u. 9.
* Tax number/adószám: 18012271-1-42
* Comment / megjegyzés: CSOMA

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