At the start of 2023, a large group of Karenni people had fled the fighting within Kayah State of Myanmar. They had been seeking refuge inside the forest by the Thai border, with no access to basic needs over a few months. Once we had come in contact with them, our network quickly mobilized help by sending necessary food, until we were sure that their local leaders were able to organize regular aid from elsewhere. Towards the end of 2023, many Shan villagers started pouring into Thailand, also fleeing the intense fighting inside Kayah State. Many of them tried settling in our neighboring village of Naam Piang Din. As they had no income or access to basic necessities, we supported each family with a sack of rice and will continue to do so for the time being. Please support our cause by sharing with your friends about what we do at Suan Sompou!
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Hello Dear Friends!
Nice to be back. We had a wonderful 2022 winter season moving into 2023. It was refreshing, rejuvenating, our teacher Thay Phap Lu was on fire with amazing new teachings and discoveries, the mountains greeted us with kind conditions, new friends, old friends, simply wonderful. As you can imagine, we are all looking forward to the coming season. But don't just take our word for it, look for yourself here at our gallery! Good News #1 SUAN SOMPOU IS DEBT-FREE! Thank you for all the contributions, we are very grateful and so inspired by you all! Now we can look forward to bringing more health and healing to more people, as well as building the community at Suan Sompou. That leads us to.... Good News #2 WE HAVE DATES FOR THE COMING SEASON! And namely, some changes to the usual program... Bad News #1 Spaces are limited. Seriously. So if you are good to go, register soon, or register now ;) Bad News #2 We are currently taking registrations the traditional way. BUT, we will be launching online registration soon. That means, space will be filled EVEN FASTER! Good News #3 We are also starting a SUAN SOMPOU VOLUNTEER PROGRAM this coming season 2023-2024. Write to us here and we can talk about it. Ok, this has been quite a post! Thanks for checking in, see you all again soon! Suan Sompou May this message find you all in great health and joy!
We at Suan Sompou certainly are feeling the good vibes as we prepare to trek the mountains of Mae Hong Son once more after a hiatus due to Covid-19. The Winter Health Retreats are back and updated for the times. Click here to find out more and get yourself registered before the limited spaces are taken. We have also updated the donation options to make it far too easy for you to support us ;} Check it out here... Hope to see you all soon! Joyously, Suan Sompou Hello World, This is Suan Sompou. View the photo gallery here. Our health-focused, mindfulness practice center nestled in the majestic mountains of Mae Hong Son, Thailand. It has been years of toil, from the initial idea, to the gathering of supporters and raising funds, to the challenges of building and finishing what you see in the photograph above. Firstly, a big thank you to all who have supported us on this journey. We cannot find the words in the English language (or any other languages for that matter) to express our gratitude. It is almost unbelievable to us still that this center is already standing here in Mae Hong Son, waiting to open its doors to all of us. This is because of all of you, and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts. It was always our dream to construct a building which is sturdy and lasting. We targeted to use strong solid wood for the floors, and double-layered roofing to withstand the natural elements. Even though we did not raise enough funds, we have been fortunate enough to have a generous patron step up and lend us a helping hand; the amount necessary to build Suan Sompou to our dream spec. With your continued support, we are confident in returning this amount to the lender in the next 2-3 years. Therefore we thank you in advance, and humbly request for your generous donations and fund raising efforts, to help us make Suan Sompou a beautiful legacy for everyone to enjoy, and that we may continue to improve and welcome more and more wonderful visitors in the future. Even though we are still busy installing the center, we are already undertaking a new project: Ecovillage Sompou, for laypeople wanting to have their personalized practice hut near our center, but more about that soon, so please stay tuned to our updates... Finally, we would like to share an artist rendition of Suan Sompou, back when it was just a dream. Now that we know dreams can become reality, we invite you to start dreaming with us, in hopes that your dreams will become a reality too. Pond of Lotuses, Suan Sompou Artist Rendition of Suan Sompou, 20th July 2019.
Due to the present Covid situation and travel restrictions, we have with heavy hearts decided to cancel the Health Retreats for the entire winter season of 2020.
However, everyone is still most welcomed to visit our brand-new center starting from December 2020, and with any luck we would be able to organize some retreats and workshops focusing on Health. Do stay tuned for updates regarding this. Thank you all. Ponds of Lotuses, Sangha Sompou Dear friends,
We are proud to show you the amazing craftsmanship of our Suan Sompou builders. We cannot express how excited we feel just looking at the progress. Above are some of the latest photos. You can also view more of the beautiful site here. It has been challenging for us to raise enough funds to stay on track. We have only raised THB300,000 of the THB800,000 needed to complete the work. We thank all who have contributed so far, but we would like to make another honest plea to help us raise the remaining amount. We would like share the following options for your generous support:
PLEASE DONATE HERE. We appreciate your support and thank you in advance. Please share this with your friends and family. Let's make great health available to everyone! Ponds of Lotuses & Fields of Sompou, Suan Sompou Association Happy New Year To Our Dear Global Sangha!
2019 has been significant for Suan Sompou in many ways: The Thai government has officially recognised Suan Sompou as an Association. Please proceed your donations to our new bank account, details are as follows: SUAN SOMPOU ASSOCIATION, Bangkok Bank LTD, Mae Hong Son branch, No: 379-0-35773-9 . Photo of Thai Gov official approval included below. Having the above-mentioned status means that the land is now legally owned by Suan Sompou Association. As we are still short of funds, we humbly ask for your help to spread this news. Big thanks in advance! We have begun construction of our practice centre with the gracious blessing and support of the community. The progress has been very good, which you can view here. Do check in once in a while as we will be updating frequently until completion. Although we still need to raise more funds, we have a truly impressive retreat program this year which we are sure will draw more support from more people looking to improve their health. Do help us share this website and our cause with people like yourselves. Last but not least, we have had some amazing retreat experiences, from the "Wake Up", to "Gibbons", to "Elephants" to our very first fasting "Penguin" retreat. Photos do not truly capture our experiences, but at least you can get a taste of how Suan Sompou enriches your life, at our gallery here. As always, we are just a message and an email away, come by and say "hello" often and see you all soon in the mountains of Mae Hong Son. Ponds of Lotuses & Fields of Sompou, Suan Sompou Association Fasting has such enormous benefits for our physical as well as spiritual health.
Our Master Thich Nhat Hanh recommends fasting for 10 days at least once or twice a year (‘Stepping into Freedom’). So we developed a fasting retreat for everyone (we even have an actual MD to guide us!), and we plan to continue to offer this once every year! Check out "FAST LIKE A PENGUIN" (please scroll down) Online Donations (total on 27th June 2019) - Euro550.14
Direct Donations (total on 27th June 2019) - Euro4930.00 Total on 27th June 2019 = Euro5480.14 (23.8% of Euro23,000) Thanks to all who donated! Ponds of Lotuses, Sangha Sompou |
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