During the Spring Festival of Culture at the International Roerich Memorial Trust, Russian and Indian employees of the IRMT, together with a group of volunteers of the International Center of the Roerichs (Moscow) from different cities of Russia, on May 3, 2019 held a volunteer clean-up in the Lama House of the IRMT. They took away the garbage around and inside the house, collected and burned dry grass, planted flowers. They also carried out the most necessary works to preserve the house: painted the walls, installed metal grids on the windows, began repairing and strengthening the fragment of the rear wall of the house ruined during the time.

On the second day of work, two young Englishmen, Dylan and Daniel, who are interested in Buddhism and the Roerichs’ activities, joined the Russian-Indian team. They gladly helped in this work.

A Lamas House (Lama Cottage) is a small building on the territory of the IRMT near its north-western border, previously owned by the Roerich family. In the 1930s – 1940s, Indian and Tibetan lamas who collaborated with the Urusvati Himalayan Research Institute lived there. There is reason to think that the Tibetan Lama, Gendun Chopel, a well-known scholar, writer, and researcher who helped George (Yuri) Roerich to work on the translation of the Blue Annals from Tibetan language, stayed here. The healers, connoisseurs of local herbs and medicine, from Kullu valley and from Lahul lived in this cottage. Perhaps Lama Lobzang Mingyyur Dorje also stayed here while working on the “Description of Medicinal Plants”.

In short, the Lama House undoubtedly has its historical and memorial value. In the future, in the process of implementing the Conceptual Plan for development of the territory of the IRMT, it is planned to create here a museum exhibition dedicated to Indian and Tibetan lamas who cooperated with the Urusvati Institute.

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Read also the ICR site