After the Chinese invasion of Tibet in 1959, most of the Tibetan monasteries were destroyed together with most of the Tibetan culture. For many years the tradition of Tibetan Buddhism could develop only outside the country. At the beginning of the 1970's a few first Tibetan monasteries in exile were built in the kingdom of Nepal - among them the Benchen Puntsok Dargyeling Monastery in Kathmandu. (www.benchen.org )

Starting from a very small building the Monastery was developing very quickly. At the moment it houses 210 monks plus staff, who enjoy good living conditions and receive different levels of education, instructions on buddhist rituals and meditation practice. The older monks participate in advanced studies of buddhist philosophy and the traditional three year retreat practice, which is an integral part of traditional monastic education. The two abbots of the Monastery, H. E. Sangye Nyenpa Rinpoche and Ven. Tenga Rinpoche, belong to the noble group of the most important and renowned masters of the Tibetan Buddhism. The word "Rinpoche" means "precious" and is used as an honorific title to show the greatest respect. Both masters teach Buddhism in Asia and many European countries, like Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain and Poland (mainly at the Buddhist Centre in Grabnik near Warsaw, which is an official Polish branch of the monastery - www.benchen.org.pl )

In 1994 Ven. Tenga Rinpoche founded the Benchen Monastery Free Clinic, which would offer medical help to the monks and local community. At the beginning all the treatments were sponsored by the Monastery thanks to individual donations. A great need of that kind of help made the Monastery to seek additional support from The Himalayan Medical Foundation. The co-operation started a few years ago and now the Foundation covers the costs of the medicaments dispensed for free at the Clinic.

In 1998 in Poland Ven. Tenga Rinpoche met Wojtek Ryncarz, Polish dentist already supporting the Tibetan Delek Hospital in Dharamsala, India and a year later the Benchen Free Clinic received the full set of high standard equipment: dental unit, dental materials and medicines. Since then the clinic offers also dental care - the most needed in that region. Nowadays it is the only clinic offering free dental care to citizens of Nepal and also the only one, which uses a mobile dental unit, that can bring help to those, who live outside Kathmandu (wherever there is electricity).

For the last four years the Benchen Monastery Free Dental Clinic is run by Dr. Agata Turkiewicz, who works there a few months per year. During each period she does from 20 to 30 procedures per day. Patients come to the Clinic with their families and wait in a cue since the early morning hours. Mostly there is no time to help all of them...