June 2007
For its 15th Anniversary

May the Lord give us all
The talent to sing of growth and development,
So that we may exchange on it,
Singing the high song
Of a thousand colours and thousand words,
Of all of humankind’s stories,
Of all emotions, ideas, wishes and dreams,
A high song, growing and growing to be heard in Heaven,
Not too loud, but enough to hear it reflected
Out of the skies.
Like an echo returning from above,
First up and then back down.
Growing together
Message after message, news after news,
Sorrow and joy, suspicion and hope,
Worldly pain and Holy Spirit,
And Earth grows higher, and Heaven grows deeper.
Man and Animal and Fruit and Plant,
Forest and Bush, Meadow and Water,
Growing into one in the Lord’s hand and Spirit in His name.
May the Lord give each of us
The talent to believe, to hope and to love.

Hanns Dieter Huesch

Dear friends of the Shanti family,

I am writing you this letter with particular pleasure – it is the letter intended for the 15th anniversary of Shanti, and thus a reminder of everything what you have enabled us to achieve through your confidence, generosity and fidelity.
A reminder – but also it is a wonderful big amazement how Shanti can not only survive, but grow and flower, despite many attacks, despite the 10-year civil war, despite the expulsion from our original location at the Shanti temple.
I imagine you and me sitting together around a big table browsing in our Shanti family album. I just want to tell you some stories to some pictures. So, it won’t be a chronological review, but I want to show you a coloured mosaic made of many differently coloured pieces of stone so that you may visualize the whole thing a little better.
At first let us have a look at a map where you will find the three locations of our station, all of them marked with our dove of peace: Buddhanilkantha, Sundarijal and Kathmandu.

Buddhanilkantha

The oldest place where we are located is now Buddhanilkantha, at the northern slope of Kathmandu valley. Many visitors see it as an oasis, arriving from enormous, noisy and dirty Kathmandu.
At the beginning of 1993, half a year after our foundation, we bought the forest piece of land with an area of 1100 square meters. It was really exhausting to convince the 11 or 12 different owners to agree on an acceptable price.
You cannot imagine my horror when I went to have a look at our forest after the transfer of property. I only saw a clear-cut hillside with no trees at all! The farmers had cut down the trees on the grounds that we had only bought the land and not the trees!
In my mind I immediately saw the next monsoon which would flush down all the valuable top soil.
This is when I experienced what Hoelderlin (a great German poet) once wrote: “Where there is danger, there is also a remedy.”