Insight

We believe that to create a world that is regenerative, naturally self-reliant and poison-free one has to start with creating local communities that reflect such alternative and indigenous lifeways.

A Living Example

We are in the process of doing just that. We are building Sparsh, a Pratikulam, which will serve as an abode for regenerative community living. Sparsh will be a living example of natural self-reliance while providing healing experiences to both inhabitants and visitors by helping them stay connected with nature, in its pristine beauty. Sparsh will also have hand-crafted houses built by community artisans and tribal elders, using naturally available materials. Space has been earmarked for kitchen garden, medicinal plants and a food forest. 

Impact cum Learning Center

Sparsh will also have an impact centre (for gift packing of local produce, mushrooms grown here, native seeds, nursery, tea blends, traditionally milled flour & pressed oils using Kachhi Ghani, handicrafts, weaves, knits, fermented foods, etc.), and a workshop area  which will act as a learning centre. Sparsh will also showcase the local wonders such as waterfalls, caves, nature trekking trails, botanical gardens, heritage structures, local arts and culture, local natural farms, nurseries and sacred spaces for an immersive experience. Sparsh will also provide life skills to people, especially the young, to be naturally self-reliant, to preserve their natural bio-diversity and their rich time-tested ancient wisdom, while harnessing their new age skills.

This is a second such initiative in the local bio-region in Darjeeling at Thapa Dhura Village, with the first similar initiative having being started in Deu Bahadur’s farm at Dangia Village, Darjeeling.

Work, Estimation & Work Culture

Though the initiatives are multiple over-time, we restricted fund raising to the present initiative. The present phase is to build a dwelling unit for ten community members living over three acres of land at Thapa Dhura. As we are building over a steep slope, the local family who are also natural building artisans have proposed a two-storey structure built over stilts, with a mud-stove kitchen, a washroom and a compost toilet facility on the side. Bamboo, Stones, Wood, Mud, River Sand and Cow-Dung are locally available. In the next phase we will build a structure to act as a Healing Centre and another one as a dwelling for apprentices and visitors.

Requirement for Built Structure (dwelling for 10 people)	UOM	Amount
Making planks out of wood from the land	64 Cu. Ft.	11,000/-
Roofing Material (Tin sheet)	22 Pcs.	16,000/-
Planer (Randha) Tool, Angle Grinder, Impact Drill, Electric Circular Saw	1 No Each	18,000/-
Masonry	20 Man-days	10,000/-
Stone Cutting & Lifting	80 Man-days	24,000/-
Nails	14 Kgs.	1,400/-
Miscellaneous & Unforeseen Pay-outs		5,000/-
Total		85,000/-

For the current building project, we had estimated a need for 85,000/- for making planks out of wood from the land, Roofing Material (Tin sheet), Planer (Randha) Tool, Angle Grinder, Impact Drill, Electric Circular Saw, Masonry, Stone Cutting & Lifting, Nails, Miscellaneous & Unforeseen Pay-outs. Tools purchased are available for sharing by the local community that has come forward to help develop this project. In Nepali language this is called “perma” which means to use one’s excess time available to help others in the community.

Work Progress

The work has begun for making a temporary structure for local team & apprentices including kitchen, compost toilet & shed, alongside the cottage already available. 

Contribution & Account Details

As against a fund raiser for 85,000/- we raised 1,03,000/- to the following account –

Account Name – Samit Tamang
Bank Name – State Bank of India
Branch – Sukhia Pokhari
Account No. – 20090201995
IFSC Code – SBIN0002127
PhonePe – 6296432525

After depositing the donation amount, donors informed Mayank via WhatsApp/ Telegram/ Signal @ 9845199081 with a screenshot of the pay-out or shared it on the Groups given below.

Suggested Contribution per person was fixed from 500/- to 5,000/-. Saify Saraya, Author – Zero Medicine Wisdom offered to gift his book to anyone who made this contribution. We heard back from some members who confirmed receiving the gift from Saify Saraya.

WhatsApp – https://chat.whatsapp.com/JeFHfYNSBOnLq9cQZWitEj
Telegram – https://t.me/+kWmUCNUtKIc4NWY9

For more details – https://shamanicabode.org/sparsh-pratikulam/

Alternatively, you may join the natural building efforts if you have any of the following skills –

Skilled members we are looking for –

1. Indigenous Architecture and Design
2. Experienced Natural Housing Builder
3. Farm fit and Heavy Lifting
4. Natural Farming and Cooking (Wood Fired Mud Stove),
5. Natural Wellness & Panchakarma,
6. Digital Nomads into Graphic Design/ Videography/ Animation/ Photography/ Content Creation/ Alt Media/ Alt Social Media
7. Any other skills? Join the WhatsApp/ Telegram Groups and let us know!

Project Overview

Objective

Regenerative & Poison-Free Living, Local Self Reliance, Natural Wellness Haven, and Children’s Learning Centre for the people living and visiting.

Beneficiaries:

3 acre land belongs to Samit Tamang a resident of Thapa Dhura village. His father was a forest shaman, and he continues the tradition of helping people heal. This dwelling that is coming up, will be occupied by his family. Deu Bahadur and friends (neighbouring Dangia Village) who are also helping build this, will use this as an alternate home. Also will be occupying this dwelling unit, other long term hosts including Steve Cosgrave, Florida who is into permaculture and is also helping build Sparsh. Steve has been living in a patch of land owned by his local friends in Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary, Marayoor, Kerala, before his participation here.

In next phases, we will have another dwelling unit for short term volunteers and another one that will act as a wellness center.

Visitors will be able to access the natural healing energies of the land as well as that offered by Samit. It will be offered on non-commercial basis. Visiting people can contribute as per their desire.

Connection:

A group of volunteers have stayed here in Samit’s current house (5 minutes uphill walk from this land) which will turn into a village center after the dwelling unit in Sparsh is ready. It was a non commercial stay. During this period, Mayank, Steve and Hamid organised a workshop at Deu Bahadur’s farm at Dangia Village and invited guests to attend a workshop on voluntary contributions basis. We learnt about Natural Housing, Mushroom Cultivation, Handicraft, Fermented Drinks, Natural Farming etc.

During this workshop many people attended from Bangalore and Kolkata. Based on our contributions and that from visitors we had helped set-up a natural farming volunteer/ team stay at Deu Bahadur’s 4 acre natural farm at Dangia Village.

Now with the help of Deu Bahadur and his friends Birkha, Prem Kumar and Dipak (Dangia Village) we are setting up Pratikulam (Prakriti Kulam) in Thapa Dhura in Samit’s Land.

This is also ushering community sharing of efforts, resources, tools, skills, etc. amongst these amazingly passionate and skilled people.

How different is this from a Resort?

1. It’s poison free stay and natural living based.
2. Housing will use natural materials from the land
3. It will have it’s own kitchen garden so incoming volunteers/ guests can have food grown in the land, with near zero financial drain/ dependency on markets.
4. It will have a dedicated patch of land for growing medicinal plants.
5. It will be a living example of local and natural self reliance.
6. It will have a village center that will serve the village providing them with cold press oils, stone grinded flour, straw mats, bamboo artifacts, etc. and other value added agricultural products/ services to help them have a more natural lifestyle.
7. All this will be non-commercial which is possible since food will come from the land and housing is using natural materials and rest is coming from community sharing and contributions.

What is Regenerative Living?

Regenerative Living is about living poison-free and creating greater local self reliance. It includes creating homestead farming clusters; native seeds preservation and sharing; adopting open grazing based agricultural practices, growing perennial polycultures, and pursuing multi-strata agroforestry; natural housing; pratikulam (prakriti-kulam) based education; micro (wind/ hydro) energy projects; meaningful mechanisation of time-tested food processing techniques such as Kachhi Ghani, stone grinding, etc; reintegrating indigenous communities with their ancient wisdom and sacred spaces; responsible & immersive tourism; non-degradable waste prevention and degradable waste composting; taking up restorative ecology projects in the neighbourhood (forests, rivers, lakes, etc.); Gram Swaraj; empowering gram sabha and local communities for self-governance and social justice; restoring “natural abundance creation/ sharing” culture within local communities.

I – Pratikulam at Sparsh, Thapa Dhura

1. Impact cum Learning Center

Gift Packing of Local Natural Produce like Black Elaichi, Teas, etc.

Mushroom Growing
Heirloom Seeds Exchange
Nursery (Wild Plants, others)
Natural Tea – with concoctions like Mugwort/ Tittepati
Traditional Mill Flour
Cold Press (Kacchi Gaani ) Oil Extraction
Handicraft – Mats
Weaving
Fermented Foods
Value Added Products

2. Healing Centre

Silence Zone
Healing Music
Herbal Treatment
Dorm Stay – Four single beds in a room
Natural Food
1 Healing Room with Bed + Hydrotherapy Tub (Make)
Acupressure

3. Regenerative/ Intentional Community Living (Present Initiative)

– 4 family people – 2 Rooms 
– 6 others – Room 2 Rooms (Close Family & Friends)
– Kitchen – Indoor & Outdoor – 1 No.
– Bathroom 1 No.
– Squatting Dry Compost Toilet – 1 No.
– Clothes Washing Area
– Water Refill Station
– Community Sitting/ Dining area
– Common Area – Lighting/ Electrical
– Clothes Hanging Line
– Dish Washing
– Compost & Recycling Center
– Mushroom House
– Hand washing
– Fire Circle & Sitting/ Rest Area
– Wood Storage
– Tool Library
– Handicraft Area
– Trail Heads
– Staircase
– Riverside Recreational Areas
– Campsites
– Welcome Signboard

4. Dorm/ Hostel

4 people – For accommodating Transitionary Apprentices
– Cottage
– Sitting Dry Compost Toilet
– Bathroom

5. Kitchen Garden

Roots / Greens/ Vegetables / Fruits

These will also be grown in Cartons/ Sacks/ Bags/ Sand Bag. We will also focus on growing perennials

Items usually grown here – Peas/ Tomato/ Beans/ Raddish/ Pumpkin/ Spinach/ Corriander/ Onion/ Shalgum/ Carrot/ Ginger/ Garlic/ Turmeric/ Iskush (Chayote)/ Cucumber/ Chilly/ Mustard Greens (Rayosag)/ Ground Apple/ Arrowroot/ Taro-root/ Sweet Potato/ Purple Wing Yam (Ghar Tarul)/ Wild Yam (Ban Tarul) -[Grows Wildly]/ Millets/ Aloevera (Ghew Kumari) / BreadFruit/ Orange (Sunthala)/ Lab Lab Beans (Chipte Simi)/ French Beans (Ghew Simi)

6. Medicinal Plants

Ashvagandha, Bel, Shesham, Parijaat, Tulsi, Neem, Arjun, Mugwort (Titepaati), Rose, Marigold, Akaarkara, Abhijal Jhad

7. The Showcase

This place will be a Living Example of regenerative life-ways, and not just a demo center.

Local – Waterfalls, Caves, Trekking Trails, Nature Trails, botanical garden, rope bridges, water gardens, sanctuary, rare medicinal plants, heritage buildings, local arts and culture, local farms, nurseries, sacred spaces…

In-Premise – Naturally Self-Sustainable and Regenerative Living + Living Example and not just a demo center.

II – Village Center in Thapa Dhura (Present Initiative)

Existing Two Rooms will be transformed into the following –

– 1st room will be a shop/ sleeping area
– 2nd room will be secure storage/ pantry/ stock room/ processing room
– Extension will be kitchen with fire wood and mud stove
– Squatting Dry Compost Pit Toilet
– Water tank
– Shed for tools/ wood
– Compost Barn

FAQs

1.     How genuine is the project?

Sparsh’s ambition for local self-reliance and regenerative living is based on the principles of our indigenous culture. It can however, also be explained using more contemporary expressions such as Social Ecology (Bookchin), Permaculture practices and we are transitioning via the Gift economy or what we call “Abundance Sharing” principles or “Pool Economy”.

Our homestead farming cluster and authentic agritourism efforts are based on a 70-year-old established natural farm within the small rural village of Thapa Dhura, Darjeeling consisting primarily of Tamang Janjati (tribal) people.

A team of three nomads, Hamid, Mayank and Steve, met through the Free Earth Alliance platform. They have been leading a nomadic journey since they met, having left their urban careers. Steve has been living in a patch of land owned by his local friends for several years, in Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary, Marayoor, Kerala, before joining Mayank & Hamid, and is trained in Permaculture. In their journey, they have found many people who have withstood all material lures and hardships but stayed true to their ancient wisdom and preserved their culture and practices including natural farming. Samit Tamang is one such person. His father was a Ban Jhaankari (forest shaman) himself and passed on his wisdom to Samit, from an early age. This group of volunteers stayed in Samit’s current house (five minutes uphill walk from the land on which Sparsh is being built). 

During this period, Mayank, Steve and Hamid visited some local farms amongst which Deu Bahadur’s farm caught Steve’s attention as an ideal traditional homestead farming abode. 

The trio, with the help of Samit and his wife Samjana organized a workshop at Deu Bahadur & Leena’s farm at Dangia Village and invited guests to attend on voluntary contributions basis. Participants learnt about Natural Housing, Mushroom Cultivation, Handicraft, Fermented Drinks, Natural Farming, Local Arts, Music, Dance & Culture etc.

During this workshop many people attended from Bangalore and Kolkata. Based on contributions, the trio had helped set-up a natural farming volunteer cum team stay at Deu Bahadur’s four-acre natural farm at Dangia Village. Now with the help of Deu Bahadur and his friends Birkha, Prem Kumar and Dipak (Dangia Village) a Pratikulam (Prakriti Kulam) is being set-up in Samit’s land in Thapa Dhura. This is also ushering community sharing of efforts, resources, tools, skills, etc. amongst these amazingly passionate and skilled people which is called ‘Perma’ in their local culture. 

The media galleries are shared here –

Stay with Samit, Thapa Dhura, Darjeeling from 21^st October to 4^th November 2022

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/32xwh1ihgxnp2tm/AACzqvmTemKAuTpQvxgvGNX6a?dl=0

Attended TIEEDI’s Bun Bhaath from 4^th to 6^th November 2022 with Deu Bahadur & Samit’s families

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/tmkzw81d778qnli20rmzb/h?dl=0&rlkey=yhg8mrd72sjkmh76caxozz95r

Stay with Samit, Thapa Dhura, Darjeeling from 7^th November to 21^st November 2022

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/0284jr87y34m1n3ybu11y/h?dl=0&rlkey=94sifbg8kmsdxgpi7acazgrto

Workshop in Deu Bahadur’s Farm, Dangia, Darjeeling from 22^nd November to 22^nd December 2022

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/yk0pfn31ypce0hb/AADB2ivYkK5wdHW7lmkJr5dHa?dl=0

Stay with Samit, Thapa Dhura, Darjeeling from 23^rd December 

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/8deuz2kg9jnieba7jrgnw/h?dl=0&rlkey=yubv6jazsrcowkukg5adx1wt8

All in all, we strive to be a living example within our intentional community (IC) for alternative lifeways beyond the Imperial Mode of Living (IML).

2.    How Do I Know if a Charity Is Actually Effective

Charity as a word may not truly reflect what we seek. Sparsh is bootstrapping its own efforts through innovative projects, though we welcome venture philanthropists interested in reciprocating our efforts to preserve land, water, air and indigenous culture which is in sync with Nature, based on gift economy and regenerative design principles.

We are fully transparent with our team and activities and perform accounting. Building work has already started. A team-stay was first setup in neighbouring Dangia Village, Darjeeling. There was a workshop organized there and visuals from the workshop are available in the dropbox folder (shared). 

Workshop in Deu Bahadur’s Farm, Dangia, Darjeeling from 22^nd November to 22^nd December 2022

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/yk0pfn31ypce0hb/AADB2ivYkK5wdHW7lmkJr5dHa?dl=0

During the workshop the scheme at Thapa Dhura village took shape. People present during the workshop, already made contributions for the project at Thapa Dhura and work is in full swing. Even the plan has been shared on the website and progress is being reported, too.

https://shamanicabode/sparsh-pratikulam

3.    How Much money goes on a Charity’s Administrative Costs and Salaries and how somebody monitors it

This current specific ask of 85,000/- to Sparsh doesn’t involve administration costs as people living there mostly get their food requirements from the land and there are no rental costs towards housing. Currently, incoming visitors stay together in Samit’s house extension i.e., a cottage with 2 rooms. A kitchen extension has been added using natural materials and a mud stove is being built. Fire wood is cut responsibly and used for fuel. The supporting digital nomads from the Free Earth Alliance have their independent fund raise with which they support their travel needs to identify more such places and to run their websites and have their online presence. 

Funds being raised for Sparsh will go directly to Samit Tamang’s account and the budget has been listed in the document above. No salaries are paid by Samit as everyone working locally is either family or working on mutual sharing basis (extended family) and have their own farms. Labour costs have been identified as part of the budget of 85,000/-. This is to ensure speed of progress. Though we are expecting several man-hours to be clocked by the local team on mutual sharing basis, but they may have some money requirements too, even though it may not be paid as labour cost. This is due to the fact that locals are in the process of fully transitioning out of money economy. But to that extent it will save labour costs and will be spent as minor pay-outs towards emergency needs of the team members.

All in all, all pay-outs are cycled directly into our local living economy; from the built to the biological. Any surplus is returned into people and planet through infrastructure improvements and appropriate technologies to enable social and ecological resiliency and regeneration. Pay-outs and operational costs are monitored through our intentional feedback loop via sociocracy.

4.    Give me your best example of the way you’ve seen your organization’s work make a difference

The local youngsters interacted with us and are now better integrating with their parents for local self-reliance while using their skills to support the new age aspects of our work.

Some people quit t alcohol and smoking because they felt that warmed by the support that poured in due to our and our friends’ presence. They found the meaningful support they were praying for.

Looking at Samit, Deu Bahadur and our brotherhood, some more locals joined the sharing concept of helping each other without transacting, so that on rotation all their lands could develop some of these projects, we are working on. The ladies also bonded well and are great chefs individually. Their food quality however, goes to another level when they are together in the kitchen.

The urbanites (young and old) were immersed and transformed by living in these forest/ farm abodes. So, they are now replicating in their local bio-regions viz Kolkata and Bangalore. While this initiative is being used as an example to replicate in Himachal/ MH/ Kerala/ UP/ Orissa/ Bihar/ Jharkhand and others regions.

We have inspired people to “act locally and think planetary” and make the transition to being an earth community. In short, our best example is our paradigm shift towards resiliency and regeneration.

5.    What are areas of opportunity for your organization

Sparsh has the opportunity to showcase/ provide their nature’s gifts –

• Bamboo Propagation & Online Air Nursery for Perennial Polycultures (especially significant, plus rare & threatened ethnobotanical plants and tree species).
• Online Heirloom Seed Bank
• Artisan Handcrafted Tea & Wildcrafted Herbal Masala Cordyceps Mushroom Blend
• ज्ञानालय Gyanalya & Wellness Center (place where a guru gives wisdom/knowledge to the one who seeks).
• Bamboo and paddy straw-based handicrafts such as straw mats, bamboo jugs/ straws and cutlery.

Additionally, Sparsh would 

• Attract supporters/ short- long term volunteers to stay with them and further expand the living example of regenerative life as a community.
• Conduct workshops once dwelling units and the kitchen garden are ready to support more visitors/ apprentices. We already have people interested to offer their skills via any  future workshops at Sparsh. Darjeeling team has been invited to a farm in Avartansheel Kheti-based natural farming food forest in Bundelkhand, Uttar Pradesh to showcase Sparsh Team’s house-making skills to the visiting international guests/ farmers.
• Provide a healing space for people coming for long/ short term stays.

All this will attract contributions, resources and support to enable further expansion of regenerative living in Sparsh as well as in the local bio-region.

Download Project Document

Message tailored for WhatsApp/ Telegram sharing (used during fund raiser)

*Join Us In Developing Sparsh Pratikulam – The Upcoming Community Healing Space, Impact cum Learning Centre at Thapa Dhura, Darjeeling. Details Below 👇*

On an average, 63 people putting 1,000/- each can help meet the balance target of 63,000/- in 2 hours (total target revised to 85,000/-). If you wish to physically join the building effort, read below👇.

Can you take out 5 minutes of your time for this message to reach more people?

Step 1 – Share with 2-5 people/ groups 
Step 2 – Join the WA/ Telegram Groups
Step 3 – Share a screenshot of the people who have supported this already.
Step 4 – Claim the gift of a book titled Zero Medicine Wisdom authored by Saify Saraya. Share your postal address.

*Contribution & Account Details*

Account Name – Samit Tamang
Bank Name – State Bank of India
Branch – Sukhia Pokhari
Account No. – 20090201995
IFSC Code – SBIN0002127
PhonePe – 6296432525

*Website* – https://shamanicabode.org/sparsh-pratikulam

*Join the Sparsh Support Community WhatsApp Group/ Telegram Group*

*WhatsApp* – https://chat.whatsapp.com/JeFHfYNSBOnLq9cQZWitEj

*Telegram* – https://t.me/+kWmUCNUtKIc4NWY9

_Update as on 10th Jan – Sparsh Pratikulam, Thapa Dhura, Darjeeling – 9 donors contributed 22,000/-. Balance Phase 1 Target is 63,000/-_

*More details* 👇

*Would you like to participate in developing Sparsh Pratikulam – The Upcoming Community Healing Space, Impact cum Learning Centre at Thapa Dhura, Darjeeling ?*

If yes, please read on …

Sparsh is coming up as a community supported Pratikulam, a healing space as well as impact cum learning centre in the temperate sub-tropical highland cloud forest near Darjeeling.

A Living Example

Here, we are building the Pratikulam, to serve as an abode for community living, to be a living example of poison-free and natural life as well as a community healing space providing natural healing experiences to help people re-connect with nature. It will also provide life skills to people specially the youth, to be naturally self-reliant, to preserve their bio-regional natural bio-diversity and their rich time-tested ancient wisdom.

Impact Center & Showcase

It will also have an impact centre (gift packing of local produce, mushroom growing, native seed bank, nursey, tea concoctions, traditional flour mill & Kachhi Ghani, handicraft, weaving, fermented foods, etc.), workshop area (learning centre), natural housing, kitchen garden, medicinal plant garden and will also showcase the local wonders such as Waterfalls, Caves, Trekking Trails, Nature Trails, Botanical gardens, Heritage structures, Arts and culture, farms, nurseries and sacred spaces for an immersive experience.

Present Dwelling Unit Project

The present project is to build a dwelling unit for 10 community members living over 3 acres of land at Thapa Dhura. As we are building over a steep slope, the local family who are also natural building artisans have proposed a two-storey structure built over stilts, with a mud-stove kitchen, a washroom and a compost toilet facility on the side. Bamboo, Stones, Wood, Mud, River Sand, Cow-Dung are locally available. In the next phase we will build a structure to act as a Healing Centre and another one as a dwelling for apprentices and visitors.

Work Estimation

For the current building project, we have estimated a need for 85,000/- for making planks out of wood from the land, Roofing Material (Tin sheet), Planer (Randha) Tool, Angle Grinder, Impact Drill, Electric Circular Saw, Masonry, Stone Cutting & Lifting, Nails, Miscellaneous & Unforeseen Pay-outs. Tools purchased shall be available for sharing by the local community that has come forward to help develop this project. In Nepali language this is called “perma” which means to use one’s excess time available to help others in the community.

The work has begun for making a temporary structure for local team & apprentices including kitchen, compost toilet & shed, alongside the cottage already available. The present plea is to raise 85,000/- to complete the present initiative. 

Contributions & Rewards

The contributions will go into the bank account of the land host – Samit Tamang, given above.

After depositing the donation amount, please inform Mayank via WhatsApp/ Telegram/ Signal @ 9845199081 with a screenshot of the pay-out or share it on the Groups given above.

Suggested Contribution per person is 500/- to 5,000/-. Saify Saraya, Author – Zero Medicine Wisdom has offered to gift his book to anyone who makes this contribution. So let us have your address to receive this wonderful gift.

Once we touch the target, closure message will be sent in the same groups. Anyone forwarding this message to other groups, may please forward the closure message to those groups as well. 

Alternatively, you may join the natural building efforts if you have any of the following skills –

*Volunteers with skills we are looking for* –

1. Indigenous Architecture and Design
2. Experienced Natural Housing Builder
3. Farm fit and Heavy Lifting
4. Natural Farming and Cooking (Wood Fired Mud Stove),
5. Natural Wellness & Panchakarma,
6. Digital Nomads into Graphic Design/ Videography/ Animation/ Photography/ Content Creation/ Alt Media/ Alt Social Media are also welcome,
7. Any other skills? Join the WhatsApp/ Telegram Groups and let us know!