Milestones & Results
Highlights & Key Accomplishments Since Earthville’s Founding in 1997
HH the 14th Dalai Lama and Earthville founder Mark Moore, at their first meeting in 1995
Chapter 2
Earthville Network incorporates in USA, develops US-based programs
2000
Incorporated the Earthville Network in California as a 501(c)(3) public charity and commenced US operations with humble beginnings, working out of a house in downtown Oakland.
2001
Turned over Dharamshala Earthville Institute and KhanaNirvana completely to local management by its Tibetan refugee staff (who continued to run them successfully until the lease terminated in 2012 and DEVI’s assets were transferred to a new eco-campus in the Himalayas — see below).
2002
Launched the Earthville Umbrellavator project to incubate promising new charitable projects in the US and worldwide.
Established US branch of the Sulha Peace Project as the first Earthville Umbrellavator initiative, providing support for Sulha’s grassroots peacemaking programs in the Middle East as well as “Sulhita” workshops for youth in the US and elsewhere. Annual Sulha conferences attract 3000-4000 participants and international media coverage.
2003
Launched Earthville Arts (originally called “CreatioNation”), an altruistic arts and media project established to leverage the power of creativity, the arts, and media technologies to improve our communities and our world. Produced and released first music CD, with proceeds divided between the artist and Earthville’s charitable programs.
Established the Action Sports Environmental Coalition (ASEC) as an Earthville Umbrellavator project to help “green” the multi-billion-dollar action sports industry. Initiated ongoing educational and awareness-raising programs.
2004
Launched the Acupressure Bead Research Project as an Earthville Umbrellavator project to conduct research into the promising use of nontoxic treatments for children diagnosed with ADD/ADHD.
2005
Formed strategic partnership with the Vietnam Fund for Education, Music, and Infrastructure to support village development and the preservation of traditional music in Vietnam. Conducted audio and video recordings in Hanoi and surrounding areas.
2006
Fiscally sponsored and supported the “Plus 3 Degrees” drive, which collected and distributed warm winter clothes and blankets for the houseless population in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Partnered with the National Acupuncture Detoxification Association (NADA) of the US to help establish a affiliated branch in New Delhi, now called NADA India, an Earthville Umbrellavator project.
Earthville House in Oakland, CA, circa 2005
Chapter 3
Earthville expands its international charitable and educational activities
2007
Launched Lotus and Lightning project in collaboration with the Vietnam Fund for Education, Music, and Infrastructure and Naked River Films. Produced and released two CDs of traditional music, with proceeds to benefit charitable projects in Vietnam. Began production of documentary film.
Repeated the “Plus 3 Degrees” campaign, which collected and distributed warm winter clothes and blankets for the houseless population in the San Francisco Bay Area.
2008
Earthville, with its Indian partners, established Dharmalaya Charitable Society in the Indian Himalayas to promote sustainable development and compassionate living in the region.
2009
Established the Human Family Peace Project as an Earthville Umbrellavator project working to facilitate mutual understanding and collaboration between peoples of the Middle East and the US. Conducted conference for international participants in Istanbul, Turkey.
Developed plans for eco-campus in the Indian Himalayas, in collaboration with Dharmalaya Charitable Society.
2010
Began construction of Dharmalaya Institute for Compassionate Living in the Indian Himalayas, to serve as a model eco-campus for integrated service-learning programs spanning the fields of sustainable development, culture, ecology, health, and traditional wisdom.
In partnership with Dharmalaya Society, launched the Earthville Orchards, an initiative to create green jobs, cultivate organic food, and facilitate carbon sequestration by planting thousands of trees in India.
Chapter 4
Evolution in experiential education, sustainability, music & the arts
2011
Initiated service-learning programs in sustainable and compassionate living in collaboration with the Dharmalaya Institute in the Indian Himalayas.
Commenced publication of the Earthville Education Blog, featuring ongoing explorations of education as a catalyst for the development of conscientious global citizens, healthy communities, and a more harmonious and sustainable world.
2012
Established a vocational training program in earthen masonry, in partnership with the Dharmalaya Institute, to train a green building workforce in the Indian Himalayas and support rural villagers — especially women and villagers from backgrounds historically referred to as “low caste” — to earn a better livelihood through means that support rather than disrupt their traditional lifestyles and natural environment.
2013
Launched a formal academic Internship in Vernacular Eco-Architecture in collaboration with Didi Contractor, an award-winning eco-architect in India. Accepted nine interns within the first month (and hundreds more in the months and years to follow).
Developed a new Earthville website to facilitate greater engagement and community building, both online and on the ground.
Launched Earthville Music, an innovative, artist-driven, nonprofit record label leveraging the power of music to uplift people and communities, channeling proceeds to support the artists and charitable projects across the globe.
2014
Earthville Music released Skyland, a record album by Earthville artist Dara Ackerman, with some proceeds supporting Earthville’s charitable projects.
Program development continued at Dharmalaya Institute for Compassionate Living, Earthville’s eco-campus in the Himalayas, including the expansion of the Internship in Vernacular Eco-Architecture and an annual series of meditation retreats, yoga courses, and other programs supporting holistic well-being.
2015
Dharmalaya Institute for Compassionate Living continued construction of new adobe and bamboo structures on the campus, and diversified its program offerings to cover a broader range of topics related to sustainable and compassionate living.
2016
Dharmalaya Institute was featured in the Swiss documentary film Didi Contractor: Marrying the Earth to the Building, which made its world premiere at Dharamshala International Film Festival. The film includes interviews with Earthville founder Mark Moore and others from the Institute.
2017
Dharmalaya Institute‘s Internship in Vernacular Eco-Architecture expanded to a four-month programme with the option to study for up to one year, building links with universities around India and attracting working architects as well as students of architecture from around the world.
Dharmalaya Institute was featured in a new book : An Adobe Revival, by Joginder Singh with text by Didi Contractor
2018
Earthville welcomed Spring Up Foundation as a new educational project rising in the Earthville Umbrellavator.
Program development continued at Dharmalaya Institute, including expanded offerings for well-being and personal and professional development.
2019
Celebrated Educator (and Earthville Board member) Arnie Langberg and Earthville founder Mark Moore ramped up their work to compile a new book on Arnie’s life and work as an educator and reformer. The two also began designing a companion website and activities to engage the public around the topics explored in the book.
Dharmalaya Institute for Compassionate Living continued construction of adobe and bamboo structures on its campus (now seven buildings in total) and ongoing curriculum development.
The President of India awarded India’s highest civilian honor, the Nari Shakti Puraskar award, to the head of Dharmalaya Institute’s architecture faculty, Didi Contractor
Service-learning workshop participants learn to build straw-bale structures by helping to build the kitchen at Earthville Institute
Earthville workshop participants learn earthen masonry by building a wall with compressed, lime-stabilized earth blocks (CSEB)
Two of the nine earthen structures on Dharmalaya Institute’s eco-campus in India
Real-world classroom: Students at Dharmalaya Institute gather around the compost shed to learn about soil science and high-yield organic gardening
Chapter 5
A newly developing US campus and a new era of experiential education programs
2020-2021
On May 1st, 2020, Earthville Network turned 20 years old! See this page for how it all began.
Earthville responded to the COVID-19 pandemic by focusing on providing safe outdoor employment for rural Himalayan villagers (many of whom were the sole income-earners for their families) throughout the pandemic, while also providing online courses, remote counseling, and other forms of support worldwide.
During this time, Earthville relocated its HQ from California to Colorado to prepare for establishing a new eco-campus there, completed the formalities to become a Colorado nonprofit organization, and commenced the planning stage for the new campus.
Earthville accelerated the succession plan and leadership training for next-generation leaders of Dharmalaya Institute.
2022
Earthville ushered in the development stage of its upcoming eco-campus in Colorado with a series of natural building workshops attended by over 100 participants from the US and beyond.
Dharmalaya Institute for Compassionate Living (Earthville’s Himalayan eco-campus) launched an innovative one-year residential course in Natural Design and Contemplative Architecture, with Earthville Directors Daphne Charles and Mark Moore as senior faculty.
2023
Earthville Director Mark Moore served on the planning committee for the 2023 Moore Humanities Symposium at TCU on the topic “What Is Well-Being?” The keynote speakers were leading neuroscientist Dr. Richard Davidson (University of Wisconsin, Madison), author of The Emotional Life of Your Brain and Altered Traits, and Rhonda Magee (University of San Francisco), author of The Inner Work of Racial Justice.
Launched Earthville Press, a nonprofit imprint publishing books related to Earthville’s mission, and released its first publication, To Create the World That Ought to Be: Memoirs of a Radical Educator, by Arnie Langberg with Mark Moore.
Formalized Earthville Institute as a Colorado nonprofit organization and soft-launched its programming with a natural building workshop.
Sulha Peace Project brought together more than 2000 Palestinians and Israelis for in-person gatherings focused on peace. In response to the outbreak of war in Gaza, Sulha held bi-monthly gatherings in Jerusalem for both Jews and Muslims to come together to mourn, grieve, and make shared aspirations for a peaceful future. Sulha also provided humanitarian aid to 200 Palestinian families in the West Bank and East Jerusalem in the form of food baskets supported by donations made to Earthville.
2024
In honor of International Women’s Day (March 8), the Council of Architecture in India released a new documentary film (directed by Gurvinder Singh) on the life and work of Didi Contractor, the cofounder of Earthville’s Internship in Vernacular Eco-Architecture in partnership with Dharmalaya Institute.
Launched new website for Earthville Institute and expanded the institute’s programming with its first summer internship in sustainability (see video) as well as several workshops and retreats on its newly developing Colorado eco-campus.
Launched Building a Better World, a 15-month experiential education program developed as a collaboration between Earthville Institute in Colorado and Dharmalaya Institute for Compassionate Living (Earthville’s Himalayan eco-campus) in India.
2025
On May 1st, 2025, Earthville Network turned 25 years old! See this page for howit all began.
Continued development of Earthville Institute’s eco-campus, with three strawbale-and-earth buildings and a geodesic dome greenhouse structurally complete.
Earthville Institute hosted nature-based educational and service-learning programs with partners including School of Lost Borders, LifeWays and La Plata Youth Services as well as mindfulness and meditation retreats supporting well-being.
Held the second annual Summer of Sustainability at Earthville Institute (see video).
Continued to offer programs through the Building a Better World series as a collaboration between Dharmalaya Institute in the Himalayas and Earthville Institute in the US, including workshops and courses in compassionate leadership, natural building, permaculture, meditation, and more.
Students and interns construct an adobe-and-bamboo building at Earthville’s Himalayan eco-campus, Dharmalaya Institute
Chapter 1
Earthville is born at an international crossroads in the Himalayas
1997
Established Dharamshala Earthville Institute (DEVI) in Dharamshala, HP, India (exile home of H.H. the Dalai Lama) as a community resource center to provide skills trainings and other forms of assistance for the local Indian and Tibetan refugee communities while also offering educational programs for the diverse visitors to the community.
In the interest of creating a financially self-sustaining model to support DEVI, also launched the not-for-profit KhanaNirvana Community Café (a plant-based natural foods restaurant and community center) to generate revenue to support DEVI’s charitable initiatives and provide employment and vocational training for refugees.
1997-2001
Collaborated with the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics to establish a computer training program for Tibetan refugees in Dharamshala and across India. Developed a syllabus, taught the first courses, trained two of the Institute’s employees as teachers and then turned the program over to them in 1999.
At the request of local community leaders, Dharamshala Earthville Institute established a volunteer placement program recruiting hundreds international participants to perform voluntary service work for nonprofits, schools, and refugee community agencies in the Dharamshala area. (This volunteer placement program was actively managed by Earthville from 1997-2001, and then was handed over to DEVI’s Tibetan refugee staff, who continued to operate it from 2001-2012.)
With the blessings of H.H. the Dalai Lama, the Dharamshala Earthville Institute hosted a five-year series of cross-cultural programs and interfaith dialogues in Dharamshala attended by a total of over 4000 participants and garnering international media coverage. A highlight of this was a group meeting with the Dalai Lama to discuss issues related to education and peace in the Middle East.
Dharamshala Earthville Institute also hosted an ongoing series of weekly community programs including a lecture series, documentary film screenings, and cultural and artistic events from 1997-2001 (and continuing under Tibetan refugee management until 2012).
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