My name is Ginpa Gyatso. I was born in a nomadic family. I went to school for three years when I was a child but I couldn’t go to school contentiously because my family needed me to help to look after our domestic animals. So, I stopped going to school. Anyway I couldn’t get a good opportunity to study when I was a teenager. That’s why I escaped from my family to Lhasa as a pilgrim when I turned 20 and I visited many monasteries and palaces around Lhasa. One day I met a man at a restaurant who returned from India to Tibet. We had some cups of tea and he told me about India, therefore I asked him some questions about how to get to India? He gave me some advice about what to do and where to go and also he helped me to find a guide. Then I prepared clothes and food, and then I determined to come to India on foot across Mount Khelasha and passed the border of Nepal and Tibet. It took almost 45 days to arrive in Nepal.
After ward I got in India and I got an audience with H.H.The Dalai Lama and Karmapa by the way I got a tiny opportunity to learn English and Tibetan in the Tibet transit school for a few months then I left my school and I came to McLoed Ganj to improve my poor English. I stayed here for one week but I couldn’t find a better English class. But fortunately, I have found a better English class, which is Lha’s free English class.
Palden Lama Age: 31
Palden Lama is a Buddhist monk and has been studying English language at Lha . He is also a Thangka painter, a skill he learned while studying in a Tibetan monastery. He hopes to become an English to Dharma translator. He says, "Lha has transformed and improved my English enormously, in both speaking and writing." He is oldest Student Lha and now his English quite good.
My name is Woser, I am a son of Tibet, I had studied at Menriling Bon Monastery and finished my studies Bon traditional Tibetan religion philosophy and received highest degree Geshe. Now I am a student at Lha English language class and I am interested both Tibetan and western culture. My goal is to be a researcher about famous Tibetan women who was practitioners of Buddhism and a translator. I think, basically every body wants to be peaceful in the world, So the first method is we have to communicate with other people to understand each other. That why, it is very important to learn many different language, so now I am studying English at Lha in Mclaod Ganj. Today I would like to say thanks a lot to the staff members and volunteer teachers of Lha for this opportunity.
My name is Dolker Choedon and I was born in Tibet in a tiny village far from the cities. I was an illiterate person when I was in Tibet, because there weren’t any schools and our sustenance depended on nomadic life. I was a shepherd for a long time. There wasn’t any electricity where I lived, and it seemed like ancient times, even though we were living in the 21st century.My brother was first to escape to India from Tibet. After our parents passed away, he has remained responsible for our family. After six years, he returned to Tibet even though it was dangerous. He felt such sympathy about our lifestyle, and he had a great willingness to share his worldly knowledge with us.
I was eager to start a new life, so we fled from Tibet to India in 2000. It was the biggest difficult that I have ever experienced in my life, but nevertheless, I could endure it because we had our end goal in sight – to come here. I received a marvelous opportunity when I reached India, as I was accepted into a branch of the main Tibetan Children’s Village (TCV) school in Suja, which was established by H.H the 14th Dalai Lama’s sister Jetsen Pema. All students are newcomers and from the Tibetan community. However, because even our English teachers are Tibetans, it was hard to improve in spoken English.
I was already grown up when I began attending TCV, and my knowledge level was totally different to those of my age, so I had to attend language classes instead of other types of classes, and TCV’s language class duration was only five years long. It seemed to me that school finished in a flash. Currently I am studying at Lha.
I would like to tell you a few words about myself. My full name is Tamdin Yangzom, but most people call me Yangzom as I like my second name. I was born in the east of Tibet in Kham. My family was a nomadic family, and I started to be a shepherd from the time I was four or five years old. I didn’t go to school as a child, not because my parents didn’t want to send me to school, but because there weren’t any schools where my family lived. It was hard to get the opportunity to go to school when I was in Tibet. I was just a shepherd until I was sixteen years old. One day, one of my cousins that was living in India phoned my uncle when I was staying in my uncle’s home, Then my uncle let me to talk with her and I told her about my life in Tibet. After that, she told me that I should try to come to India. There was a good chance that I would have an audience with H.H the Dalai Lama and study in India as well. I suddenly decided to come to India without asking my parents. I also didn’t have a Chinese passport. My uncle prepared everything that I would need. He was staying in a small town called Nangchoeka. He also found me a companion to go to India with. There were six people our group and we first went to Lhasa by bus. I arrived in Lhasa and we stayed there for five days. We visited the Potala Palace and other monasteries. During that time, we met another group who was going to India. They found a guide for the Himalaya pass who had arrived from India recently. We joined that group and trekked together on foot all the way to India. There were twenty people in our group. We walked for twenty eight days. Most of the time, we walked after the dusk to avoid detection. We couldn’t travel during the day because the Chinese border police are always looking for the many Tibetan people crossing the Himalaya mountains ever year. We slept in the day and walked at night. One of my companion got frostbite in her toes. There were lots of snow and we often fell down in the slippery snow. Also we heard such bizarre sounds on the breeze, so it was a scary journey to India from Tibet. If the Chinese border police saw us they would arrest us and put us in jail. Sometimes, they shoot their guns as well. But fortunately, we arrived in India safely, and I received an audience with H.H the Dalai Lama after a long wait. It was a great to hold audience with the Dalai Lama. I was overjoyed. Afterwards, I went to Suja School, which is part of the Tibetan Children Village (TCV) school established by the Dalai Lama. I studied there for three years. I had many problems with my studies because I really didn’t know how to use pens and books when I first attended the class. I could deal with all those things because of my goal – I had two goals in coming to India. One was to see H.H the Dalai Lama, and the other was to study. I also had a plan to continue my study for 12 classes, but in the end, I left my school in 2005, and came to Dharamsala. I took a one-year computer course at Gu Chu Sum (ex-political prisoners’ association). I learned a lot about computer programs such as Photoshop, adobe Pagemaker, Excel and little bit about HTM. Now she became Lha staff. 23 June 2008
My name is Ginpa Gyatso. I was born in a nomadic family. I went to school for three years when I was a child but I couldn’t go to school contentiously because my family needed me to help to look after our domestic animals. So, I stopped going to school. Anyway I couldn’t get a good opportunity to study when I was a teenager. That’s why I escaped from my family to Lhasa as a pilgrim when I turned 20 and I visited many monasteries and palaces around Lhasa. One day I met a man at a restaurant who returned from India to Tibet. We had some cups of tea and he told me about India, therefore I asked him some questions about how to get to India? He gave me some advice about what to do and where to go and also he helped me to find a guide. Then I prepared clothes and food, and then I determined to come to India on foot across Mount Khelasha and passed the border of Nepal and Tibet. It took almost 45 days to arrive in Nepal.
My name is Dolker Choedon and I was born in Tibet in a tiny village far from the cities.
I would like to tell you a few words about myself. My full name is Tamdin Yangzom, but most people call me Yangzom as I like my second name. I was born in the east of Tibet in Kham. My family was a nomadic family, and I started to be a shepherd from the time I was four or five years old. I didn’t go to school as a child, not because my parents didn’t want to send me to school, but because there weren’t any schools where my family lived. It was hard to get the opportunity to go to school when I was in Tibet. I was just a shepherd until I was sixteen years old.