Note From Georgia
"His Holiness the Dalai Lama is pleased to learn from Venerable Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche regarding Shree Mangal Dvip Boarding School, Boudhanath, which has been established since 1987. His Holiness has always given tremendous emphasis on education. It is for this reason that He made it a priority in the case of the Tibetan community in exile. The setting up of educational institutions in exile began almost immediately on arrival in India. His Holiness is particularly pleased to learn about this school because it caters to children from the border areas and children whose parents are extremely poor.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama sends His blessings to Shree Mangal Dvip Boarding School and wishes this education project all success. Any assistance provided to the school is therefore welcomed by His Holiness."
Letter from H. H. the Dalai Lama
Schools For Himalayan Children
The eminent Tibetan lama, Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche founded Shree Mangal Dvip Boarding School to meet the needs of children from remote Himalayan villages where there are no schools. Established in the Kathmandu valley in 1987, SMD Boarding School serves children from four to twenty years old, and offers instruction from pre-school to Class 10.
In 2002, Rinpoche opened SMD Branch School for young monks on the edge of the Kathmandu valley. Both schools offer education, housing, medical and dental care to hundreds of Himalayan kids. Some of the children are Tibetan refugees, but most are from the north of Nepal; culturally and linguistically they are Tibetan and their thinking is Buddhist.
Nepal
- Is one of the poorest countries in the world
- Is the ‘hunger hot spot’ of Asia: 48.3% of children are underweight. (Compare with Afghanistan’s 43%)
- Has the highest child mortality in Asia; children weakened by hunger die of childhood diseases like measles and chickenpox
- In the time it will take you to read this brochure, four children will die from treatable diarrhoea. 18,000 die every year. All they need is rehydration.
These statistics are related to Nepal’s low literacy rates, the lowest in Asia. Caste thinking and the social, ethnic and gender barriers that come with it marginalize most Nepalis. Huge disparities in wealth, power and access are the outcome.
War
From 1996 until 2006, civil war ravaged Nepal. More than 13,000 died. Able-bodied men escaped, leaving the women, children and elderly to survive as best they could. Hundreds of thousands of young men are working illegally in the Gulf, their number a measure of the desperation in their homeland.
The result was a humanitarian crisis. From 2000 onward, we admitted children on the basis of life-and-death, taking only those we feared could not survive another year in their mountain villages. Rinpoche opened SMD Branch School to relieve crowding, but still we have had to rent four flats outside the compound to accommodate the overflow.
Himalayan People
Mongolian in origin, Himalayan people are an ethnic and religious minority in a country dominated by the state religion, an extremely conservative form of Hinduism. Until 2006, the king was legally regarded as a god and was above the law, at the apex of a pyramid of caste privilege.
From the Buddhist point of view, caste is meaningless. Buddhist women in particular enjoy greater independence than their Hindu sisters do. For centuries, the mountain people of Nepal lived as subsistence farmers and semi-nomads, trading into Tibet for goods like metal, salt and fuel but the occupation of Tibet made cross-border trade impossible.
There is little infrastructure in Nepal, none in the Himalayas. Mountain villages have no roads, no electricity, no telephones, no sanitation, no hospitals and no schools. In some Himalayan villages, 3 out of 4 children die before they reach five years. A child lucky enough to win a place in a government school soon loses all sense of identity. The Tibetan language and religion are lost, and a way of life dies.
A Brighter Future for Mountain Kids
Thrangu Rinpoche’s schools are unique in Nepal. Both schools offer a full education following the government curriculum (Math, Science, English, Nepali, Social Studies, Computer, etc.) enriched by instruction in Tibetan language and Himalayan culture. Classes are taught in English. The main school integrates nuns, monks and lay children. Instruction is given in the teachings of the Buddha and the children take part in prayer (Chenrezig) every day.
The young monks and nuns have a more rigorous schedule. They study Dharma texts and learn practices and rituals when they return to their monastic setting at the end of the school day.
Overseas sponsors wholly fund SMD Schools. In addition educating children, the main school also offers training and employment to more than 100 teachers and support staff.
Biographical Note
Born in Tibet, Thrangu Rinpoche is world renowned as a scholar and meditation master. He was appointed personal tutor to the 17th Karmapa by HH the Dalai Lama. Thrangu Rinpoche has dedicated much of his life to educating the thousands of young people who have been placed in his care.
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