Honouring Tom Barr : An Extraordinary Mind and Unsung TCV Volunteer
By Tenzin Pel-lha / December 8, 2022
In 1995, an unassuming American man named Tom Barr moved to Dharamshala. Tom had been practicing Vajrayana Dzogchen Buddhism in the United States since the 1970s and living in Nepal for years. Yet after meeting his guru, Ngakpa Karma Lhundup Rinpoche, it was clear he needed to relocate to India read more →
“It All Depends On Our Mind”
By Tenzin Pel-lha / September 30, 2022
We are sitting side-by-side in a local café in McLeod Ganj, holding identical copies of Thich Nhat Hanh’s book How to See, reading along together. Water Reflecting The clear still water of a mountain lake reflects the mountain and the sky with pristine clarity. You can do the same. If read more →
“I Am Vegan For All Sentient Beings”
By Tenzin Pel-lha / August 31, 2022
It’s a rainy August afternoon in Dharamsala and Dr Dawa Dolker greets me warmly outside Delek Hospital – the Tibetan hospital. She guides me through a staff entrance, offering a friendly smile to each of her colleagues passing by, to her dental clinic. Within moments of meeting I notice the read more →
“It’s Not Really Meaningful if you are Not able to Help Others”
By Tenzin Pel-lha / August 9, 2022
As a young girl in Tibet, Dorji Kyi remembers seeing an image of His Holiness the Dalai Lama on a small pendant, a gift from a relative in India. Like many of her peers in the early 1990s, she arrived in Dharamshala—smuggled in disguised as a Nepali girl at seven read more →
Inspired to Teach
By Tenzin Samten / May 20, 2022
Sonam Khando is currently teaching Chinese language classes at Lha Charitable Trust where language classes such as French, English and German are also taught to adult students from Tibet and other Himalayan regions. Sonam has been teaching Chinese for over four years and is well-known among the community for her read more →
Ukraine crisis: Parallels with Tibet
By Tenzin Kunga / April 5, 2022
Tenzin Kunga is a former civil servant of the Central Tibetan Administration, currently living in London. He is interested in closely following news about UK-China geopolitics with Tibet as the core. Just as the world was fighting its way out of the pandemic that originated in China’s Wuhan in late read more →
Blessings and Inspiration
By Phurbu Lhamo / February 22, 2022
I remember one day when I was about six, my teacher showed us documentary films relevant to the Tibetan situation showing that Tibetans in Tibet don’t have any right to practice religion or the right to freedom of speech and expression nor, in fact, the right to live as humans read more →
Telling Our Stories
By Tenzin Samten / January 31, 2022
Jamphel Dorjee of Jamphel Animation is a freelance 3D animator who has been working with the Central Tibetan Administration’s Department of Education for the past eight years, creating a series of short animations for Tibetan children in the diaspora. Contact: Can you introduce yourself for us? Jamphel Dorjee: I came read more →
Inspiring Education for Children and their Parents
By Tenzin Samten / December 30, 2021
Buddha Kyab, Director of Manjushri Educational Services, a registered non-profit non-government organization promoting Early Literacy Development and Early Childhood Care and Education, spoke to Contact about the organisation’s work. Contact: Tell us briefly about Manjushri Educational Services (MES) Buddha Kyab: Manjushri Educational Services (MES) is an educational NGO based in read more →
Choezin’s Story
By Tenzin Choezin / December 2, 2021
I pursued my education in English Literature from Madras Christian College and Jawaharlal Nehru University, followed by two internship stints teaching at Tibetan Children’s Village School, Upper in 2014 and 2015. My experiences at the school, although very short, affirmed a sense of purpose in me. It made me curious read more →