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 years old—to be educated in the Tibetan Children’s Village (TCV) schools. She remains grateful for how these years shaped her and the opportunity to be close to His Holiness. “We wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for him.”
Dorji went on to study journalism at Madras Christian College and MOP Vaishnav College for Women during which she had an internship in Chennai, shadowing a health reporter. “I had a very romantic idea about being a journalist,” she laughs. But within a month, although she had several bylines, she knew the profession wasn’t for her. However, she was sure that she’d ultimately do work to benefit others.
After earning her master’s degree, Dorji took a job with Amazon, where she worked for two years on an international troubleshooting team. She reflects on it as a positive professional experience and opportunity to integrate with the Indian community. Yet she longed to contribute to Tibetan causes, inspiring her to apply for a job at the Tibetan Women’s Association (TWA), which she admired for their work on women’s empowerment, gender equality and environmental justice.
Dorji during COP20 – Climate Conference in Peru
Photo: Dorji Kyi
In 2013, Dorji was offered a job with TWA to focus on campaigns for Tibet’s environment. The position enabled her travel to Peru in 2014 for COP20, the United Nations Climate Change Conference. Traveling with a Tibetan government staff member, she gained deeper insight into the significance of Tibet’s river serving ten downstream countries and its weight on a global stage, particularly after her colleague was mysteriously banned from the event after leaving pamphlets (pamphlets with information about Tibet’s environment) outside a talk given by representatives of China.“This experience gave me a sense of how powerful China’s influence is and how important it is that the Tibetan community continue to make our voices heard on an international platform,” she said. “It inspired me to keep going.”
The next chapter of Dorji’s career at TWA led her to travel extensively to dozens of Tibetan settlements in north India, leading workshops on legal empowerment of Tibetans in exile.“It was my first experience with public speaking in front of large groups and it pushed me out of my comfort zone” she said, expressing how it taught her to let go of perfectionism, simply do her best, and move on. “It gave me the confidence to do something meaningful for the Tibetan community.”
Her two formative years at TWA prepared her for the transition to Lha, the Tibetan-run charity providing social services to the Tibetan and other Himalayan communities, where she joined as a programme manager in 2015. Registering students for classes and managing volunteers—she estimates there have been 10,000 volunteers in Lha’s 25 years—facilitated rich conversations and lifelong friendships with a diverse population.
“It overwhelms me because it’s not the work of few people, it’s so many people,” she said, reflecting on her seven years with Lha and the organisation’s impact. “It has made me really understand what His Holiness says about how we have this one human life … it’s not really meaningful if you are not able to help others.” Fittingly, this same sentiment is expressed about Dorji by her colleagues and friends, including long-time volunteer Cynthia McGowan who began teaching with Lha in 2017. “I have a lot of admiration for Dorji,” said Cynthia after a class. “She’s ambitious, knowledgeable and committed to helping Tibetans and others … what she does make a difference.”
Dorji considers joining Lha as a blessing that helped her clarify her life’s purpose. She stepped down as director in May 2022 to prepare for her next endeavor: a Master’s degree programme in Sustainable International Development at Brandeis University in the United States.
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