My name is Thinley Woeser. I was born in a small nomadic family in Tibet. I didn’t get the opportunity to go to school when I was a child, but I was able to learn the Tibetan language from my father. I was not like I am today because I was the kind of child who was not interested in being a monk and wanted to follow in my father’s footsteps.
I thought that monks had no freedom because they had to learn many Buddhist recitations with strict teachers, so I always tried to avoid learning Tibetan. Sometimes I asked my mother to give me many chores instead of leaning Tibetan, but she was afraid to do so because my father might find out. Sometimes I got a good job from my mother – that was looking after our animals. I thought that was my best holiday as I was freed from my father. However, my childhood is like something that I cannot forget as memorable.
When I was ten or eleven years old, my two sisters got married and my older brother was studying in the monastery, so I had to care for my family and our animals. I was alone since my brother and sisters were gone. I had much responsibility in the family. However, I could not serve my parents as I wished even though I had cared for my family for eight years.
Unfortunately my parents passed away when I was sixteen years old, so you can imagine how it was difficult for a teenager, and after that I had so changed from my previous way of thought that I decided to enter monastic life.
I joined the highest Buddhist institute which is called Larung Gar in east Tibet and I studied there for four years with my brother. When I was in the monastery I heard more about His Holiness the Dalai Lama and that he was forced to escape with the Tibetan Government to India in 1959. For Tibetans His Holiness the Dalai Lama is the greatest spiritual leader and we hold him in very high regard. So my brother and I decided to come to India without telling our sisters and relatives. If they had known that we had left home, they would not have wanted us to go to India.
We then came to India in 2006 and I joined a monastery which is called Deprung Monastery in South India. I studied Buddhism for three years, but I was very ill because I was allergic to the weather and food. The doctor in the monastery advised me to go to Dharamshala to see the doctor. I left my monastery in 2009 and came to Dharamshala. I took the medicine for about one year and felt much better. In 2010, I was able to join a Tibetan college near Dharamshala which is called Norbulinka AOTC and I graduated last year.
I have been here for one and a half years and have been studying English for two and a half years. The reason for studying English is to be a translator from Tibetan into English and English to Tibetan. I believe I’ll be a translator in the future because I am very involved in learning English and also have a chance to learn with generous volunteer teachers from different countries.
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