UK, August 28: 25 Tibetan children and youth attended a 5-day Tibetan Summer camp from the August 20 to 24 in Worcestershire, England. The camping trip was the first of its kind organised in the United Kingdom by Y-TEC (Young Tibetans Educational Club).
Y-TEC is a non-profit making organisation, which is a wing of the Tibetan Community in Britain. It was established after one of the Community members felt that there was a growing number of Tibetan children in the U.K. who could benefit from a Tibetan cultural camp. The camp aims to work towards nurturing the children’s sense of Tibetan identity and preserving Tibetan culture, language and religion. It also aims to encourage friendships between Tibetan children and youth, whilst getting opportunities to experience outdoor activities.
The camp was held at the Old Vicarage Adventure Centre in Stottesdon, Worcestershire and was intended for children between the ages of 6 – 18 years. Children from various parts of the U.K., including Brighton, Liverpool, London, Oxford and Surrey attended the camp. Besides, the camp also had had campers from Vermont, USA, Toronto, Canada and Japan.
During the five-day camp, the participants took part in various workshops and centre-led activities. The workshops included sessions in Tibetan identity and roots, language and calligraphy, daily living and culture and Tibetan art. These covered interactive discussions about Tibetan roots and geography, youth responsibility, the current situation in Tibet, meaning of the Tibetan altar, water bowl offerings, prostrations, Tibetan calendar system and even a debate about Tibetan independence versus autonomy. During practical sessions, campers participated in making and printing Tibetan prayer flags whilst learning about their meaning. Children also had rare opportunity to attend sessions on butter sculpture making and sand art.
Campers also spent time learning this year’s camp song, and also learned to play dra-nyen (Tibetan lute) and lingpu (Tibetan flute).
Centre led outdoor activities included archery, high zip-wire jumping, canoeing, kayaking, raft building, rock-climbing, abseiling and caving. The campers specially enjoyed these adventurous activities, which allowed most of them to try some of these activities for the first time.
In the evenings, the campers enjoyed campfires with gorshe (traditional Tibetan round dance) and singing.
The camp concluded with the children wearing their Tibetan traditional dress, chuba and attending sang-sol (incense burning and offering ceremony) on the final morning.
The camp coordinator, Tenzin Takla thanked all the participants for their hard work and active participation, and presented Khatas (Tibetan greeting scarf) and, gave “Free Tibet” badges and a Tibetan National Flag to each of them. Takla also extended special thanks to Kusang Choedon, Deizom Frasi, Dawa Tenzin, Pema Yoko and Phuntsok Dalu for their help in organising the camp’s workshops.
In their feedback, the participating children expressed that they were looking forward to the next year’s camp.
Takla stated that the camp was made possible by kind donations and support of various organizations and said that the children, parents and organisers of Y-TEC are deeply grateful to them. Takla also expressed hope that the success of this year’s camp would be followed with more such camps in future.
Based on report from Tenzin Takla, projectsummercamp@gmail.com / 020 8 447 5986/ 0787 576 0840 (All Photos by Y-TEC/Project Summer Camp)
