Dharamshala: His Holiness the Dalai Lama has expressed his gratitude to the government of India on the 50th anniversary of the first Tibetan school in exile. The Tibetan leader has sent a special message on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Central School for Tibetans, Mussoorie, on Monday.
In the message posted on the exile Tibetan government’s official website, the Tibetan leader recalled how Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru took a keen interest in educating Tibetan children by setting up separate schools for the Tibetans in the early days of exile. His Holiness the Dalai Lama said in the message, “Upon our arrival in India in April 1959, Prime Minister Pandit Nehru assured me that the real way to serve the Tibetan cause was to give our children a proper education. He followed up this advice by taking a personal interest in the establishment of separate schools for Tibetans, with the direct support and assistance of the Government of India,”
The exile government’s Education Minister Thubten Lungrig, Mr S C Khuntia, joint secretary with the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Venerable Karma Gelek, education secretary, CTA and Mr Alok Verma, director, CTSA, took part in the celebrations.
His Holiness said that imparting education to children is an act of “far reaching” generosity. “When children have the opportunity to receive an education they have the chance not only to improve themselves as individuals but to contribute to the development of society as a whole,” the Tibetan leader wrote.
‘Tibetan Refugee Educational Institution’ as it was called then with only six teachers and 50 children under the supervision of Kundeling and Jigme Taring was blessed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama on 3 March 1960. The CST Mussoorie became the first Tibetan residential school to be founded in India and has been run by the Indian government in collaboration with the Tibetan government in exile. The seed money for the initial project came from His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
Under the direction of Prime Minister Nehru, the Central Tibetan Schools Administrative (CTSA) under the Indian Ministry of Education as a separate administrative unit was instituted to support Tibetan educational needs in 1961.
