Dharamshala — In an interview with Geshe Tenzin Lekden, he speaks to TPI about the orphanage organisation he has just set up to help orphans and students from poor families in Paddar, in the Kishtwar district of Jammu and Kashmir, India. To date, the organisation has helped over 30 orphans and students from poor families with scholarships, books, bags and pens.
Tibet Post International (TPI) interviewed Geshe Tenzin Lekden, a Tibetan monk of Drepung Gomang Monastery, who is and has been the teacher and Principal of the Himalayan Cultural High School in Gulabgarh, Paddar, a remote valley in the Kishtwar district of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, India. The school is supervised by the Himalayan Buddhist Cultural Society and supported by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Government of India.
The Himalayan Cultural High School in Paddar, J&K, was founded in 1995 by Geshe Choephel Zopa of the Himalayan Buddhist Cultural Society and Lochen Tulku Rinpoche of Spiti, under the guidance of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. The school runs from kindergarten to high school, and currently has over 200 students and around 20 staff members. Graduates of the school have gone on to become civil servants in various government sectors.
TPI: Can you briefly introduce yourself ?
Interviewee: My name is Tenzin Lekden and I come from the nomadic community of Othok in Lithang county, eastern Tibet. From the age of 10, I studied at the Kham Nalanda Thenchen Choeling Tsuklakhang (monastery), founded by the late Tulku Tenzin Delek Rinpoche. I then escaped to India in 1998 and studied at Drepung Gomang Monastery in southern India. I first studied at the monastery school and, after graduating, I studied Buddhist scriptures at the monastery and obtained the Geshe Dorampa Degree. I then studied Tibetan literacy, grammar and poetry under the guidance of Geshe Tenzin Gyaltsen. In 2010, Drepung Gomang monastery sent me to the Himalayan Cultural High School in Paddar to teach Tibetan to students. For the last 13 years, I have been the teacher and principal of the school. Now, I am a teacher in the Gyuto Monastery in Dharamshala.
TPI: Can you tell us about the challenges you faced when you first joined the school?
Lekden: When I arrived at Himalayan Cultural High School, the environment and the language were totally different from those I had known before. Therefore, I encountered some difficulties, but thanks to the encouragement and advice of Geshe Lobsang Gyaltsen, former abbot of Drepung Gomang, and Geshe Choephel Zopa, director of the Himalayan Buddhist Cultural Society, I overcame these difficulties. I spent four months learning the local dialect, which enabled me to teach the subjects well and explain them to the students in their dialect. The students have also taken an interest in my teaching, which I am delighted about. The students are very interested in studying and the local people are very kind and have a deep faith in Buddhism, most of them are Buddhists. I was a teacher first, and then a hostel manager and finally the school director, and I worked at this school for 13 years.
TPI: How did the Orphanage organisation get started at the school?
Lekden: In fact, the school offers free education to students up to high school level. But problems arise when they enter university, especially for students from poor families and orphans, who can't go to university, drop out and marry very young, or are in the service of other families. I really wanted to help them and thought about it for many years. In 2022, with my teaching colleague Tenzin Woerse, I announced my intention to the local population, who were very enthusiastic and supportive. We then set up the organisation.
Since we set up the organization, we have had some money to help these students and orphans, and then I visited Bodhgaya in December and January 2022 and 2023, when His Holiness the Dalai Lama was teaching in Bodhgaya, to raise funds for the children. We also received considerable support and donations from Geshe Lharamgpa Tenzin Dharjee, Dora Monastic House, Gaden Monastery, South India. We were able to help over 30 orphans and students from poor families with scholarships, books, bags and pens. I will continue to support them as much as I can.