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FOREWORD
On reaching the sanctuary of India in 1959 after his flight from the invading Chinese forces in Tibet, His Holiness the XIVth Dalai Lama quickly realized the importance of caring for the many hundreds of Tibetan Children who were being brought into exile by their parents or other relatives. They needed immediate attention-food, clothing, shelter and medical treatment -and they needed facilities for education. His Holiness lost no time in bringing their case before the Indian Government.
Thanks to the sympathetic generosity of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, a Tibetan education movement was able to start in 1960, and in 1961 the Tibetan Schools Society (later to be renamed the Central Tibetan Schools Administration) was set up as a special wing under the Ministry of Education of the Government of India to administrate and financially support the schools. This books reveals how the Tibetan education movement has steadily grown from those early years, with the generous support of many foreign individuals and aid agencies; it tells how much has been achieved against all the odds, and what remains to be done in the years to come.
In Tibet itself, under the Chinese rule young Tibetan have no right to more than the most basic rudiments of schooling. Nor do they have full rights to practice our Buddhist faith or any other elements of our ancient culture. So we feel it is very much up to the exiled Tibetan community to preserve all that is best of our traditions, and from the first His Holiness the Dalai Lama has been insistent that young Tibetans should learn their own language, religion, history and arts at school as well as subjects of the outside world. This, then, is the foundation of our school system and will remain so for as long as it is necessary to safeguard our national identity and live in exile.
Lobsang T. Rikha
December,1980
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