SMDers are Changing Life in the Himalayas
Tsering Diki, an alumna of the Inter-Community School (ICS) Zurich finished high school in Switzerland. She returned to Nepal to do a BA in social work. She serves as the General Secretary of Serang Monastery and is also the Director of Serang Primary and Bihi Primary schools. After the sudden loss of one of the nuns (medical care too distant) Tsering initiated Serang Monastery Health Post and staffed it with an SMD graduate, Yudon Lhamo Lama.
Serang lies at 3100 metres in the Nubri Valley, on the shoulders of Mt. Manaslu. It is a ‘beyul’ (Tib. sacred hidden valley) where the Buddha’s teachings and nature are protected. Pictured: Tsering Diki with Karma Rinpoche, one of the four ’tulkus’ (reincarnate lamas). Learn more about urgently needed renovation for Serang clinic. https://serangschool.org/blogs/blog-2
Education Changes Lives. We Pay It Forward
Thrangu Rinpoche wanted to see education and health care taken back into the mountains. To date, SMDers have founded 5 health posts and one birthing centre. SMD and sponsors have helped more than a dozen SMDers get General Medicine training, to become licensed Health Assistants, (paramedics) equipped to run health posts. Two of our graduates are training as acupuncturists – as one observed, “Most of us kids’ parents are farmers. I see how their knees and back hurt. Acupuncture will help, and it is not expensive.” Both trainings are about 3 years’ duration.
Becoming a teacher takes longer but we’ve had SMDers running schools in Samgaon (Mikmar Bhuti in Gorkha District) and Pemba Sherpa in Hile Nigale (Dolakha district). Two SMDers are working on BEds through the Asian College of Teachers.
Education beyond high school is costly. It includes tuition (the three tracks above are about 3000 USD for the full training) and cost of living in the city.
L-R: Sherab Dolma, Tsering Dolma, Sonam Dolma (with Director’s Assistants Karma Chungda and Tsering Dolkar), Phuntsok Gyaltsen and Tenzin Norbu.
Winter Break Brought Some Overseas Goers Back To SMD
Sherab Dolma Sherpa is an alumna, She came home from Nova Scotia, where she has finished two undergraduate degrees (the first in geography and the second in health sciences). Sherab has started her own consultancy. She is the younger sister of Lamas Karma Phurbu and Pasang Wangdue. Sherab and her sister Dawa Dolma sponsor a boarder at SMD.
Tsering Dolma is 3/4 of the way through an undergraduate degree in Psychology. She finished the IB at the Inter-Community School Zurich and stayed in Europe to continue her studies. As many SMDers do, she had been longing to come home. Her flight was a gift from the family (host mum and brothers) that hosted her while she was in Grades 11 and 12 at ICSZ. SMDers who’ve studied at ICS are helped enormously by families who offer homestays. As they say, it takes a village.
Sonam Dolma finished the IB at Ullens School here in Kathmandu. Her uncle is Khenpo Dawa. It was Khenpo Dawa who place her in SMD and. helped with her admission at Ullens and her uni in the UK. She is 3/4 of the way through a BSc in Sports Management. Sonam Dolma was scouted from our girls’ football (soccer) team to internationally on the Tibet Women’s Soccer team.
Phuntsok Gyaltsen Lama is finishing Grade 12 at Red Cross Nordic United World College in Flekke, Norway. Phuntsok Gyaltsen is Lama Khamsumg Tsewang’s nephew. Phuntsok brought great news! Based on his predicted IB results, he’s been offered a full ride UWC Davis Scholarship (4 years’ of study) which even includes a ticket home every year.
Tenzin Norbu Lama is finishing is also at RCNUWC, and is finishing Grade 11 this year. Photo taken at Thrangu Tashi Yangtse Monastery at Namo Buddha, where all the kids went to pay their respects to Thrangu Rinpoche, our beloved founder.
Brain Drain
We encourage SMDers to think about Nepal, their own people and above all, to keep in heart and mind Thrangu Rinpoche’s aims: to preserve the language, culture and Buddhist way of life of Himalayan people.
Ani Diki Dolkar
In founding SMD 37 years ago, Rinpoche did something quite revolutionary. He combined secular and spirtual education and offered both to monastics and to lay children. Rinpoche had seen that parents from Nepal’s borderlands were putting their children into robes to assure their children’s survival and to get the education that monastic life guarantees. (Buddha taught, “Study, contemplate, meditate.”) Literacy rates in Buddhist societies are about 99%, but in Nepal’s mountain districts, in those days everyone was illiterate, except the monastics.
As our nuns and monks came and went from mountains, their robes shone like beacons of hope for mountain folk. These days, many young Nepalis dream to go overseas, mostly to chase money, often at the insistence of their parents. We do our best to help SMDers make choices that honour Rinpoche’s aims.
Life Skills For Our 11s With Edulift “Learning new things has never been so enjoyable.” Ani Diki Dolkar
Long ago, with Rinpoche’s clear instructions, we started the Senior Programme (for SMDers to learn life skills). Our 11s love the EduLift programme!
We were closed for 15 Days for the Winter Holiday and the School was empty
except for our ‘nyerpa’ (monk manager) Palta and the Director’s Assistants. Nyerpa Palta has been overseeing construction of classrooms for 11s and 12s. Yes, we will be offering Grade 12 when school starts in the Spring. Now they’ll have their own classrooms.
The Director’s Assistants filmed some of the kids coming home to SMD after the winter break ended. Here’s Kindergartener Sonam Palmo and Grade 7 Migmar Tamang.
Shout of thanks to Himalayan Children’s Fund (US Foundation) Sponsors who have Funded our Earthquake Rescue Equipment
If you are coming to Nepal and you want to bring something for us, We Need:
* multitamins with minerals, tablet (non-chewable) form, adult dose. (We cut to recommended dosage).
* wart medicine
* antibiotic and fungal creams
Thought for the Day: Children living near green spaces ‘have stronger bones’: Read full article from The Guardian
Video podcast interview with Shirley about SMD
Nepal Post Office is currently unable to process outgoing mail to different countries: While we understand the inconvenience this may cause, we want to assure you that all incoming mail services remain unaffected. The Nepal Post Office will continue to handle and deliver incoming mail from around the world without interruption. However, outgoing mail services to destinations outside of Nepal will be temporarily unavailable until further notice.
Here is the list of the country where outgoing mail is fine: Austria, Italy, United Kingdom, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, France, Netherlands, Spain, Finland, Switzerland, Sweden, Germany, United States, Qatar, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, South Korea, Thailand, Maldives
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