Sponsor: A Boarder • A Day Student • A Monk at the Main School • A Young Monk at the Branch School • FAQ-About Sponsorship
Donate: How to Sponsor or Donate • Main School Wish List • Getting Money to the School • Branch School Wish List
• A Breakdown of Some Costs for Students Who Board at SMD
Our Helpers • Making a Dramatic Difference• A Gift From Rebecca • Australia Visits SMD • Before and After Stories
Astrologer helps School • Andrew - Bringing Tibetan Music to SMD • These young women will bring change to Nepal
• Cooking Programme • Dr McCall undertakes suvery of SMD student growth • Malte Hoffmann brings Slacklining to SMD

Jamyang comes from Nubri, which is near the Nepalese border with Tibet. He has one brother and one sister. He doesn't know what his parents do for a living and says that he became a monk, "...because my father told me to." To get from his village to the monastery Jamyang had to walk for seven days with his fahter, sleeping in tea-houses at night.

He is enjoying life in the monastery and likes English and Tibetan.

Since May 2006 Jamyang has been studying at Shree Mangal Dvip Tibetan School for Young Monks.

Tashi is from Nubri which is close to the Tibetan border. To get to his village from Kathmandu means two days on buses and then a six-day walk. There are neither vehicles nor roads in these remote regions.

Tashi’s family are poor - his father works as a carpenter and he also labours in the fields; his mother is a housewife and she also helps in the fields. There are seven in his family: Tashi, his parents, four sisters and one younger brother.

It was his mother’s wish that he become a monk, which he did when he was 12 years old. Now that he is a monk he says, “Being a monk has changed my character. I learn how to help and respect others, how to meditate and pray and be kind…”

His favourite subjects in school are Tibetan and English, “…because my aim is to become a translator - I want to translate Tibetan Dharma into English for western people.” His hobbies are reading Dharma books and story books.

Since May 2006, Tashi Tsering has been studying at Shree Mangal Dvip Branch School at Namo Buddha. He is now studying in pre-shedra (shedra is a monastic university of Higher Buddhist studies).

The biographies of these two monks, little Jamyang, and Tashi Tsering underline the benefit of the education Thrangu Rinpoche gives his monastics. They all receive a secular education as well as the traditional spiritual training. Rinpoche points out that a well-educated monastic can help more beings more than someone who only has a materialistic education. A doctor, for example can help the sick, but a well-educated monastic can help beings in countless ways.

By the time these young monks are in their teens, they are beginning to think about the Dharma, their individual responsibility and how to benefit beings. With a Western education, they understand the 21st century. At the same time, they are well versed in the Buddha's teachings. They have the potential to help beings in so many ways. Tashi Tsering is turning his thoughts how best to serve Thrangu Rinpoche: imagine how many beings he could benefit if he became a translator. Imagine how much benefit you would create by sponsoring a monks' education.