The School's Program • The Curriculum • Further Education • People At The School Administration • Teachers • Staff
Life at the School:Typical School Day • The School's Facilities • Why Our Kids Don't Go Home on Holidays • Final Exams
SMD Branch School for Monks • Teacher's Pilgimage to Lumbini • SMD Sports Winners • Awards at SMD • Parent's Day
Dr Jane Goodall's 2nd Visit • Kids at the School • Street Scenes • PHOTO ALBUM: School Activities
 A Day in the Life of an SMDer • Training the Trainers • Eco Club • Making a Dramatic Difference • Losar Tashi Delek

Education for Himalayan Kids

"Education tends to develop the brain while it neglects the heart, so (people) have a longing for teachings that develop and strengthen the good heart." 

HH the Dalai Lama

Rinpoche’s long-term aim is to preserve the culture, language and the Buddhist way of life of the Himalayas, and to give Himalayan children the tools to build a better future, so they can help their own people when they grow up.

The schools are unique in Nepal. The main school offers a full education following the government curriculum (Math, Science, English, Nepali, Social Studies, Computer, etc.) enriched by instruction in Tibetan language and culture. Classes are taught in English. The main school integrates nuns, monks and lay children. Instruction is given in the teachings of the Buddha and the children take part in prayer and meditation (Chenrezig) every day. The young monks and nuns have a more rigorous schedule. They study Dharma texts and learn practices and rituals when they return to their monastic setting at the end of the school day.


Celebrating Graduation Day With Thrangu Rinpoche: 2007-2008 batch

SMD School is one of the top schools in Nepal. For six years running, all our candidates have passed the nationwide Class 10 exams. This is an outstanding achievement because nationwide, more than half the candidates fail to pass “the Iron Gate”…and our kids are writing the exams in their second language (Nepali). In 2005, only 8% of public school candidates passed, but our graduates made SMD’s history, all of them passed in the First Division.

Overseas sponsors wholly fund SMD Schools. In addition educating children, SMD also offers training and employment to more than 100 teachers and support staff.

SMD kids come from all over the Himalayas, from northern districts with romantic names like Mustang, Manang, Dolpo, Humla, Mugu, Gorkha, and Solu Khumbu. Culturally they are Tibetan, but they are born in Nepal. We don’t get newly escaped refugees these days. A few Tibetan students are still with us, mostly second and third generation, born in refugee camps in India.

If you visit our school or our award winning website www.himalayanchildren.org you will notice that our kids all have dark eyes and dark hair, but you will see a lot of variation within that: some look typically Asiatic (Tibetan types) while others look more Caucasian with distinctly Aryan features.

The school year starts in April of one year, and finishes the following April. We start the school year in April because the trails are impassible much of the year, from monsoon rains and winter snows. There are two long holidays every year; the most important for us is Losar (Tibetan New Year) which is when everyone automatically becomes a year older if we count the Tibetan way.

During holidays the children go home if they can. In recent years, snowbound or monsoon bound trails and the war make going home impossible, so we always have at least 150 children with us at any given time, as a consequence we run 12 months of the year.

The Main School: A School With a Difference


Staff at the main school, including teachers, support staff, 'seniors' and administration

Rinpoche’s chief aim is to keep the Buddhist way of life of the Himalayas alive. As a Buddhist school, we teach the tenets of Tibetan Buddhism, both theory and practice. Our boarders do the prayer and meditation of Chenrezig (the bodhisattva of compassion) every day. Rinpoche kindly arranged for a monk to give instruction every Monday evening on the meaning of the sadhana, how to chant the liturgy and how to do the visualization. Classes 3 and up are learning what the Buddha taught and what it means for them in their daily life. They are even taking part in debate and shrine keeping.


Not to forget our day students, daytime Dharma classes are also taught by our teacher monks and nuns. The classes often start with an unexamined cultural relic, for example, the meaning of the mantra OM MANI PADME HUNG.

Every evening at dusk, half the kids go down to “do kora” (circumambulate and say prayers) at the Great Stupa. We teach Dharma as the children’s lives unfold moment by moment, trying to lead their understanding into their conduct…so they will act like little Buddhas until they become Buddhas.


All the kids in the prayer hall
(More photos of kids in the prayer hall)