Since Tibet has been occupied by China in 1959, we have been in grave danger of losing our most precious belongings: our religion and culture. Both are based on Love and Compassion which are the wealth of the universe, so anything in this world based on these qualities would be a loss for everyone. Fortunately, our unique and dear leader, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, had already began establishing opening schools and monasteries in India and Nepal in 1960 due to his concern for preserving the religious and cultural traditions for future generations of Tibetans and everybody interested.

Many Tibetans have since moved to North America. In our ever-growing community, there are presently between 4,000 - 5,000 Tibetans in the tristate area alone. With our children being so far away from their home country, they are even more vunerable to losing their ability to communicate in our native language.

It became obvious that as a community we needed to take action, so under the auspices of the former U.S. representatives of H.H. Dalai Lama, Rinchen Dharlo and Dawa Tsering, we opened the first Tibetan school in North America. On June 16, 1996 in New York, the school opened with 7 children. Word quickly spread throughout the local Tibetan community about the school and now in 2008, almost 200 children are enrolled, and we are still growing rapidly.

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