"Boys and girls harmonize together as their music teacher Tenzin Nordel leads them through a Tibetan song in a classroom overlooking an alpine forest. Theater kids practice Tibetan operas in the school hall. Even as they shoot hoops, teenage boys wear traditional shirts that button to one side, under the shoulder. For decades, this is how the Tibetan Children's Village imparted Tibetan students with their language, culture and faith in their de facto capital in exile in the northern Indian city of Dharamshala."
"The Dalai Lama and his sisters set up Tibetan Children's Village in Dharamshala in 1960, after they fled Chinese-ruled Tibet following a failed uprising. It expanded as thousands of people followed their spiritual leader into exile. They enrolled their kids in the school so they'd be raised as Tibetans. The emigres included parents who only found work in remote, hostile areas like isolated Himalayan villages, carving roads out of steep mountain slopes."
Tibetan Children's Village in Dharamshala historically immersed students in Tibetan language, culture and faith through music, theater and traditional dress. The school was founded in 1960 by the Dalai Lama and his sisters after they fled Chinese-ruled Tibet following a failed uprising and grew as thousands followed into exile. Parents, often working in remote Himalayan areas or crossing into India clandestinely, sent children to the school for cultural upbringing. Many children crossed the Himalayas at a young age and became a substantial portion of the exile population. Enrollment is now shrinking, mirroring population loss in Dharamshala and threatening transmission of language, traditions and community life.
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