The Tenzin Gyatso Scholars Program helps sow the seeds of a generation of influential young Tibetan scholars educated in fields of knowledge critical to an understanding of the contemporary world.

Returning to their monastic communities, the Scholars will be able to share the fruits of their learning, and so enrich the whole intellectual and scholastic environment in ways that will benefit the Tibetan people everywhere.

To Invest in Leadership in the Tibetan Community

The program is shaping the emergence of a group of Tibetan men and women who can use their experience to take on leadership roles in monasteries, in society or in government. The program therefore represents an important investment in capacity building for the Tibetan community, as well as for Tibetan Buddhism.

To Communicate the Insights & Values of Buddhism

Tibetan Buddhist culture is part of the heritage of the whole of humanity, and the value to be gained from its preservation and reinvigoration extends far beyond the Tibetan community.

Everyone who completes the Tenzin Gyatso Scholars Program will be better placed to articulate the ancient teachings of Buddha in the light of modern knowledge and modern reality, for a modern audience. In this way, the Scholars Program is working for the long-term wider welfare of people everywhere.

To Foster a Shift in Attitudes

Over the long term the Tenzin Gyatso Scholars Program hopes to benefit not only the classical tradition of Tibetan Buddhism but also contemporary society by provoking a widespread change in our collective outlook.

As Geshe Thupten Jinpa, one of the Dalai Lama’s principle English interpreters, and who has completed advanced studies in both Buddhist and western academic settings, observed:

“The meeting of Tibet’s great classical tradition and the West’s scientific and humanistic intellectual traditions could usher in a new and a constructive world view, which can benefit both our own classical tradition as well as the contemporary world.”

Please support the Scholars Program by making a donation online

When fully developed and implemented, the Tenzin Gyatso Scholars Program will consist of three principal components:

• A “Feeder Program” in India: A nine to twelve month program providing content based English language instruction and technology skill training to a broad population of monks and nuns studying in the Tibetan Buddhist monastic universities in South Asia.

This is considered a key component of the Scholars Program and will serve as a way to create the optimal conditions in India to ensure that the right scholars are informed, engaged and adequately prepared to take part in the program. Offering such a skills-based preparatory program for language and technology training will help to remove the key obstacles to participation by otherwise well-qualified candidates.

The feeder program will also include intensive advanced language instruction for those selected as Tenzin Gyatso Scholars in the months leading up to their departure for the United States.

• Academic Immersion in the West: Enrollment of selected Tenzin Gyatso Scholars as full-time students in a U.S. college/university, where they will be immersed in a modern academic environment and take classes along side students from all corners of the world.

The curriculum they will follow will be selected from pre-existing courses in line with the aims and guidelines of the Scholars Program. The Tenzin Gyatso Institute will provide active academic and personal support in collaboration with the partner college/university.

• Post Graduate Engagement: To create and promote an ongoing culture of collaboration among the Tenzin Gyatso Scholars, which is believed to be of critical importance to achieving the aims of the Scholars Program. The program will include and facilitate numerous opportunities for communication, cooperation and connection across classes of scholars through the use of modern technology, periodic alumni gatherings, and projects targeted at improving the quality and furthering the objectives of the Scholars Program.

This will help to multiply the benefits of the program both for the scholars and for the broader Tibetan community. As part of this effort, after completing the program Tenzin Gyatso Scholars will take up pre-arranged assignments or positions, the majority returning to their monastic communities in Asia. A smaller number may remain in the West either for further study or to teach.

Please support the Scholars Program by making a donation online