Tibetan Muslim students on educational tour in Dharamsala

DHARAMSALA, Dec 19: Tibetan Muslim students from Kalnat Pura, a Tibetan Public School in Srinagar are on a visit to Dharamsala, the exile headquarters of the Central Tibetan Administration(CTA).

The maiden visit by a group of 14 Tibetan Muslim students from Srinagar, the largest city and the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir materialised after Kalsang Jigme, a winner of CTA film grant’s visit to the area last year.

The Tibetan students are on an eight-day educational tour from Dec. 17 – 24.

Jigme conceived the idea while shooting the documentary “LHASA KHACHE: A Forgotten Community” in Srinagar and the educational tour is being funded by the Dalai Lama Charitable Trust. While shooting the documentary, Jigme says he learned a lot about the Tibetan Muslim community and the central idea of this educational tour he says is to bridge links with the Tibetan Muslim community and other Tibetan exiles.

“The students will be visiting different institutions, NGOs and schools in Dharamsala for four days and following which will visit different historical sites and museums in Delhi for three days,” he said.

They visited CTAand the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives today and Upper TCV school and Tibetan Career Centre yesterday accompanied by Masood Butt, a former CTA official, and three teachers.

Tibetan Muslims form a small minority in Tibet. Historically, Muslim traders from Kashmir and Ladakh settled in Tibet in the 17th century, during the time of the fifth Dalai Lama. The first of mosque in Tibet, Bada Masjid was built in 1716.
After the Chinese occupation of Tibet, most Muslims migrated to Nepal and India with the Dalai Lama and other Tibetans. Two thousand or more Tibetans have made their home in Srinagar while others settled in Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Dehradun, Delhi, Saudi Arabia and Dubai as well.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *