Tibetan students discuss future challenges

Dharamshala: Know who you are. Know what you are into. Know what you can do. That’s how Pempa Tsering put the order of business to some 87, class XI students at the opening of a nine-day Youth Leadership Workshop here at the hub of the Tibetan administration.

Pempa Tsering is a member of the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile, and also the director of the New Delhi-based Tibetan Parliamentary Policy Research Centre, which is organizing this workshop, in collaboration with the International Campaign for Tibet based in Washington D.C.

The order of business for the nine-odd days is extremely fascinating, almost to the point of a one-time privilege. A virtual who’s who of the Tibetan administration is on the panel of speakers, who will interact with the students, including Kalon Tripa Samdhong Rinpoche, Speaker Karma Choephel, Deputy Speaker Dolma Gyari, Kalon Thubten Lungrik, Kalon Tempa Tsering, Special Envoy Lodi Gyari, Secretary of the office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama Tenzin Geyche Tethong and a whole lot of others.

The workshop will introduce the students of 19 schools from across India and Nepal, who are escorted by 17 teachers, to the Tibetan democratic and organizational set-up in a comprehensive, but interesting fashion.

As an old myth has it that the average human attention span is 10 + person’s age minutes, the workshop will keep the lectures short and include more interactive sessions. "Besides, if you find the lectures bit taxing, feel free to ramble outside for a fresh breathe of air,' says Pempa Tsering, to the amusement of the students, who roared with laughter, when he further added, "Or you can even hijack the whole session and sing songs, the stage is all yours."

During the workshop, the students will also take a guided-tour of all offices and departments of the Tibetan Administration, along with institutes and NGOs in and around this town.

Since 2004, the TPPRC has been organizing similar workshops on a whole range of issues for wide groups of people, including members of Parliament, official of the Tibetan administration, NGOs, college students and the general populace.

  (www.tibet.net is the official website of the Central Tibetan Administration of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.)

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