In the late 1980’s there was an acute shortage of Tibetan language teachers across Tibetan schools in the exile Tibetan community. It was in response to this dire need for highly qualified young Tibetan language teachers that our late founding director, Gen Lobsang Gyatso, created a teacher education program initially at the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics (IBD). He recruited newly arrived young men and women from Tibet and started training them at IBD and this instantly not only provided jobs to the newly arrived youths but helped schools to appoint newly trained teachers.
The huge success of this program pushed Gen la to look for expansion. Given that IBD is already located in a highly congested area and targeted primarily for monks, Gen la eventually was lead to create a sister school, the College for Higher Tibetan Studies (CHTS) at Sarah village in Dharamsala.
Since the founding of CHTS at Sarah, several Primary Teacher Training and Bachelor of Education programs have been offered, in collaboration with the Department of Education of the Central Tibetan Administration. In addition, numerous workshops to upgrade the skills of teachers in exile Tibetan schools and for Himalayan region students have been offered. At the present the College offers Primary Tibetan Teacher Training programs in collaboration with the Department of Education, depending on the need.
Learn more about the Primary Tibetan Teacher Training Program >>