Dharamsala: The Department of Education (DoE) of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) ended its third leg of 6-month awareness talk series on Secular ethics to the students, teachers and general public in Tibetan schools and settlements in Nepal, Ladakh and Doon valley.

Geshe Yeshi Gyaltsen, DoE’s mentor on Secular Ethics was recently in Nepal from 15 to 23 June 2018. In those nine days, he gave twelve rounds of talks to around 1250 students and around 170 teachers and staff in eight different schools and settlements in and around Kathmandu and Pokhra in Nepal. Parents of Atisha School also attended the talk when it was given in Atisha School. The whole talk series in Nepal were kindly coordinated by Tenzin Rabyal, Education Officer, Snow Lion Foundation.

Geshe Yeshi Gyaltsen visited every Tibetan camp and school in Ladakh, and talked to around 700 students, nearly 700 general public and 133 teachers including teachers from Jangthang in eight days from 2 to 9 July. The whole talk series in Ladakh were kindly coordinated by Lhundup Namgyal, Principal, TCV School Ladakh.

The talk series continued from 13 to 30 July in Doon valley including Paonta Sahib, Puruwala, Clementown, Selakui, Dekyiling, Tsering Dhondenling, Mussoorie, Rajpur and Herbertpur. There he met with around 2080 students and 446 teachers and staff in seven different schools, and little more than 1100 Tibetan public in seven different Tibetan settlements.

Many of the school heads, teachers, students, settlement officers and public have unanimously commented that such talks greatly help everyone developing values and ethics in one’s life, and have requested the speaker to come back again with such programmes in future.

In Nepal, students got so much interested in the topic that they later went to school library and asked for books and other related materials on Secular ethics. There were several occasions where students of many schools walked along with Geshe Yeshi Gyaltsen after the talk and asked several questions, and sometimes, they came to meet the speaker at his guest room, and asked questions and cleared their doubts on the related topics.

When the speaker gave talk to the general public in Puruwala on 15 July, the discussion period was again packed with interesting questions that the talk consumed three long hours. Some elderly people expressed sadness over inability of youngsters coming for such programme. Later, a group of young Tibetans commented that such talk is truly helpful to youngsters also, so they requested the speaker to talk to young people again in the evening, when all the settlement’s youngsters will gather to watch the final match of FIFA World cup. So the speaker happily accepted the invitation and talked to them in the evening.

The speaker commenced his talk to around 160 Tibetan students and teachers at C.S.T. Mussoorie at 10 o’clock in the morning on 24 July, was supposed to be ended by 12 noon, but the curious children, came up with several interesting questions one after another that the speaker couldn’t stop them asking questions. And that led to the extension of the Q & A session up to 1.30 p.m. Finally the speaker had to end the session as he had his next schedule fixed at THF Mussoorie at 1.30 p.m. the same day, which again ended at 4 p.m. with vigorous discussions after 45 minutes’ talk.

The speaker received several phone calls thanking him for the wonderful talks followed up with meaningful discussions. Some of the Tibetan schools posted encouraging comments about the talk series on Secular ethics in their schools, which were being seen and read by teachers of other schools, who later admitted to the speaker that they had eagerly waited for the talk series to be conducted in their own schools.

In a nutshell, this part of the awareness talk series again received overwhelming response from the audience of all ages in all the places he visited so far.

Geshe Yeshi Gyaltsen, finally after one and half month, successfully ended his second and third legs of awareness talk series on Secular ethics in Nepal and Northern India. The fourth leg of his awareness talk series will be held after two weeks in Tibetan schools and settlements in Central India.

This part of the Awareness talk series was funded by Fonds De Dotation Mon Kontan Ou, France.

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