This page is a list of organisations of Tibetans in exile. Most of the organisations listed are groups of ethnic Tibetans outside of Tibet and based in Dharamsala. [1] The Dharamshala Indian community materialised around the Dalai Lama, who moved there from Tibet after the 1959 unrest in Tibet. [2] There are cultural groups, religious groups, and political groups, some of which promote the goals of the Tibetan independence movement.
The Central Tibetan Administration, often referred to as the Tibetan Government-in-Exile, is a non-profit political organization based in Dharamshala, India. Its organization is modeled after an elective parliamentary government, composed of a judiciary branch, a legislative branch, and an executive branch.
Dharamshala is the winter capital of Himachal Pradesh, India. It serves as administrative headquarters of the Kangra district after being relocated from Kangra, a city located 18 km (11 mi) away from Dharamshala, in 1855.
The Dorje Shugden controversy is a controversy over Dorje Shugden, also known as Dolgyal, whom some consider to be one of several protectors of the Gelug school, the school of Tibetan Buddhism to which the Dalai Lamas belong. Dorje Shugden has become the symbolic centre-point of a conflict over the "purity" of the Gelug school and the inclusion of non-Gelug teachings, especially Nyingma ones.
Namgyal Monastery is currently located in Mcleod Ganj, Dharamsala, India. It is the personal monastery of the 14th Dalai Lama. Another name for this temple-complex is Namgyal Tantric College.
Tibetan Americans are Americans of Tibetan ancestry. As of 2020, more than 26,700 Americans are estimated to have Tibetan ancestry. The majority of Tibetan Americans reside in Queens, New York.
Lobsang Tenzin, better known by the titles Professor Venerable Samdhong Rinpoche and to Tibetans as the 5th Samdhong Rinpoche, is a Tibetan Buddhist monk and politician who served as the Prime Minister of the cabinet of the Central Tibetan Administration, the Tibetan government-in-exile based in Dharamshala, India.
Tibetan Children's Villages or TCV is an integrated community in exile for the care and education of orphans, destitutes and refugee children from Tibet. It is a registered, nonprofit charitable organization with its main facility based at Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh, North India. TCV has a network spread across India with over 12,000 children under its care.
Jetsun Pema is the sister of the 14th Dalai Lama. For 42 years she was the President of the Tibetan Children's Villages (TCV) school system for Tibetan refugee students.
The Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies, formerly called Central University for Tibetan Studies (CUTS), is a Deemed University founded in Sarnath, Varanasi, India, in 1967, as an autonomous organisation under Union Ministry of Culture. The CIHTS was founded by Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru in consultation with Tenzin Gyatso, H.H The 14th Dalai Lama, with the aim of educating Tibetan youths in exile and Himalayan border students as well as with the aim of retranslating into Sanskrit and translating into Hindi and other modern Indian languages lost Indo-Buddhist Sanskrit texts that now exist only in Tibetan.
McLeod Ganj, also spelt McLeodganj, is a suburb of Dharamshala in Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh, India. It is known as "Little Lhasa" or "Dhasa" because of its large population of Tibetans. The Tibetan government-in-exile is headquartered in McLeod Ganj.
The 14th Dalai Lama, known as Gyalwa Rinpoche to the Tibetan people, is the current Dalai Lama, the highest spiritual leader and former head of state of Tibet. Born on 6 July 1935, or in the Tibetan calendar, in the Wood-Pig Year, 5th month, 5th day, he is considered a living Bodhisattva; specifically, an emanation of Guanyin Bodhisattva (Avalokiteśvara). He is also the leader of the Gelug school, the newest school of Tibetan Buddhism, formally headed by the Ganden Tripa. The central government of Tibet, the Ganden Phodrang, invested the Dalai Lama with temporal duties until his exile in 1959. On 29 April 1959, the Dalai Lama established the independent Tibetan government in exile in the north Indian hill station of Mussoorie, which then moved in May 1960 to Dharamshala, where he resides. He retired as political head in 2011 to make way for a democratic government, the Central Tibetan Administration.
The Tibetan diaspora are the diaspora of Tibetan people living outside Tibet.
The Tibetan Nuns Project is a non-profit organisation founded in 1987 dedicated to educating and supporting female Buddhist monastics in India from all Tibetan Buddhist lineages. It supports nuns interested in study and higher ordination. The mission of the Tibetan Nuns Project is to educate and empower nuns of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition as teachers and leaders; and to establish, strengthen, and support educational institutions to preserve the Tibetan religion and culture. The organisation supports seven nunneries and over 700 nuns in India.
Buddhism in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh has been a long recorded practice. The spread of Buddhism in the region has occurred intermediately throughout its history. Starting in the 3rd century BCE, Buddhism was propagated by the Maurya Empire under the reign of Ashoka. The region would remain an important center for Buddhism under the Kushan Empire and its vassals. Over the centuries the following of Buddhism has greatly fluctuated. Yet by experiencing revivals and migrations, Buddhism continued to be rooted in the region, particularly in the Lahaul, Spiti and Kinnaur valleys.
Ritu Sarin is an Indian film director, producer and artist based in Dharamshala, India. She was born in New Delhi. She did her undergraduate studies at Miranda House in Delhi University and went on to do her MFA in Film and Video from California College of the Arts in Oakland. She is the recipient of Miranda House’s 2010 Distinguished Alumna Award. She is married to Tibetan filmmaker Tenzing Sonam with whom she has two children.
Lha Charitable Trust – Institute For Social Work and Education (Lha) is a grassroots, nonprofit organization, and one of the largest Tibetan social work organizations based in Dharamsala, India. It is the first organization that was established in exile to develop a primary focus on Tibetan social work. The Lha Charitable Trust was founded in 1997 and is registered as a charitable trust by the Himachal Pradesh government of India. Lha is managed by Tibetan refugees, is supported by volunteers and contributors from around the world, and serves refugees, the local Indian population and people from the surrounding Himalayan region. In a short period of time, the organization "has grown in leaps and bounds, from a small start-up with two computers to one of largest community based Tibetan NGOs in Dharamsala." Lha is a sacred Tibetan word that means "superior body" or "energy body", whereby the "Lha body" exists between the physical body and the mind.
Dr. Sarika Singh is perhaps the first Indian female painter and teacher in the Buddhist tradition of Thangka Painting. Born on 13th August,1976, in New Delhi, she began her studies in the art of Thangka painting, in the year 1996, at the prestigious Norbulingka Institute in Dharamshala, Northern India under the tutelage of her master, Tempa Choephel. In the year 2015, she completed her Master’s degree in ‘Buddhist and Tibetan Studies’ from Punjab University, and ‘PhD’ from Central University of Himachal Pradesh in the year 2021.
Tibet Center Institute – International Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies was founded by the 14th Dalai Lama, Lama Geshe Tenzin Dhargye and the Tibet Office Geneva with the support of the Carinthian state government and is located in Knappenberg in the region of Hüttenberg, Carinthia, Austria. The institute provides an authentic and secular education program on Tibet's authentic knowledge and culture on an academic level which makes it unique in Europe.
Yeshi Dhonden was a Tibetan doctor of traditional Tibetan medicine, and served the 14th Dalai Lama from 1961 to 1980. In 2018, the Indian government honoured him with the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award in India.
Geshe Lhakdor Tibetan: དགེ་བཤེས་ལྷག་རྡོར, Wylie: dge bshes lhag rdor, also Geshe Lobsang Jordhen and Geshe Lhakdor Lobsang Jordan Tibetan: བློ་བཟང་འབྱོར་ལྡན, Wylie: blo bzang 'byor ldan, is a Tibetan Buddhist scholar who has co-authored and co-translated several books on Tibetan Buddhism. He was also an English translator of the 14th Dalai Lama. He is a Director of the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives in Dharamshala, India. He is also an Honorary Professor at the University of British Columbia, Canada.