08/03/2026
8.3.26
Tashi Delek everyone, and Happy International Women’s Day
Today was a very auspicious day. Lama Rinpoche offered the Sunday meditation teaching at the temple, and it was wonderful to see students joining both online and in person to learn together about the Four Immeasurables.
On Friday we also joined the conference of the International Compassion Campaign for Tibet on Tibetan women’s resilience. It was a deeply inspiring and meaningful gathering, and it was a great joy to participate.
We now look forward to welcoming everyone from March 19th to 25th for an important retreat at Phuntsok Chö Ling Temple in Rotterdam. Everyone is warmly invited to join in the temple, follow the teachings online, or receive the recordings.
Please continue checking the Phuntsok Chö Ling website for upcoming study weekends and retreats throughout the year.
www.phuntsokcholing.org
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A New Initiative
We would also like to share a new initiative.
To help promote and preserve the Tibetan language, Lama Rinpoche is offering Phuntsok Chö Ling Temple as a gathering place for Tibetan communities in Europe—especially those from the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg —during the celebration of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s birthday.
This will be a Tibetan Language and Compassion Day, where children and adults can come together to speak Tibetan, learn meditation, practice prayers, and share cultural activities and traditional dances.
This space is offered as a way to celebrate Compassion Day and to pray for the long life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
Starting this year, Tibetan communities are warmly invited to contact Khandrola to organize their visit to Rotterdam.
It will be a beautiful opportunity for all generations to come together and help keep the Tibetan language and culture alive.
Finally, we would also like to share the speech that was prepared for the Tibetan Women’s Resilience event. If it may be of benefit, please feel free to read and share it.
Sarva Mangalam. May all beings benefit.
Tashi Delek.
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Tibetan Resilience and Identity
Preserving Culture, Freedom, and Heritage
By Yeshe Khandrola
Many years ago in Rome, Italy, His Holiness the Dalai Lama asked me a question that has remained in my heart ever since:
“What are your future plans?”
That question led me to reflect deeply about responsibility, identity, and how each of us can contribute—not only to our own lives, but also to our communities and to the world.
This reflection is not only about one person’s journey. It also reflects the experience of many Tibetan refugees in exile, diaspora communities scattered across continents, and people who have experienced displacement yet continue to carry their homeland in their hearts.
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Early Life and the Strength of My Mother
I was born in Manali, in the Indian Himalayas, in a small hot spring village called Kalath. In that village, we were the only Tibetan family.
When I was five years old, my father passed away from asthma. My mother, with extraordinary courage and dignity, raised five daughters. Despite many hardships, she ensured that we grew up deeply connected to Tibetan culture and values.
For me, my mother was the first woman who truly inspired me. She became my role model.
She ran a small restaurant in our Himalayan village, and at the same time she treated everyone around her with respect and kindness. She had deep respect for the Indian community and was always helping local people whenever she could.
She especially cared for Nepali women who worked in road construction, making sure they were treated with dignity and fairness.
Later she became the president of the Tibetan Women’s Association in our region and was involved in many community activities—supporting young people and helping elderly Tibetans.
Even as a child, I noticed something very special about her. The respect she gave to someone cleaning shoes on the streets was exactly the same respect she gave to someone working in government. She never treated people differently based on their social status.
Her life itself was a teaching.
My mother’s own life had been very difficult. She was the eldest daughter and lost her parents at a young age because of the consequences of the Chinese occupation of Tibet. Her family had been respected leaders in their village for generations, and her father had been a renowned Tibetan doctor.
After losing her parents, she took responsibility for raising her younger siblings. Later she raised five daughters with dignity, strength, and strong cultural values.
Through her actions, she taught us compassion, resilience, and responsibility.
For me, she represents the spirit of a resilient Tibetan woman.
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Education and the Power of Prayer
Later I attended Tibetan Children’s Village School, led by Ama Jetsun Pema la, the sister of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
Ama Jetsun Pema la has been an extraordinary role model for generations of Tibetan children. Her vision and dedication helped create an educational system that preserved Tibetan identity while preparing young Tibetans for the modern world.
At school we learned more than academic subjects. We learned about altruism, activism, and the importance of preserving Tibetan culture and language.
When I entered high school in Upper Dharamshala, where His Holiness the Dalai Lama resides, I remember making a very simple prayer on the first morning before entering the school building:
“Whatever I do here, may my mother be happy.”
Before that time I had never ranked first in class. But during my final two years of high school something unexpected happened.
I ranked first in all my subjects—political science, geography, English, history, and Tibetan language.
At first I thought perhaps my Tibetan teachers were simply being kind when they saw my name on the test papers.
But then the national examination results arrived. These exams were corrected by external examiners outside our school.
In the year 2000, I ranked first in the humanities stream among all Tibetan schools in India. It was the highest marks in more than 35 years in my school’s history.
On the day we received the news, my mother and I were in Manali buying vegetables at the market. When she heard the result, she was overwhelmed with joy.
She began buying sweets and pastries and distributing them to everyone she met, proudly telling them that her daughter had ranked first.
For her, education meant everything. She herself had wanted to become a doctor but could not continue her studies because she had to raise her siblings after losing her parents.
Seeing her daughters receive education fulfilled her deepest hopes.
In our Tibetan community we often say that young people are the future seeds of Tibet. From an early age we are taught that we carry a responsibility—to preserve our culture, support our community, and continue the Tibetan struggle for freedom through compassion and wisdom.
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Lunch with His Holiness the Dalai Lama
After finishing school, I went on to study at St. Stephen’s College in India and later received a scholarship to study at the University of Trento in Italy.
Suddenly I found myself in a small Alpine city in the Italian Dolomites—and once again like my mother in Kalath, I was the only Tibetan there. I was just seventeen.
During this time I had the great fortune of meeting His Holiness the Dalai Lama for the first time.
In 2001, His Holiness visited Trento for a conference. Because I was the only Tibetan student in the city, local politicians invited me to have lunch with him.
During that lunch he asked me which school I had attended and whether there were other Tibetans in the city.
I told him that I was the only Tibetan student there.
Then he gave me advice that has stayed with me ever since:
“Wherever you go, you will make many friends. Italian people are wonderful and they have a deep connection with Tibet. But wherever you go, never forget where you come from. Never forget your roots.”
Those words remained with me wherever life took me.
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A Question in Rome
Several years later, in 2007, His Holiness visited Rome and received an honorary doctorate from Sapienza University.
Thousands of Italian students were present in the hall. I was sitting far in the back with my youngest sister.
Normally I am quite shy and rarely speak in public unless necessary. But when they invited one final question from the audience, I raised my hand.
I asked His Holiness why, despite his sincere efforts to seek genuine autonomy for Tibet through peaceful dialogue, the Chinese government continued to refuse meaningful negotiations. I also asked why he was still not allowed to return to Tibet while Tibetans inside Tibet were waiting for him, and why even his image, history, and name were banned there.
His Holiness answered for nearly fifteen minutes.
Later that day I helped translate an interview for the Italian television channel RAI 3.
When I entered the room, His Holiness came toward me and said:
“You asked a very good question.”
Then he asked me something unexpected:
“Who are your parents?”
Trembling, I said the names of my father and my mother. In that moment it felt very important for me to honor them.
For me, that question from His Holiness was very precious. It reminded me that behind every individual stands a family, a lineage, and the values passed down through generations.
The following morning, during a gathering with Tibetan communities in Europe, His Holiness spoke about the event. He mentioned that many newspapers had written about Buddhism and science but had not spoken much about Tibet itself for last 3 days.
Then he said that the Tibetan issue had been raised in Italian newspapers that day thanks to a Tibetan student who had asked a question.
He was looking for me and asked me to stand up.
Then he asked again:
“What are your future plans?”
I told him that I hoped to continue my studies to be a bridge for Tibet. I said that if I could implement even a single drop of his wisdom from his ocean of wisdom into my daily work, I would already feel very happy.
I also shared that while many Western and Chinese scholars speak about Tibet, there are still too few Tibetan scholars speaking for Tibet.
His Holiness smiled and said:
“Excellent. Very good.”
Then, in front of the entire gathering, he kindly asked the Tibetan community present to support my initiatives and encourage me in realizing my goals.
That moment touched me deeply and remains one of the most meaningful memories of my life.
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Becoming a Bridge
After that experience, I reflected often on fundamental questions.
What is the purpose of life?
How can one contribute meaningfully to others?
And how can a Tibetan in exile serve both Tibet and the wider world?
Gradually I realized that every action—no matter how small—has meaning.
Every act of kindness, every effort to preserve culture, every attempt to share Tibetan wisdom becomes a thread in a bridge connecting Tibet to the world.
As a child near Manali, I loved playing near two Himalayan bridges that crossed the river. Bridges always fascinated me.
Later I began to feel that perhaps my life itself could become a bridge—between East and West, between cultures, between communities, and between generations.
And one of the deepest bridges for me is Dharma. Since childhood in the mountains, I have loved learning meditation and Dharma. Often I would remain quiet, listening to elders and observing my own mind.
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Dharma and Cultural Resilience
Today the situation in Tibet is very critical.
Tibetan culture, language, and identity are under increasing pressure. Traditional nomadic communities are losing their way of life, and assimilation pressures continue to grow.
In such circumstances, preserving Tibetan culture, language, identity, and Dharma becomes essential.
For centuries, Dharma has been the heart of Tibetan civilization. It carries not only spiritual teachings but also language, philosophy, ethics, and identity.
For this reason I eventually came to Rotterdam to serve at Phuntsok Chö Ling Tibetan Meditation Center, founded by Lama Jigmé Namgyal Rinpoche.
Here we share Tibetan wisdom teachings and serve the community through compassion, meditation, and understanding of the mind.
For me, this work is also a form of peaceful resistance.
It is a way of honoring the advice given by His Holiness:
“Wherever you go, never forget where you come from.”
And where I come from is Tibet—a land with a profound wisdom culture rooted in compassion, faith, and trust in Dharma.
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The Urgency of the Present Moment
As Tibetans in exile, we live with both opportunity and responsibility.
The past is already gone. Our hope lies in the future. But the future will not prepare itself—we must prepare for it now.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama is now entering his nineties. For decades he has been the moral and spiritual compass of Tibet, guiding Tibetans both inside Tibet and in exile.
Because of this, we must begin thinking very seriously about the future.
For example, when the great Buddhist learning center of Larung Gar was dismantled, thousands of monks and nuns were expelled.
Among them was the younger sister of Lama Jigmé Namgyal Rinpoche. During that time she disappeared, and until today her family does not know what happened to her, like many Tibetan women who have been lost through human trafficking and repression in China. She was just a seventeen-year-old nun dedicated to spiritual life. At that same age, as a Tibetan refugee, I had different fate.
The survival of Tibet will depend on whether Tibetan culture, language, identity, values, and the wisdom of Buddhism can endure.
Without these foundations, Tibet risks disappearing—not only politically, but culturally and spiritually.
One of the most urgent challenges today concerns language.
When a language gradually disappears from daily life, the civilization that lives within that language is also at risk.
Learning Tibetan is therefore not only about communication. It is about protecting centuries of philosophy, medicine, poetry, history, and spiritual wisdom.
When young Tibetans truly learn their language, something beautiful often happens: they begin to fall in love with their culture.
And when people truly love their culture, they naturally protect it.
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The Light of Tibet
As I look back on my life—from playing near the bridges in Manali, to sitting in the hall in Rome with His Holiness, to serving at Phuntsok Chö Ling in Rotterdam—I see a single thread connecting every moment: karma and responsibility.
I carry the values of my mother, the wisdom of my teachers, and the guidance of His Holiness with me. Every action I take is a small bridge—from the heart of Tibet to the wider world.
Tibet is not only a place on a map. It is a living culture, a language, a philosophy, and a heart of compassion. Every time we speak our language, practice our Dharma, or honor our ancestors, we keep that light alive.
I urge each of us—young and old, near and far—to take this responsibility to heart. Preserve the culture. Teach the language. Share the wisdom. Live with compassion.
If we do this, then even in exile, Tibet will continue to shine. Its light will cross mountains, rivers, and oceans. It will shine in every heart that chooses to protect it, cherish it, and carry it forward.
Let us honor the courage of our mothers, the guidance of our teachers, and the vision of His Holiness. Let us act now, with love and determination, so that the light of Tibet continues to guide generations to come.
Sarva Mangalam. May all beings benefit.
