About Jhamtse Gatsal

Jhamtse Gatsal, Tibetan for “Garden of Love and Compassion,” is a children’s community that provides a safe and trusting environment where children from disadvantaged family situations can learn and grow freely. The dedicated team of local faculty not only prepares these students with important academic skills and knowledge, but also nurtures a responsibility to care for life outside themselves. This fundamental education assists these kids in becoming the leaders of their generation, enabling and inspiring them to bring change to the impoverished region. By living in this close-knit community and supporting each other as family, the children learn to foster love, compassion, and wisdom and how to integrate these principles into all aspects of their daily life. Our hope is that here at this “garden,” the children will flower into their innate, natural goodness as we guide them to become better human beings, enabling them to help bring about a better world.

Jhamtse Gatsal’s Location

Jhamtse Gatsal is located in the state of Arunachal Pradesh in northeastern India. It is positioned on a remote mountain ridge of the Himalayas’ green foothills near the borders of Bhutan and Tibet, nestled in the dramatic landscape among the isolated and impoverished villages it serves.

Jhamtse Gatsal’s History

Lobsang Phuntsok and Lama Sherap, two monks from northeastern India, saw an immediate and urgent need in the region’s remote, Himalayan villages.  Young children often live in conditions of staggering poverty, lacking basic needs.  Lobsang and Sherap dreamt of starting an educational community where those children could thrive and learn in an environment founded in the love, compassion, and wisdom at the core of their own Buddhist upbringing.  They were inspired by the idea of sharing the blessings of education and the opportunities they had been afforded by their experience at the monastery.

They knew that if they didn’t move forward to serve the people of these villages, there might be no one else who could or would. With this in mind, they set out to build a community that would both nurture children who had no hope for a better future, and create a center of learning to ignite change in the surrounding region.

Jhamtse Gatsal opened its doors in August 2006 with three teachers, two housemothers, and 35 children. As of August 2011, Jhamtse Gatsal is home to 75 kids and 20 supporting faculty and staff. The students currently range from kindergarten to 5th grade.  We intend the community and its facilities to continue to grow with the students each year, and expand its positive influence into the surrounding villages with the growing community outreach program.

All that Jhamtse Gatsal accomplishes is made possible through donations from generous individuals like you. If you would like to support this community and help these children, please donate.