How A Tiny Chhattisgarh School In The Heart Of India Imparts All NCERT Lessons In Tibetan
From mathematics to environmental science, every lesson is taught in a language once spoken in the monasteries of Lhasa. Welcome to Sambhota Tibetan School, Mainpat.
Published : October 10, 2025 at 5:19 PM IST
Mainpat (Surguja): If there is a slice of Tibet alive in India, it is here in the hills of Mainpat, Chhattisgarh. At the Sambhota Tibetan School, from morning prayers to classroom lessons are all taught not in Hindi or English but in Tibetan. The students learn all subjects prescribed under the NCERT, but in their ancestral language Tibetan.
A private educational institution, the school offers education completely free of cost. It is funded by the Central Tibetan Administration in Dharamshala.
When Tibetans came to India after fleeing their homeland in 1962 and stayed as refugees, Mainpat, a scenic place in Surguja district, became a settlement that came to be known as Mini Tibet. The refugees started rebuilding their lives from scratch. They started farming, setting up temples, and by 1963, opened a small school for their children.
For many years, lessons in the classes were taught in Hindi and English, like any other school in India. But by 2016, the elders in the community realised that their children were forgetting Tibetan, their own language that is the only link to their identity. With the aim of preserving the language and culture, they decided to use the Tibetan language to teach every subject, from science to social studies.
But it was not easy for the children from other local communities, who once studied here to make the language shift. “They found it difficult to follow lessons in Tibetan and gradually left. But the school did not change its fundamental reason for existence. It is still open to all but the language of teaching remains Tibetan,” says Shering.
The purpose of studying in this school goes far beyond getting a job. “We teach children here not just to complete education and get a job. Our purpose is to make them lead, do business, and become masters,” says Dawa Shering, the head teacher. He also adds that the students are given lessons in politeness, something that many educated people do not learn.
The school has classes up to fifth standard and later the students go to other schools to pursue higher education. The principal says he also studied here and recalls how the school shaped his early years. “Some of the alumni have become successful entrepreneurs and many have taken to innovative farming. There are others who run restaurants or work in other places,” he reveals.
Residents say two local children from the Yadav community Mehul and Harsh studied here before getting into the Navodaya Vidyalayas.
The school has been named Sambhota, as a tribute to Thonmi Sambhota, the scholar who created the Tibetan script while studying with Indian masters at Nalanda during the reign of King Srontsen Gampo. The script he began later on became the foundation for Tibetan literature and Buddhist texts.
The school uses all the modern teaching tools starting from smart classrooms, projectors to digital learning. For environmental studies, students are shown YouTube videos and Google Maps to facilitate their understanding. Children also participate in competitions but in Tibetan.
There are about seven Tibetan camps in Mainpat and currently, about 3,000 people live here amidst the pine forests and rolling meadows. There are Buddhist temples, prayer flags, and Tibetan handicraft shops all around.
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