Message

Message from Chief abbot Ser Jey Khen Rinpoche - Acharya Geshe Lobsang Palden

May 25, 2008

Sera Je Secondary School truly symbolizes the right progress made in the field of Monastic education. The time has come again, today, when we must redeem the original aim with which this School was founded by my visionary predecessors, for the work we carry on here in this School has never before been so meaningful and relevant in present times for promoting universal responsibility, peace and harmony in the world.

I must also take note that it is the generosity and kindness of the noble people who have supported us financially, which has enabled us to carry on the legacy of our ancestors and has made it possible to preserve and protect our traditional religion and rich cultural heritage here in exile.

Corona family of Italy had been the earliest patron and chief benefactor of the School during its early years of establishment. I would particularly wish to mention the tremendous financial support given by Geneva based Swiss Organization, ‘Les amis du Tibet, headed by madams Josiane Tallon, Nicole Jaccoud, and Helga Ambuhl. It has been main donor and funds pooled through its sponsorship program, continues to form backbone of the financial resource of the School. I extend my sincere thank to each and every individual sponsor who support our School through ‘ Les amis du Tibet’ Geneva, Swiss. Other long standing major donor organizations which have been supporting this School in big way are: Late Geshe Thupten Ngawang’s Tibetan Buddhist Center, Hamburg, Germany; AET (Aide a Enfance Tibetaine), Paris, France; Geshe Jampa Gyatso’s Institute Lama Tsongkhapa, Pomaia Italy; Mrs. Imtraut Wager’s German Aid to Tibetans, Munich, Germany, Venerable Lama Thupten Zopa Rinpoche’s the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition.

Among the new donors, I must mention the important financial support provided by Most Venerable HAI TAO, President, Life TV International Satellite, Taipei, Taiwan, and the Society for Life, Singapore.

I would particularly like to thank Madams Josiane Tallon, Nicole Jaccoud and Helga Ambuhl and their Geneva based ‘Les amis du Tibet’ Organization, and all the kind sponsors who help us through them. Their sponsorship support has been and continues to remain the backbone of the School’s financial resource to this day. I trust that the same level of support and help will continue in future as well as our work is ever more becoming important and relevant in the context of heightened religious repression taking place inside Tibet making the life of our fellow Tibetans living under Chinese rule miserable forcing more and more Tibetans to flee Tibet and seek asylum in exile in quest of freedom, education and dignity.

I would also like to extend my special thanks to the hundreds of individual sponsors from different parts of the world who have been associated with Sera Je School in the past and at present. Without their support Sera Je School would not have been able to make the big difference in the lives of over two thousand novices who had received different levels of education from it since its re-establishment as a full-fledged School.