Applications started pouring in almost a year ago as word spread. Parents of Minnesota-based Tenzin Lhakey, 18, came to know about it through friends; Ngawang Tsetan flew in from New York on the recommendation of his aunt who is a staff member at TCV. “I thought it will be fun, even though I wasn’t sure about the details when I came,” he says, revealing how he was made to take vaccinations before boarding the flight and his luggage included 12 rolls of toilet paper.

“I did not know if it would be available here...I expected sand all around but found mountains instead,” adds the 12-year-old, adjusting the traditional Tibetan Chuba over his jeans at the orientation ceremony earlier this week. Topography apart, he’s more certain about his timetable over the next month — beginning with a bell that will ring sharp at 5.30 am.

After a bath and cleaning his sparsely furnished room that has a picture of Dalai Lama and Tibetan thangkas on its walls, he will head for breakfast and report for a prayer session at 8.30 am, followed by day-long classes, only to end the day with dinner of Tibetan dishes and turning in by 10 pm. “I’ll miss McDonald’s,” he says, adding, “I’ll ask my aunt to get some for me.”

Eighteen-year-old Tenzin Palkyi shares his anxiety, as she recalls persistent attempts to convince her parents in Minnesota to replace Tibetan meals with American cuisine. “I don’t have any particular fondness for Tibetan cuisine,” she notes, not very enthusiastic to learn how to prepare the Gyako meal — comprising several Tibetan delicacies — that Machen Nyima will be teaching during cookery lessons which are part of the curriculum.

... contd.