Others Before Self: TCV Suja Students Serve as Dharma Protectors

Each year senior students from Tibetan Children’s Village Suja, in Bir Tibetan Settlement Himachal Pradesh, come cheerfully to Bodhgaya to serve at the Kagyu Monlam. These are the Monlam’s Dharmapalas, the protectors of the Buddhadharma. Their numbers have grown over the years as their duties have expanded and their invaluable contribution to the smooth running of the Monlam has been recognized. This year 50 students have come, equally divided between boys and girls. The youngest is fifteen years old and the oldest is twenty. Their main responsibility is supporting the work of the security team; they help run the check-points and supervise all the entrances to restricted areas within the Monlam Pavillion. In addition, when the stage has to be changed for the next puja, they will be there, helping the young monks to heft heavy furniture or moving mattresses and seats. But you will also see them interacting with little children, fetching chairs for the elderly or helping to push someone in a wheelchair to a better place where they can see the stage, and generally helping out. The motto of the TCV school organization is “Others before self”, and these young people can truly be said to put it into action.