About Lha
Empowering Tibetan Refugees
Lha Charitable Trust is an award-winning, grassroots and registered 12AA & 80G non-profit organization and one of the largest Tibetan social work institutes based in Dharamshala, India.
Lha plays a crucial role in facilitating the transition of Tibetan refugees from their homeland to the Indian community by providing long-term rehabilitation and educational resources. Each year programs and projects are adjusted to meet the conditions and needs of the region. Lha helps the Tibetan people thrive and prosper in their new home and is committed to preserving their special culture. Additionally, Lha offers volunteers and students the opportunity to engage in meaningful community service and social work. By meeting the needs of the impoverished and underprivileged, we strive to generate an atmosphere of harmony and cooperation within the community.
We aim to provide vital resources for Tibetan refugees, the local Indian population and people from the Himalayan regions. Since its inception in 1997, Lha has continuously provided vital resources to people in need. Lha’s financial accounts are audited annually by a government approved chartered accountant and tax return certificates are issued by the income tax department of the Government of India.
"Lha" - Fundamental Nature of Goodness
Lha is a sacred Tibetan word that means the fully awakened state of mind and alludes to the fundamental nature of goodness. When the enlightened state of mind manifests as a sublime being to help guide beings towards enlightenment, it appears as a benevolent divine figure. The word Lha, therefore, means Deity and Divine.
The word ‘Lha’ is centered and surrounded by the combination of five colors. The colors are in the order of white, yellow, red, green and blue. According to Buddhism, these are considered auspicious colors.
History & Progress of Lha
Founded in 1997, and registered as a charitable trust by the Indian Government in 2005, Lha has continuously provided vital resources to those in need for over 25 years.
Displacement & Exile
Since 1959, Tibetans residing in Tibet have been subject to the strict and repressive policies of the People’s Republic of China and the Chinese Communist Party. They are denied freedom of expression and political involvement. Tibetans who do speak out against China’s communist rule face extreme punishment. Over the past fifty years, hundreds of thousands of Tibetans have chosen to leave their homeland in pursuit of the freedom and opportunities which they have been denied in their own land. Every year since 1959, new refugees have arrived in India after a long strenuous journey carrying only a handful of belongings. Countless refugees arrive having had limited formal education, speaking only Tibetan, and possessing no viable job skills to support themselves and their families in this new home. For thousands of years, generations of Tibetans have become experts at a way of life in Tibet which is no longer available to them in the outside world. Most of them have been moved from nomadic and/or high Himalayan agricultural lifestyles into urban centers where it is imperative to learn new skills and languages in order to survive.
Tibetans who have made the treacherous escape by foot over the Himalayas to India seeking asylum face huge resettlement issues. Since 1997, our organization has helped them to find housing, healthcare, employment, education and more. Tibetans have much to offer in return. For more than 2,000 years, Tibetan culture has been developing ways of coming to know the human mind and spirit—a tradition of science, philosophy, and religion that can help us all to confront a modern world facing enormous challenges.
Early Programs
The foundation and early development of Lha Charitable Trust was the Louisiana Himalaya Association (LHA), a grass-roots social work organization founded by a small group of Tibetans and some friends from New Orleans, Louisiana in the USA. They were all dedicated to improving the lives of Tibetan refugees while making the ancient Tibetan wisdom traditions available to the world. The small organization was managed by Jampa Tsering, a newly arrived refugee, and Neil Guidry a social work professor from New Orleans. Soon after the origins of their work, in 2000, with the help of Susan Dunlap, one of the founding members, LHA received 501-c3 non-profit status in the United States. This was the beginning of the organization’s major growth years. On the US side of things the organization was known as Louisiana Himalaya Association (LHA) while in India it has always been known as Lha. The Tibetan word Lha has many meanings, one of which being primordial pristine awakened mental state!
They began by organizing volunteers and resources from Louisiana to assist the newly arriving Tibetan refugees in Dharamshala. The first projects in 1997 focused on English language training for newly arrived Tibetan adults and general assistance for elderly Tibetans who had been separated from their families. The original service operations ran out of a small room in ZKL monastery on Bhagsu road in Dharamshala.
The organization’s endeavors yielded immediate results and attracted volunteers and supporters from around the world. Services soon broadened to assist not only Tibetan refugees but other local people from the Himalayan regions. In 2000, the Dharamshala operations moved into a small metal building which housed an English language class, a medical supply room for a leprosy treatment program, a craft shop and an office with two computers donated by author Hunter S. Thompson.
Expansion
Outgrowing the previous location by 2004, the organization moved to its current resource center, the first floor of the Tibetan Handicraft Society building on Temple Road in Dharamshala. We are happy to say that even the rent Lha pays benefits the community by going out to the members of the Tibetan Handcraft Society. Since that move and gaining more space, more volunteers and more financial support, Lha has continued to offer additional services to meet the growing and changing needs of the community.
By 2005, now under the leadership of Tashi Dorje, Lha Charitable Trust had grown enough and the Tibetan staff was empowered enough to file for and become an officially registered non-profit social work organization and charitable trust through the District Magistrate of Kangra, Himachal Pradesh, Government of India (Regd No 240, Regd Year 2005, Book No 1). With a Tibetan board of directors, Tibetan managers and a Tibetan staff, Lha Charitable Trust was now fully owned and operated by the Tibetan community!
In 2007, Ngawang Rabgyal moved into the CEO/general manager position, serving the organization for the next 10 years. Under his leadership Lha has been able to expand, offering even more social services while at the same time becoming more self-sufficient and sustainable. In 2008, a newly-built four-story building (Ahimsa House) alongside the home and temple area of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Dharamshala, came up for sale. It was the perfect accessory building for Lha’s operations. Thanks to generous supporters at the time enough money was donated within a few years to fully complete the purchase. The lower floors of the new building were transformed into a commercial kitchen/dining hall that houses a soup kitchen that provides 60-70 healthy lunches to needy Tibetans each day. Breakfast and lunch are prepared for the cultural exchange groups that are now housed there. Previously the groups paid to stay and eat in hotels and restaurants, now those funds stay with the organization and puts Lha in a much more self-sufficient and sustainable situation!
In 2017 Dorji Kyi took over the management of the organization. Since the start of the pandemic in 2020 Ahimsa House underwent further changes. It currently exhibits a café on the first floor, all the office and classrooms, as well as guest quarters. Solar panels on top of the house provide warm water and electricity for a power backup, making the building a paragon for sustainability. Dorji Kyi resigned from the post from May 31, 2022.
Tsering Wangude has been appointed as the new Executive Director of the organisation effective from June 1, 2022. Tsering has been working as the Volunteer Coordinator and Project Manager at that time and had previously worked in various other roles in the organization since 2014.