My name is Kuncok. I was born in a small village called Dongmang in Amdo in Tibet. It was a beautiful place and countryside. There were special houses built in the tradition of Tibet. It was located between the fields.

Most boys go to another place for business. They spend most of the time a long distance from their home town. They usually come back home at New Year. At that time all the families enjoy New Year together. After New Year they go away on business. Mothers look after children, old people and the house. They work hard.

When my mother was pregnant with me, my father was in a prison in China. My mother and grandmother nurtured my elder sister and me. We played with children in our village. When I was six years old, I was sent to a monastery by my relatives. In fact they had known I was a boy and they decided to send me to a monastery. They didn't consider my descendants. They wanted a monk to be in each family. That was not the same in other countries but it was our special custom. In the monastery my uncle looked after me and taught me about Buddhism. When I was eleven years old I went to the monastery school. There I learned foundations of grammar, literature, poetry, history, philosophy and astronomy. I graduated from this school in 1997. In 2000 I decided to go to India for education, and left my lovely family

and beautiful country. I had 700 Yuan only, but that couldn't stop me. I didn't discuss with my family about it. It was so far from my home town to India.

During that time I felt unhappy but I thought it was my future and I had to do that. One morning I left everything and went to India by myself. That was my first trip without friends and also I didn't understand Chinese. But I was brave enough to go anywhere. I believed that I could get to India.

On the border of Tibet and Nepal I had two companions and a guide. From the border to the reception centre of Tibet in Katmandu of Nepal, it took us 24 days to walk. It made us exhausted and fearful. I was going crazy and thought we couldn't get to India.

Finally we arrived at the reception centre of Tibet in Katmandu. There were around 700 Tibetan refugees. I couldn't believe it. We were so happy to be there. After 4 days we came to India. I joined Kirti monastery and studied traditional culture, poetry, history of Tibet, grammar, literature, and Buddhism for 8 years. I graduated from this monastery in 2008. I worked in the monastery as an assistant of the editor, teacher and manager for 2 years. After that I went to Bangalore and took an English class for 7 months. Then I came back to Dharamshala where I tried to find a good school. Finally, one of

my friends recommended E.S.Tibet school to me. I was so excited to join there, because I can see the benefit of English and I would like to know about different cultures of the world.

Thanking you

E.S.Tibet Student
Kunchok