My name is Phuntsok Namgyal. I am 21 years old and my favourite sports are football and basketball and I am from Driru County in Tibet. My family is farmers and there are seven of us in the family and I am the only one who lives in India as a refugee.

I used to go to a primary school in Tibet for four years and six months. While I was a primary school student I had three subjects, Tibetan, Chinese and Math. I was good at Tibetan and Math but hopeless at Chinese. I left the school when I was fourteen and stayed with my parents without doing anything special for one year and then I realized that I was wasting my life. As a result I decided to come to India to study English and to have a audience with H.H. the fourteenth Dalai Lama so in 2005 I tried to escape to India but unfortunately I was arrested by Chinese army while I was on the way to India and there were other Tibetans who, like me, wanted to come to India.

We were put in the prison for almost six months at Shigatse. There were more than 300 political prisoners in the prison. Police beat and tortured us a lot. We were forced to work for them for nothing in return. After six months in the prison I was released and they took me to my hometown. After that I spent three years as a farmer.

Again in October of 2008 after the Uprising in Tibet I tried t flee to India and I did it. It took me only five days to cross the border og Tibet and Nepal.

We had a tibean guide to help us show us the right way. I paid 3000 Yuan for the guide and I arrived at The Tibetan Reception Centre and they welcomed me warmly. I stayed there for one month and then come to Dharamsala in India and stayed at The Tibetan Reception Centre at Dharmsala for one month and then I joined T.T.S. Tibet Transit School. I studied English and Tibetan in the school for almost three years. After studying almost three years in T.T.S. I came to E.S.Tibet school on September first of this year,2011.

I have been learning English for more than a month here in the school. After studying English for two years here if I will be able I want to be an English teacher and I want to teach English inside Tibet because there are not many who can teach English to young children and there are many Tibetans who want to learn English in Tibet.

Thanking you

E.S.Tibet Student
Phuntsok Namgyal