Tibetan monk helps slum-dweller’s daughter become MBBS doctor

Pinky Haryan as a child along with her mother used to beg near the Buddha temple at McLeodganj in Dharamsala in Kangra district. However, with the help of Tibetan monk Jamyang, she has become a doctor. She completed her MBBS degree from a Chinese university and returned to Dharamsala.

Begged for alms at McLeodganj

• Pinky Haryan along with her mother Krishna was begging near the Buddha temple in McLeodganj during the festival season when Tibetan monk Jamyang noticed her.
• Jamyang came to the Charan Khad slums in Dharamsala where she lived with her parents and requested her father Kashmiri Lal to send her to the hostel of his newly started Tonglen Charitable Trust to pursue studies
• After initial reluctance, Pinky’s parents handed her over the monk to pursue MBBS from a Chinese university

Pinky says that she owes her success to Tibetan monk Jamyang and is now ready to serve other poor children, who are not in a position to study due extreme poverty.

She says that in 2004, she along with her mother Krishna was begging near the Buddha temple in McLeodganj during the festival season when monk Jamyang noticed her. A few days later, Jamyang came to the Charan Khad slums in Dharamsala where she lived with her parents.

The monk requested Pinky’s father Kashmiri Lal to send her to the hostel of his newly started Tonglen Charitable Trust to pursue studies. The hostel was for children, who lived in dirty Charan Khad slums and begged for alms or pick garbage and rags on streets. “My father was a cobbler and used to make a living by polishing shoes,” she says.

After initial reluctance, Pinky’s parents handed her over to the monk. She says, “I was among the first batch of children to be admitted to the hostel of the Tonglen Charitable Trust located at Sarah village in the vicinity of Dharamsala. Initially, I used to cry a lot as I missed my family. But gradually I started enjoying staying in the hostel with other children.”

The monk says that Pinky was very good in studies from the beginning. She passed Class XII and later cleared the NEET exam. She could have got admission to a private college but the fees there were very high. “So, I got her admitted to a prestigious medical university in China in 2018. She has now returned to Dharamsala after completing the six-year MBBS degree from China,” he adds.

According to Prof Ajay Srivastava, president of the Umang Foundation, Shimla, who has been associated with the Tonglen Trust for the past 19 years, monk Jamyang inspires children to become good human beings instead of becoming money-making machines. “Jamyang has dedicated his entire life to the children of Dharamsala and its slums. Children, whom he had adopted, once used to beg or pick garbage. They have now become doctors, engineers, journalists and hotel managers,” says Srivastava.

Jamyang had escaped from Tibet in 1992 and come to India through Nepal. The Dalai Lama sent him for spiritual studies in Tibetan camps in Karnataka. He was moved by poverty in many parts of the country.

Jamyang returned to Dharamsala in 2001. He came in contact with British philanthropists and started helping the poor. He started teaching the children of rag-pickers living in the slums of Dharamsala near the Charan rivulet.

He told The Tribune that his initial efforts to teach the children of rag-pickers had met with resistance. However, he started giving food and clothes to the parents of these children, following which they relented and allowed him to teach their children.