(TibetanReview.net, Dec28’25) – The Congress-led government of the south India’s Karnataka state has said Dec 27 that it will continue to support the Tibetan community in the state. Speaking at the 55th anniversary celebrations marking the establishment of the Gaden Shartse Thoesam Norling School at the Tibetan settlement in Mundgod in Uttara Kannada District, the state’s minister for School Education and Literacy, Madhu Bangarappa, said it was both a duty and a privilege to serve the Tibetan community, reported the IANS news service Dec 27.
The school is run by the Gaden Shartse Monastery, and the minister has expressed reverence to His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama and conveyed special greetings to monks, students, educators and dignitaries present at the event.
The minister has also announced the reintroduction of “Moral Science” as a compulsory subject across the state from the next academic year, aimed at strengthening human values, civic responsibility, health awareness, environmental sensitivity and ethical living among students.
This is in keeping with the Dalai Lama’s global initiative to introduce and promote SEE (Social, Emotional, and Ethical) Learning, designed to help students grow not just academically, but also as kind, emotionally balanced, and ethically responsible human beings.
Karnataka is home to the largest concentration of Tibetan exiles, spread over settlements in four major towns in Mysuru District. They include two major monastic universities as well, namely Drepung and Gaden, re-established in exile in the 1960s following China’s takeover of Tibet.
He has described education as a boundary-less force that transcends language, religion, state and national borders, and emphasised that peace and progress can only be sustained through education and human values.
Earlier, on Aug 10, as part of the year-long celebrations of the “Year of Compassion,” marking the Dalai Lama’s 90th birthday, the Chief Representative Office of the South Zone, Mundgod Tibetan Settlement Office, SSS M Guru Trust, and the Karnataka Tibetan Support Group jointly organised a religious programme in Chitradurga city in central Karnataka. The event was held to commemorate the kindness of the late S Nijalingappa, former Chief Minister of Karnataka, and to express gratitude toward the Indian government.
The late Nijalingappa generously provided extensive land to Tibetans for their resettlement, and the Dalai Lama has often expressed heartfelt gratitude to him for his kindness.