TEACHERS OF LIFE
The people who make Jhamtse Gatsal a home.
At Jhamtse Gatsal, teaching happens everywhere. Children learn not only in a classroom, but from the adults who care, cook, grow food, repair spaces, solve problems, and show through everyday actions what love and compassion look like.
TEACHING HAPPENS EVERYWHERE
Every adult teaches.
Children notice how adults respond, how they work, how they treat people, and how they share responsibility. Every task can become a lesson when it is carried out with patience, honesty, care, and attention to others.
THE AMALAS
Care is a form of teaching.
From waking sleepy children and preparing for school to homework, bedtime, boundaries, and the countless rhythms of family life, the Amalas offer a steady presence. Through years of relationship, children experience empathy, nurturing, discipline, repair, and the security of knowing that someone will keep showing up.
Amala Tenzin“Every day is my favorite day. At the end of the day, I go to bed and feel very peaceful. Even when I’m physically tired, my mind is happy.”
Amala Yangzom“Sometimes when the children’s actions make me angry, I just go into my bathroom and sing loudly… then I feel better and ready to handle the situation!”
TEACHING WITH THE WHOLE PERSON
What children learn goes beyond the classroom.
Teachers nurture heart, mind, and body together. Reflection and kindness sit beside curious learning, shared responsibility, extra support, and opportunities to act with compassion beyond the classroom. Tibetan prayer, debate, songs, dance, ethics, and emotional development help children stay rooted while learning how to meet the world with balance and resilience.
THE KITCHEN
Every meal is a lesson.
Food is prepared with care, but the teaching is also in the way the work is shared. Children help set tables, older children serve younger ones, and cleanup becomes a collective responsibility. Produce arrives from the garden; conversation, songs, laughter, and stories move through the work. Service becomes less about finishing a task and more about being together.
THE LAND
Patience is part of the lesson.
Sonam Didi tends the land slowly and carefully. She grows organic food, saves seeds, learns from nearby villagers, shares farming knowledge, and welcomes children into the work. Her example connects nourishment with stewardship: soil and children both need presence, consistency, and time.
Sonam Didi“When I see my harvest doing well, I feel deeply satisfied.”
SUPPORT, ADMINISTRATION & OPERATIONS
Care also happens behind the scenes.
Safe buildings, working tools, transportation, repairs, planning, records, coordination, and practical problem-solving help daily life hold together. Support, administration, and operations may be less visible, but their steady care creates the conditions in which children can belong, learn, and grow.
MANY HANDS, ONE COMMUNITY
These are the hands that make Jhamtse Gatsal a home.
No single role holds the community together. Care moves through many kinds of work, each carrying its own strength, tenderness, skill, and responsibility.
Amala Kesang“I think it’s the bond that the children and I have developed over the years that changed everything. Now I can’t even think of being anywhere else…”
LEARNING BY EXAMPLE
Children notice how adults live.
In ordinary relationships and shared work, children encounter love, compassion, responsibility, patience, generosity, service, cooperation, and resilience. The lesson is not delivered once. It is lived again and again, until caring for others becomes part of how a child understands the world.
A community held by many hands.
Teachers of Life make Jhamtse Gatsal more than a school. Through ordinary acts of care, work, patience, laughter, guidance, and responsibility, they help make it a home.