We are the Siddhartha School Partnership

Located in the high Himalayas of northern India, Ladakh is among the last places on earth where a traditional, Indo-Tibetan Buddhist culture remains intact. That is why the Siddhartha School and this partnership is so critical.

About Our School

What started in a one-room shed is now an exemplary private school with approximately 450 students in grades K through 10. Children at the Siddhartha School learn four languages (English, Hindi, Tibetan, and Ladakhi), computer skills, sciences, math, creative arts, and social studies, while maintaining their cultural heritage.

The Siddhartha School provides the children of Ladakh with access to the highest quality and most thoroughly modern education in the region, while also honoring their rich cultural heritage and traditions within the school curriculum and activities.

Read More

About Our School

Located in the high Himalayas of northern India, Ladakh is among the last places on earth where a traditional, Indo-Tibetan Buddhist culture remains unrepressed. But rapid modernization and global market development continue to threaten Ladakh’s sustainable, communal, and deeply peaceful way of life.

Siddhartha School is a trusted, community-run school serving the Indian Union Territory of Ladakh; its capital city, Leh; and the outlying nomadic areas. The school employs local Ladakhi and Tibetan staff, with its day-to-day operations overseen by a local board of directors and a US 501(c)3 nonprofit that serves to fund its operations while collaborating with other US organizations and international NGOs to improve the school for the children served.

SEL Learning

The Siddhartha School uses a process called SEL. Through social and emotional learning (SEL), children and adults understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions. For more info on SEL, visit the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) site at www.casel.org

1995 – Rinpoche viewing the site of the future Siddhartha School

The first Siddhartha School teacher and class, 1995

Since our first graduating class in 2008, 99% of our students have passed the government exam.

In 2008 and 2009, students matched and then surpassed the highest exam records ever achieved in all of the Jammu and Kashmir regions.

Our students score in the top 20% on the government exam, setting a standard of academic excellence for an area once plagued with illiteracy.

In 2014, two of our graduates became the first Ladakhi girls ever to receive scholarships and education visas to complete their college education in the USA.