Tibetans in exile donate Rs 50 million to PM Cares Fund

Tibetans in exile in India, Bhutan, Nepal and abroad have donated close to Rs 50 million towards Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s PM Cares Fund on May 12.

Coinciding with the auspicious 1st day of the lunar calendar of the fourth month and World Nurse Day, the President of Central Tibetan Administration, Sikyong Lobsang Sangay, donated the amount.

The donations come as sympathy and solidarity to India by Associations of Tibetan diaspora living in different countries as India is currently undergoing an unparalleled second COVID-19 wave, which has caused thousands of deaths and millions of new cases.

According to the CTA President, Rs 20 million was donated by Tibetans in exile in the United States, Rs 10 million from Switzerland, Rs 37 lakh from Brazil, Rs 30 lakh from Taiwan and Rs 27 lakh from Australia amounting sum of Rs 40 million. Tibetans from India, Bhutan and Nepal donated around Rs 80 lakhs to the fund.

Speaking during the Nurse Day celebrations, the CTA President said, “We Tibetans owe no more gratitude than to the Government of India and people of India.”

He said that after Tibet was invaded by the Chinese, India had taken care of Tibetans, providing settlement areas, health care system, education and many other necessary helps.

Sikyong Lobsang Sangay said, “India is where we were born and live” and “it is good that we could donate at the time of crisis.”

Sangay thanked the Tibetan diaspora for contributing the amount as requested by the CTA. He added that the donation would act as a signal to the Indians that Tibetans are human and have a sense of gratitude as said by His Holiness The Dalai Lama.

As the health system in India is completely overwhelmed, at the instruction of the Central Tibetan Administration’s Kashag, the Tibetan diaspora living in across the world have responded by sending donations for the PM Care Fund through the CTA, which is based in Dharamsala, India.

“I hope the solidarity shown by Tibetans when India is undergoing a crisis would be a good gesture” he said.

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