Lama Tenzin | Monk. Activist. Intrepid rescuer of forgotten children

Alice Keeney

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Because he cares for the outcast. Because he’s fearless and hopeful. Because he gives girls a fighting chance.

Lama Tenzin has been a Buddhist monk since age 14, but he doesn’t buy the bit about contemplatives being prayerful recluses, leaving social activism to others. Not after a trek to his mother’s homeland near Tibet a decade ago. On that trip he got lost and ended up in remote villages in the Himalayan border regions—an unforgiving ancient nether land 17,000 feet up—where he discovered many children, entrenched in child labor or basically aban- doned. “I can go to the monastery, close my eyes and meditate, or I can open my eyes and do something for these girls,” Tenzin realized. So he founded Children’s Education and Development International (CED), which provides a safe home, education and health care for orphans and destitute Himalayan children. But establishing the home and getting the kids there were two different things. Picture shepherding a dozen 5 to 12 year olds (no iPods, no Gatorade) through treacherous terrain for 28 days, walking 10 hours a day, and you get a sense of Tenzin’s commitment (the subject of a forthcoming documentary, Walking the Waking Journey.) His next project: launching GIFT (Girls’ Institute for Technology), to teach disabled girls com- puter skills. “We believe if we protect and help the girls, then they become like sunshine, and help all the others.”