Learn about Tibetan and Himalayan politics and religion and the issues faced by communities in exile.
Program Highlights
- Explore cultural transformation and preservation, identity and social change, religious revival, and regional geopolitics.
- Discover contemporary Tibetan and Himalayan society, sciences, and arts.
- Do independent research in Nepal; Dharamsala, India; Bhutan; or another approved location.
- Learn the Tibetan language and, if you choose, Nepali.
- Choose to do an Independent Study Project (ISP) or an internship in the last four weeks of the program.
Please visit the SIT Study Abroad website for details on program courses (including syllabi), educational excursions, and housing.
Independent Study
During the final four weeks of the program, you can choose to use your new language and cultural skills and the academic knowledge you have acquired to complete an Independent Study Project (ISP) on a topic of interest to you.
You may also do your ISP research in Dharamsala or elsewhere in India. The program maintains a branch base in Dharamsala with an experienced staff member.
Sample topics:
- Changing status of women in Buddhist monastic life
- Climate change and cultural adaptation in the Himalaya
- Economy of Sherpas and mountaineering tourism
- Mapping street children in Kathmandu
- Monastic universities for secular students from abroad: the case of the International Buddhist Academy in Tinchuli and its strong contingent of Chinese and Korean disciples
SIT internships are hands on and reflective. In addition to completing the internship, you will submit a paper processing your learning experience on the job and analyzing an issue important to the organization you worked with, and/or you will design a socially responsible solution to a problem identified by the organization.
Sample internship sites:
- Helping students from a remote Himalayan community through Action Dolpo
- Assisting Great Himalaya Trail’s alternative approach to trekking
- Providing Tibetan and Himalayan youth with vocational training and job placements with Himalayan Roots to Fruits
- Working at Nepali Times, the leading English-language weekly newspaper in Kathmandu
Key Topics of Study
- Varieties of belief and practice among Himalayan people
- The politics inherent in processes of everyday life in an exile community and host country
- Aspects of contemporary Tibetan civilization
- History and politics of the region
- Himalayan arts and sciences
- Schools of Tibetan Buddhism, Newar and Theravadin Buddhist traditions in Nepall
Money Matters
Be sure to discuss how study abroad costs are handled at your school with your study abroad advisor.
SIT tuition and room and board fees include the following:
- All educational costs, including educational excursions
- All accommodations and meals for the full program duration
- Transportation to and from the airport, and on all educational excursions
- Health and accident insurance
Scholarships:
- SIT awards nearly $1.6 million in scholarships and grants annually.
- All scholarships and grants are need-based.
- Awards generally range from $500 to $5,000.
- The SIT Pell Grant Match provides matching grants to all students receiving Federal Pell Grant funding when it is applied to an SIT Study Abroad semester program.
- Contact the financial aid and/or study abroad office(s) at your college or university to learn if your school’s scholarships and grants and federal and state aid programs can be applied to an SIT Study Abroad program.
Contact SIT Study Abroad
.png)