Making the World a Better Place For All of Us
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Our Story
Tibetan Education Action (TEA) is a nonprofit 501 (c) (3) organization created in 1995 by Thupten and Nancy Dadak as a vehicle for an array of Tibetan cultural preservation projects.
TEA’s initial mission was to build the first school to serve village children in Tingri, Tibet, near Mount Everest where Thupten Dadak was born. The elementary school project was initiated in October,1995, in a direct collaboration between Tibetan villagers who served a s project trustees on the ground and TEA directors who managed funds and helped guide the project parameters. By 1996, villagers had supplied labor and utilized TEA funds to build a large adobe brick school with multiple classrooms. TEA provided school uniforms, teacher salaries and strongly supported Tibetan language classes as well as equal educational opportunity for girls as well as boys. A lunch program was created to ensure that villagers who sent their daughters as well as sons to school would receive a food allowance. The TEA school project, driven by the personal commitment of local villagers and supported by Tibetan Education Action was a great success. It was accredited by the Chinese school system and its students were able to advance to study at higher levels, including college.
Tibetan Education Action also took American medical doctors into Tibet to assess and treat Tibetan villagers who lacked access to medical care. TEA doctors brought thousands of dollars of donated medicines and supplies to Tibet for use in the villages and to supply to local medical workers whenever possible. Hundreds of villagers and residents of Tibetan monasteries received care and some received life saving treatment for acute illnesses. Reading glasses were a popular, useful TEA gift to elder villagers.
Thupten Dadak is Founder of the Tibetan American Foundation of Minnesota (TAFM) and was the coordinator of the Tibetan Resettlement Project in Minneapolis/St. Paul, which worked to help 260 Tibetans emigrate and become successfully established in the Twin Cities. Working with a church which petitioned Congress for 1000 visas, and with a mandate to work only with donations and private support, the Tibetan Resettlement Project in Minneapolis was able to work with local volunteers to provide housing, job and all other needs to the 260 Tibetan recipients of visas. The success of the Resettlement Project in Minnesota is evident in the thriving Tibetan community which is second largest in the nation, after New York.
With Your Help, We are Making The World a Better Place
Thupten Dadak has always felt a strong calling to preserve the world treasure that is Tibetan culture by helping Tibetans directly.
TEA works to provide immediate and sustainable financial, medical, and educational assistance in some of Tibet’s poorest villages.With modest financial support comprised entirely of donations and sponsorships, TEA works cooperatively with international volunteers who share a courageous will to achieve humanitarian goals across long-standing differences.
his eminence ling rinpoche & thupten dadak
Our Mission & Approach
In the United States, Tibetan Education Action has raised funds and distributed scholarships to worthy young Tibetans living in poor conditions in India.
TEA scholarships have allowed many Tibetan students to achieve the otherwise impossible dream of attending college or nursing school.
Our History: 25 years of Lasting Change
Since its inception, TEA has offered a long list of public Tibetan cultural programming which showcases the history, artistry, and institutions of Tibet.
TEA has hosted public events with many respected MenTseeKhang senior physicians who speak to the public about Tibetan art and science of Tibetan medicine, and who give private consultations and attend grand rounds at area hospitals such the Mao Clinic.
At Minnesota’s Festival of Nations, TEA has created annual Tibetan cultural exhibits for the four day event which has tens fo thousands of attendees. The exhibits highlights different theme every year, the creation of a sand mandala by monks from the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, an display of Tibetan folktales, or a recreation of a Tibetan household scene featuring common Tibetan household items and decor.
Large crowds have attended TEA’s hosting of the Maitreya Project Relic Tour several times, an exhibit of a rare collection of the sacred relics of the historical Shakyamuni Buddha and many other great Buddhist Masters from His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s personal collection and other Masters’.
TEA has also hosted numerous Monastery and Nunnery Tours to support monastic studies and monastic life in exile in India, including the Tashi Kyil monks, Drepung Gomang monks, Khachoe Gyakyil Nunnery, and numerous high lamas and respected Buddhist teachers.
TEA’s current project focuses on Tibetans who are living in exile in India as multi generational refugees with limited opportunity to thrive, due to poverty and ongoing oppression inside the Tibetan homeland. Though they hold a great personal lineage of Tibetan culture, they live in difficult circumstances with little opportunity. TEA hopes to help a number of Tibetans come to the US, with a new project to establish visas for a group of families.