• What : Mahabodhi Residential School is the only school in Ladakh which gives special privilege to the children of destitude and from the under privileged families of the remote Ladakh regions.
• Why : Without doubt, education is the universal panacea for all social ills. However, the current education system places too much emphasis on imparting knowledge for the brain, at the expense of cultivating and nourishing the heart. The inevitable consequence of this overemphasis on the intellect, at the expense of the intuitive, is people becoming competitive, greedy, selfish, self-centered and narrow-minded.
• When : Witnessing this grave situation within our current education system, Venerable Bhikkhu Sanghasena founded the Mahabodhi Residential School in 1992, embracing 25 small children selected from the most remote and inaccessible areas of Ladakh, with the aim of providing them with a value based, holistic education.
• How : At present, 500 children are receiving a complete, modern, secular education at the Mahabodhi Residential School, which also places a particular emphasis on imparting a value based approach to learning and life.
• Where: To improve and extend the existing facilities so that no child in Ladakh is deprived of an education through a lack of facilities or resources. It is also our intention to remain a unique educational institution, providing a holistic education for every child, by combining the benefits of a modern education with the moral, traditional and cultural elements that lead to well-balanced and well-informed adults.

• What : Mahabodhi Girls Hostel is meant for those under privileged girl students from the far flung villages of Ladakh region who were receiving a holistic education from the Mahabodhi Residential School in the Devachan campus.
• Why : Like many other parts of India, Ladakh has witnessed a biased attitude toward female children, especially in terms of educational provision.
• When : Hence, Venerable Bhikkhu Sanghasena has long felt the need to provide education for deprived girls as a matter of priority over boys. In 1992, the Mahabodhi Girls' Hostel was established, embracing 25 young girls from extremely disadvantaged families located in some of the remotest parts of the region.
• How : At present, 140 girls reside at the Mahabodhi Girls' Hostel, living like sisters, in a homely environment surrounded by love, care and genuine concern.
• Where: Extend the existing facilities to accommodate at least 200 girls, ensuring no female child is deprived of an education through a lack of facilities or resources.

• What : Mahbodhi Boys Hostel aims to provide decent accommodation to the boys from remote places of the Ladakh region to get proper education facilities at the campus school.
• Why : Like their sister counterparts‚many poor boys belonging to remote and marginalized communities in Ladakh are deprived of a basic education.
• When : Hence‚to provide a home for such boys‚ Venerable Bhikkhu Sanghasena initiated the Mahabodhi Boys’ Hostel in 1996‚which received its first intake of 10 boys that same year.
• How : Now‚130 young and highly energetic boys are resident at the Mahabodhi Boys’Hostel‚with each developing and flourishing in the safety and security of this loving environment.
• Where: Extend the existing facilities to accommodate at least 200 boys‚so no child is deprived of an education through a lack of facilities or resources.

• What : Mahabodhi Rural Branch School, Tingmosgang is a satellite school of Mahabodhi Residential School with the aims to provide affordable, high quality, holistic education throughout the region.
• Why : Ladakh remains a predominantly agrarian based economy, where nearly 80% of the population dwell in remote villages scattered throughout the region. In an effort to disseminate the light of education in these remote villages, the Rural Education program was created.
• When : Under this program, the Mahabodhi Rural Branch School, Tingmosgang established in 1999 with 20 children under its care.
• How : Today, the school has grown and now offers classes up to the 8th Standard, with 120 children fully blossoming in the light of the education they receive there.
• Where: To improve the existing facilities so that no child is left wanting of a high quality, holistic education. It is also Venerable Bhikkhu Sanghasena's wish to build a hostel for children from nearby villages.

• What : Mahabodhi Rural Branch School, Bodhkharbu is a satellite school of Mahabodhi Residential School with the aims to provide affordable, high quality, holistic education throughout the region.
• Why : Due to its remote situation, the education standard of this village is deplorable.
• When : With the noble intention of disseminating a high quality and value based education in this hamlet, Venerable Bhikkhu Sanghasena established the Mahabodhi Rural Branch School, Bodhkharbu in 2004, with 25 little children on its roll at its inception.
• How : Today, the school has grown considerably, with 100 students on its current roll and classes up to the 6th Standard.
• Where: To improve the Mahabodhi Rural Education System and thereby offer every child in this remote village a high quality, holistic education.

• What : The Mahabodhi Hostel for the Visually-Impaired is the foremost of its kind in Ladakh. Before this, not a single such hostel and school existed anywhere in the region.
• Why : Witnessing the pitiful plight of visually-impaired children, Venerable Bhikkhu Sanghasena founded the hostel.
• When : Under the auspicious presence of His Excellency Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, the then President of India, the hostel was officially inaugurated by in 2006.
• How : Today, at the hostel, six students are resident, and each is blossoming to their fullest potential with loving care and due respect, accommodated in a homely environment that provides them with all the necessary material comforts they require, while they receive a modern, secular education in Braille format from very well-qualified teaching staff.
• Where: Create a comfortable and homely facility that will be capable of accommodating all the visually-impaired children and elderly people of Ladakh, enabling them to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with their sighted counterparts.

Over the last two decades, there has been a positive major overhaul of the school education system in Ladakh with the help of private institutions and organizations keen to help in the economic and social development of the region. However despite this, the students who complete their schooling here face several problems when they move to other parts of India to pursue higher education. This is because Ladakh has its own unique culture and language and the students find it difficult to gain entry into institutions outside of Ladakh. It was also an almost unheard of thing for girls who have completed their 10th standard of schooling to be able to pursue further education, particularly leaving the safe confines of Ladakh.

When the first batch of female students completed their 10th standard, Ven. Sanghasena, despite lots of objections, took the bold step to send them out to continue with their education. He felt strongly that if they had a dream, they should be given the same opportunity to pursue those dreams. Initially he sent them to Bangalore, South India. However he soon realized that as more students completed their studies, it was not financially viable to send and sponsor each student for all their educational, tuition and living expense needs in the cities.

In view of this, yet another landmark decision was made to find a location to establish a Hostel near a city which had good institutions of higher learning. Ven. Sanghasena finally decided on Chandigarh, which is a good educational hub where many of the educational institutions and colleges provide a wide range of subjects, offering students a diverse choice of curriculum to choose from for their studies. Again with good financial support from Mahabodhi well-wishers and donors, the Mahabodhi Padmaloka Girls Hostel was established. Today there are more than 30 students who reside at the hostel while pursuing their further studies in various institutions in and around Chandigarh.

Although the girls have been given priority, Ven. Sanghasena does not want to neglect the boys who also have dreams and wish to pursue their further education. Although there are no hostel facilities at the moment for the boys, Mahabodhi has sent boys out to Jammu for their further studies and have financially supported them by putting them up in rented rooms there. A better solution would be to also build a boys' hostel and although it is in the pipeline, we are seriously looking for sponsors who would be willing to help us make this a reality in the near future.

At present, there are also three students studying in Delhi and we have put them up in a small flat in the city. Apart from studying, they also help coordinate transport arrangements for our guests who transit in Delhi and assist the main campus in the procurement of necessities and goods which cannot be obtained in Leh.

Mahabodhi would certainly like to see a great many more students pursue their further education in the many fine higher learning institutions throughout India or overseas. However this needs careful planning and adequate funding and we sincerely appeal to well-wishes to help us in this noble cause as most certainly, education is the key to economic and social freedom for the needy. Your charity dollars would help bring much needed new skills and technologies back when these young people finish their studies and return to Ladakh.

The construction of the Mahabodhi Padmaloka Girls Hostel was completed in the year 2010 and its inauguration was the talk of the town with the presence of dignitaries from the local scene and from aboard. The building was inaugurated by Datuk Dr. Victor Wee, President of the Buddhist Gem Fellowship, Malaysia on 4th December, 2010. The funds for the construction of the new hostel was collected at the Fund raising Dinner held at the Sunway Convention Centre in Malaysia. It was a joint initiative of the Malaysian Desk, Ladakh and the Buddhist Gem Fellowship, Malaysia. The new building can accommodate 100 students with comfort. At present, there are 50 students residing in the hostel with family-like comforts. Presently 33 senior students are pursuing their higher studies at various reputed institutions in and around Chandigarh.