Ven Tsewang is the youngest and may be the quietest of the monks resident at the Gyuto Center but he is definitely the best cook.

Early Years

Ven Tsewang was born in the village of Ufti in Ladakh in 1973. Ufti is about one mile from Ven Ngawang’s home town of Padum and one day’s bus ride from the Ladakhi capital of Leh. Tsewang’s father, Sonam Dorje, and mother, Pema Lhamo, had three sons and five daughters. While Tsewang is the monk in the family, the rest work on the family farm raising wheat and barley and cows, goats and sheep. Before becoming a monk, Tsewang attended Karsha Chamling Monastery in nearby Padum as a student where he learned to read and write.