Cluttered classrooms. Separate computer class. Organized library. Big playground. Clean student and residential accommodation. This is not the scene of a private school in a city market. This is from Dolpo Bon School in Lamapaila located in Thulieveri Municipality-3 of Dolpa.

87 students from nursery to class 8 are studying there. That too for free . For 16 years, Khenpo Gese Nima Kunkyap Rokayle has been running this school single-handedly. 

Rokaye, who is distributing free education in a single initiative in Dolpa, a remote Himalayan district of Karnali, cannot understand his deep attachment to the society until we understand his background. How did he dream of opening a school to educate Dalit, poor, destitute and violent children for free?

You have to reach the year 2061 to understand the story of his dream after graduating from Bon Dharma. At that time he opened an organization called Dolpo Bon Society. Before opening this institution, he was in his own academic world . In 1994, he completed his education in Buddhism from the world's largest mendri monastery of Bon Dharma in Himachal, India. Even after that, his academic journey did not stop . In 2002, he did a post doc in Philosophy of Buddhists from Sampurananda Sanskrit University, Banaras. 

After a long journey of study and research, he arrived at the Central University of Tibetan Studies in Sarnath, Uttar Pradesh, India. There he became the head of the Bonn Department . He spent 13 years from 1995 to 2008 in this leadership role.

Despite spending years in India, the memory of Dolpa was fresh in his mind. He was familiar with the poverty and illiteracy there. Because he was born in 2020 in a poor family in Kaike rural municipality-5 Baijibada of Dolpa.

When he returned to Nepal after living in India for years, he planned to build a house in Arubari in Kathmandu and live here. During those years, he had already accumulated about 35 lakh cash by working in the university and by making different thankachitra, ancient paintings. But he did not stick to his thinking . One day I asked myself, I am single . After the parents passed away . Who should I build a house for? After being disturbed by this question, he reached his birthplace Dolpa . At that time he thought, I will open a religious school here . 

Mother passed away when she was seven years old. After Ba got married for the second time, his more sorrows started . He grew up in the house of his grandfather who introduced him to the big lama in the village. When he was 12 years old, he lost his father and when he was 17 years old, he lost his grandfather again. All this background also led him to the conclusion that something should be done in the village. 

He had a brother. Muni a sister . The brother used to go to do business in Dhorpatan of Baglung. After his younger mother pressured him to get married, he took hold of the village's grandfather, Rimpoche, and fled to India. He recalled the past and said, "With the help of my grandfather, I spent 13 years at the Mendri monastery in Shimla." By chance, he reached the door of higher education. But he was aware that tens of thousands of children in Dolpa are not getting the same chance. So he came to the conclusion that he should return to Dolpa forever.

On the first day of his return to Dolpa, he was staying at the "Blueseep" hotel located in the headquarters Dunai . During that stay, he met Lakshmisaran Sharma, the owner of the hotel. He explained his plan . And Sharma guffawed and said, 'You go ahead . I give land .' 

After saying this, Sharma immediately passed five and a half ropani land in the name of Dolpo Bon Society in Lamapaila across Dunai Bazar. On the same land, he built a stupa at his own expense .

At the time of building the stupa, he found out that there is a social belief that the son of a lama (Buddhist priest) should study as a lama throughout the district, including Kaike. And the local residents were forced to go to many provinces of India to study with great suffering. He felt worried that the ancient religion, culture and even the Lama language would disappear as there was no school for Lamas in the village. And he felt that the traditions, culture and religion of his ancestors would be destroyed. Rokay remembered, I also went to study in India at the age of 17.

After his own past and existing practices, he came to the conclusion, why not open a school? He decided that the money he had collected with the plan to build a house in Kathmandu would be spent on opening this school. 

In the beginning, he built three physical structures in a long step . He didn't stop there . He sold his land in Pokhara and proceeded with the construction of the school building. And so it began, Dolpo Bon School .

In the early days, there were only 21 students studying Lama in his school . Nine of them attended special classes on Lama and Bon religion . Which includes meditation, worship and other lama rites. After completing three years of education, they returned to the village . 

Rokay told, 'If only those who returned to us after studying could perform puja well. It brought happiness to the village.' The children's money and time were also saved as they were able to learn about Lama Puja method and wisdom in the village school. And the parents' worry about sending their children abroad is gone. 

In the first few years, only Lama was taught in this school . But later he started trying to expand the school . He said, ``I thought that students who don't want to study should be given a chance to study. And education was started as a boarding school where all subjects were taught. Now, in addition to Lama, Nepali, English, mathematics, science, social and other subjects are taught in this school. 

Running a well-equipped school in a remote area is definitely not an easy thing. They are trying alone to raise expenses for running the school. He said, "Even though he was alone in the beginning, for the past two years, he has received regular support of 8/10 lakh rupees annually from his friends abroad." According to Sirap Namdo Rokaye, headmaster of

school, 80 to 85 lakhs are spent annually on the school's operation for the salaries of 16 teachers and staff, lunch, food, clothes and school materials for the students. So how is he collecting so much money?

Even though he started free and systematic education in modern style, he has not received the same confidence from the government agencies. The District Education Office had given 50,000 assistance. Thuliveri Municipality, where the school is located, is currently supporting the school with a subsidy of 240,000 annually. The rest of the money is being collected by Rokay through the puja lessons conducted in the country and abroad and with the help of Mankaris.

Nima who knows astrology, Tantramantra Vidya who takes service with Rokaya is more abroad than in Svedash . He is going to America, Mexico, Russia, Poland and other countries for prayers, predictions etc. . All the income from reaching there is pouring into the school . He said, "There is also the experience of earning up to twenty five lakhs in a single day from worship abroad. I am putting all the income in the school.'

In addition to this, he has also set a rule that the parents of the students should pay 35 kg of the grain produced in their homes annually so that they have ownership of the school. But this rule is not applicable in the case of orphan students who do not have parents.

Suvarnakumar Budha, Mayor of Thuliberi Municipality, said that this school has made a great contribution in the educational field. He said, "Hunekhane's children are studying in private schools within and outside the district by paying high fees. But what can be a greater social service than providing quality education through the initiative of one person? Chief District Officer Rom Bahadur Mahat said that the academic, physical and environmental aspect of the Bon school was beautiful. said, 'This school has really contributed to the education sector of Dolpa.' Sirap Namdo Rokaye, headmaster of

school, said that they are working hard to provide free quality education that suits the current environment.

Most of the students who come to study here have their own past full of struggles and sorrows . Some students have lost both their parents and some are going through many family problems. Most of them are from very remote areas. For example, Kumar Budha, a student who came to study from Horta Village of Mudkechula Rural Municipality, which can be reached after one day both by car and on foot. There are many students like Kumar in the school, who have to walk all day to get home from here . 

At the age of 61, Nima Kuncap Rokay doesn't have such big dreams . Dattachit is confident that he could make this school a means of running easily forever. Even after 13 years of permanent service, he neither regrets his decision to quit his job without getting pension, nor does he have any regrets when he remembers that his friends are receiving a monthly salary of 200,000 baht.

Not even knowing that he will get pension in 20 years, when he heard that remote Dolpa was going to return, even his friends did not believe him at first . But he had already thought of doing something different. He said, "I had made up my mind not to get a job sitting in one place". That's why I was clear about what I said.' After that, he plans to hand over the school to a good person and sit in a cave in the village for meditation. He said, 'My idea is to take samadhi in the same cave in the latter part of my life.'

He is also the president of Nepal Bon Buddhist Federation. During the time of Covid, he personally spent 70 lakhs to rebuild the ancient historical Setang Yungdrung Suktsal monastery in his village . Even now, he looks overwhelmed by the joy of repairing the dilapidated monastery that is about four hundred years old.