“I was moulded by Dr Graham’s Homes” ~ Dr Graham’s Homes

When Bhutan Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay, attending a major summit in India last week, was asked how his time at America’s famous Pittsburgh and Harvard universities had influenced him, he had an unexpected answer for the crowd.

“What moulded me to serve my king, my country and my people would have been not Pittsburgh and Harvard, but Dr Graham’s Homes in Kalimpong,” he told the audience at the NDTV World Summit 2024 in New Delhi on 21 October.

Tobgay – who became Bhutan’s PM in January but studied at the Homes through the 1970s before later stints in America – said his Indian education had had a far greater impact on his subsequent political career.

“I’ll tell you a secret,” he told his interviewer at the Summit, subtitled The India Century.

“In fact, my Bhutanese colleagues here also don’t know [this]. I was born in India.

“1965, I was born in Kalimpong. My parents were serving there… I studied 11 years in India – and you ask me how four years in America has moulded me!

“The fact of the matter is that my formative years were in India. From Kindergarten till Class 10, I studied in India – as indeed many other Bhutanese studied in India in those days – because we did not have enough schools in Bhutan. [And] when we did establish schools, we did not have enough teachers – and those teachers came from India.

“So we grew up under the tutelage, under the guardianship (and in my case especially, because [Dr Graham’s Homes] was a boarding school), almost under the parentage of Indian teachers.

“And I do believe they have taught us well, because we have been able to go back home and serve our King, our country and our people and continue to do so.”