SIT offers two unique programs in Nepal: Development, Gender, and Social Change in the Himalaya and Tibetan & Himalayan Peoples

Witness the challenges Nepal faces in balancing tradition and progress and negotiating economic, political, and social change during a dynamic period in its history.

• See how international development, political conflict, emerging civil society, and global markets are redefining the country
• Understand climate change and environmental concerns in the Himalayas
• Examine ethnicity, nationhood, and social and political change
• Identify causes and conditions for change and conflict
• Learn how caste, class, gender, and religion in Nepal are at play in peoples daily lives and political futures and explore the forces of change and stability
• Learn about organic farming, women’s roles in agriculture, and food security
• Engage in fieldwork with villages focusing on ecotourism and social entrepreneurship along trekking routes in the high Himalaya
• Develop competency in Nepali through intensive daily instruction

Learn about Tibetan and Himalayan politics and religion and the issues faced by communities in exile.

• Learn about the schools of Tibetan Buddhism, Newar and Theravadin Buddhist traditions in Nepal, religious tourism and pilgrimage, and meditation and retreat
• Go on a high-altitude trek in the Himalayas to visit isolated Tibetan communities.  Travel to India, Bhutan, and/or the Tibetan Autonomous Region in China (conditions permitting)
• Explore varieties of beliefs and practices among different groups of Himalayan people
• Develop an understanding of the politics inherent in processes of everyday life in an exile community
• Explore cultural transformation and preservation, identity and social change, religious revival, and regional geopolitics
• Discover contemporary Tibetan and Himalayan society, sciences, and arts
• Learn the Tibetan language and, if you choose, Nepali