HH 41st Sakya Trizin Gongma Rinchpochey founded this Sakya Settlement through the Sakya Tibetan Society (STS) in 1969, Until September 19, 2012, The Settlement Officer and the Secretary of STS jointly held the job. However, in accordance with local government regulations, from September 20, 2012, it was established as a separate office of the Representative of the Central Tibetan Administration. The settlement has members from all the three provinces of Tibet with the majority being from Sakya. When the settlement was founded there were 110 households and population of 450. The total area of settlement is 160 acre where as 25 acres of land are used for farming, with 25 acres additionally allocated for planting projects on the farm land.

Settlement Location: It is located at Puruwala village in Gorkhuwala of Himachal Pradesh state. The nearest town of the settlement is Paonta. It is at 12 Km from the settlement Office. It lies at the height of 2500ft above sea level, and an average temperature at Puruwala ranges between 42° to 07° Celsius, and average rainfall is around 30-40 inches annually.

No of Villages:

This Settlement consists of 147 households.

Settler’s Livelihood:

Our settlement is collective farming based settlement. All the agriculture land are divided in four groups of settlement. Besides agricultural, the settlers are engaged in trading, restaurants, shop keeping, seasonal sweater selling and also employed in exile communities schools and other entities etc.

Sakya Tibetan Society The Sakya Tibetan Society was founded by HH the 41st Sakya Gongma Rinpoche where it was formally registered on 24th July 1969 under the HP Registration Act of Shimla-2006 state and the refugees themselves begun the construction of the settlements. For their livelihood agricultural land was made available and handicraft centre was also established which was later closed.

The main purpose of the society is to promote social welfare and religious, charitable purpose and rural development. The Society now runs a saw-mill, manage Sakya Chime Hospital, Filer water for each household, and manage student dormitories and 20 shops.

School & Education Sambhota Tibetan School was primary school established and inaugurated on 2nd Sept 1969 by HH the Sakya Trizin which later in 1981 school was directly managed by DOE. The school started with 10 students and two teachers, With an establishment of Sambhota Tibetan School Society(STSS) in 1999 all the school run by DOE came under this administration so was STS Puruwala. At present there are 25 students with 10 staffs. The school implements Basic education Policy for Tibetans in exile since 2006 under the guidance of DOE and STSS

Health & Hospital Sakya Chime Hospital (under Sakya Tibetan Society)

Monastery : The settlement has 1 monastery. 1. Sakya Magon Thubten Namgyaling established in 1981

Representative: The settlement officer who is appointed by the Central Tibetan Administration, Dharamsala is the over all in charge of the settlement in all spheres ranging from maintaining law and order to development and poverty alleviation works. He acts as liaisons between CTA, state and central government agencies and any other concerns. Current Settlement Officer is Tenzin Namgyal.

Traveling Mode

Nearest Bus Stantion: Himachal Road & Transport cooperation Bus Station, Paonta Sahib

Nearest Railway station: Dehradun Railway Station at a distance of 65Kms from settlement

Nearest Airport: Jolly Grant Dehradun Airport at a distance of 75 Kms from settlement