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Four Rugby Boys
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The 1910s saw an attempt to turn four young Tibetans – the Four Rugby Boys – into the vanguard of "modernisers" through the medium of an English public school education.[1]
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Lungshar, a Tibetan high official, escorted four sons of Tibetan "respectable families"[2] – W. N. Kyipup, K. K. Möndö, Sonam Gonpa Gongkar and R. D. Ringang – to England, in 1913, so they could be educated at a public school. After completing their studies at Rugby School, each of the Rugby Four[3] received professional training in a particular field and eventually returned to Tibet.
According to Lungshar's son Lhalu Tsewang Dorje, "the experiment was not a great success."[4] Historian Alastair Lamb concurs: “the experiment […] can hardly be described as a success", adding that the boys were side-tracked by the Tibetan establishment and "made no significant contribution in later life to the development of Tibet".[5]