On one of his treks to the Upper Dolpo region of the Himalayas in 2011, Lama Tenzin Choegyal came across a little girl sitting alone, half-naked on an animal skin outside the barn housing the animals with a dirty metal bowl of food at her feet. With twisted legs, the child had obvious health issues which prevented her from walking. When Lama Tenzin investigated further, he found that according to the Tibetan culture, a child born with deformities or health issues was considered a bad omen and condemned to live with the animals, not in the comfort of her family’s home.

The child was only nine years old and spent her days and nights living among the animals, her only companions. Left alone in the crude shelter housing the animals, they trod on her, leaving bruises and scars all over her body. Except for the brief times her mother brought her food twice a day, Pema Choezom Gurung never interacted with any other humans. Without intervention, the prospect of this little girls’ future was grim.

Pema Choezom was later diagnosed with cerebral palsy, a brain injury with irreversible consequences affecting muscle control, coordination, and muscle tone. It affected her ability to stand, walk, and speak. Under the best of circumstances, therapy could have improved her quality of life. However, because she lived in a region of the world that still held archaic cultural beliefs that she was not worthy of existing, this child was destined to live a miserable life.

A life-changing journey

Without a second thought and with the mother’s permission, Lama Tenzin arranged to take this little girl back to the CED Society in 2012. With the travel plans made, Pema Choezom’s grandfather gathered the child in a traditional basket that he hoisted on his back balanced with a cloth strap across his forehead and began the descent down the rugged Himalayan terrain. Pema Choezom left the only home she knew with a Tibetan Buddhist ceremonial white khata scarf wrapped around her neck as a farewell gesture to have a safe journey. After many days, once they reached Dunai, the grandfather parted ways with his granddaughter, where the CED vehicle awaited to drive the child to her new home in Dehradun, India.

Upon her arrival, Pema Choezom was warmly greeted by her new family consisting of more than two dozen sisters and brothers. For the first time in her short life, she was bathed, pampered, dressed in clean clothes, and given warm food to eat. With the love and attention showered on her, the once-lost child began homeschooling to learn to speak. Later, Lama Tenzin arranged to have surgery on her legs, and Pema Choezom was given a wheelchair to be more independent to move about the CED. Her finger independence continues to challenge her because of her cerebral palsy, but that doesn’t stop her from singing and playing a little piano and a unique omnichord instrument controlled with two fingers. Pema Choezom serves as the first participant of the SOS (Sound of Soul) Recording Studio and Music Institute project, one of Lama Tenzin’s forward-thinking initiatives. SOS was designed for people like Pema Choezon to empower the disabled and disadvantaged with the opportunity to become more independent by using their voices. Lama Tenzin once shared, “If they cannot use their hands or legs, I will give them a place to use their voices.”

The compassionate Buddhist monk has changed the lives of many, but what he set out to do years ago when he plucked Pema Choezom from obscurity is astonishing. Watch the video to see the child’s metamorphosis; a child once considered a bad omen grow into a young lady who now speaks Tibetan and English. She is the caterpillar grown into a beautiful butterfly.