In June 2012 Chhairo gompa became home to the first group of novices, aged 7 to 11. This group came from the Karnali zone of Mid Western Region of Nepal, specifically from Jumla and Dolpa districts. Their families agreed to the boys being taken into the guardianship of the gompa.

Due to their young age and lack of previous schooling, they initially attended secular education at the primary school of the adjacent Tibetan camp, learning Nepali, Tibetan and English. They spent the winter of 2013-2014 in Pokhara where they began more regular monastic studies under the guidance of Lopen Sonam.

Later the original group of monks were joined by more young novices, from Kathmandu and locally, as families asked Shashi to take their sons into his care.

The five original monks were taken to Choede monastery in Upper Mustang, though Norbu was taken home by his father from Pokhara after falling off some stairs!

Once the gompa was handed back to the community, the remaining monks were brought down to Tukuche briefly and five families agreed to send their sons to Kathmandu. Due to difficulties acclimatizing to Kathmandu, two of the boys were sent to the sister monastery in Lumbini, away from city pollution.