Buddhist monk Geshe Lobzang Tsetan is determined to keep the Tibetan language and culture alive in his native village of Stok, nestled against the Himalayas on a high desert plain in Ladakh, India’s northernmost region. Here, in 1995, the 60-year-old monk founded the Siddhartha School with a group of 25 kindergartners. While politically and physically a part of India, Ladakh culturally and religiously is part of Tibet, now ruled by China.

Last week, Tsetan appeared at the Bangor Theological Seminary to discuss the teachings of Buddha and to raise money for his school. His visit was sponsored by the BTS Student Association.

Dana Sawyer of Portland teaches courses on world religions and Buddhism at the seminary. He met Tsetan in Boston about eight years ago, when the monk spoke no English. Sawyer, who is fluent in Hindi, struck up a conversation and friendship with “Geshe-la.” Two years ago he accompanied his friend on a trek to see the school.

“For many centuries, Ladakh looked to Tibet for guidance and leadership and thought of it kind of like an older sibling,” Sawyer said as he showed slides from his visit to the region. “In 1951, China invaded Tibet and has systematically set out to destroy the culture. Now Ladakh is the center of Tibetan Buddhism.”

Buddha, who lived more than 500 years before Jesus, was a Hindu prince born Siddhartha Gautama. He experienced a spiritual awakening, or enlightenment, and became Buddha, devoting his life to sharing his teachings with others.

The basic tenets of the religion include reincarnation, the achievement of nirvana, or end of the self, and living one’s life according to the eightfold path of enlightenment. The doctrines of the four noble truths are accepted by all schools of Buddhism.

The first truth is that all life is suffering, pain and misery. The second states that this suffering is caused by selfish craving and personal desire. That desire can be overcome, according to the third. The fourth truth states that the way to overcome such misery is to follow the eightfold path, which has been compared to the Ten Commandments.

The 30 people who turned out to meet Tsetan came to learn more about the monk and his religion, which has been the subject of two recent American films, “Seven Years in Tibet” and “Kundun.” Dressed in traditional maroon and gold robes, the monk spoke haltingly in English, depending on Sawyer to translate.

Bo Tavares, 18, of Clinton presented the Buddhist with a turkey feather, whose colors represent teaching and learning in the tradition of the Seneca Tribe of American Indians.

“My family has studied many cultures,” he said. “In the Seneca Tribe, which was the lead tribe in the Iroquois Nation, when you go to someone who you expect to teach you something, you give them something. I came today to learn.”

Allen Gero of Waterville carried the book “Living Buddha, Living Christianity,” by Thich Nhat Hanh, to show Tsetan. Gero described himself as a student of life and a Vietnam War veteran.

“I’m working hard at my spirituality,” he said. “I have a lot of bitterness toward the government because of my Vietnam experience. I’m trying to find peace and calmness. The Tibetan people have this calmness and serenity that I admire.”

While Tsetan’s appearance was billed as a discussion of the similarities between Buddhism and Christianity, it was, in essence, a fund-raising effort for his school. Educated as a monk since age 9, he said that both religions place a similar emphasis on compassionate behavior toward others and living according to certain guidelines.

“One parent not enough for us,” Tsetan told the audience. “We have many different parents. So our enemy not always our enemy but mother, father, brother, sister in other life. … We learn how to use our enemy. Enemy can become a special teacher, learn a lot of patience from enemy.”

Sawyer pointed out that despite the Communist Chinese government’s persecution of Tibetan Buddhists, the people of Ladakh and Tibetans in exile never speak an angry word about the Chinese.

Tsetan spends nine months of the year at a Buddhist Learning Center in New Jersey. The rest of the year he spends teaching at the Siddhartha School, which functions much as parochial schools do in the United States.

The school, which now serves kindergarten through second grade, plans to add a class each year until it serves students through grade 10. Parents pay tuition to send children to the school, or students attend on scholarships funded by organizations in the United States and Germany. Tuition is $30 per child per month, according to the school’s literature.

“We are one big family,” Tsetan said. “We have different ideas, different cultures, but we seek same — find happiness and end suffering.”