Amala tells the story of the Dalai Lama’s younger sister Jetsun Pema, her struggles, loss and success that earned her the epithet Amala or ‘mother’. Using rare footage from her historic visit to Tibet in 1980, the film also gives insight on the state of education inside Tibet. After her sister died, she took charge of the Nursery for Tibetan Refugee Children in a small town in northern India. Under her leadership, the nursery transformed into one of the most successful Tibetan refugee schools – the Tibetan Children’s Village schools (TCV).