The Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies is a deemed University located at Sarnath in Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh. In 1959 thousands of Tibetans left their country and sought refugee in India. With the active consultation with the fourteenth Dalai Lama H.H.Tenzin Gyatso, Prime Minister of India, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru established the institute in 1967. The institute was established with the aim to provide opportunities to the Tibetan youths and students residing in the Himalayan border of India. It emphasized on imparting education in Tibetan studies and religious discourses on Buddhism. The curriculum of the courses offered here are meant to make the students conversant in the fields of Tibetology, Buddhology and Himalayan Studies.

Initially the University operated as a constituent section of the Sampurnanand Sanskrit Vishwavidyalaya. Reviewing the progress of the University, the Government of India decided it to give it the status of an autonomous body under the Department of Culture, Ministry of Education, and Government of India in 1977 with complete financial assistance from the Government of India. On 5th April 1988 the Government of India, declared the Institute as "Deemed to be a University".

The Institute provides an integrated course of nine years from Madhyama to Acharya through five faculties. A premier institute, the faculty members of the institute are highly talented. The Departments of the Institute are department of Classical & Modern Languages, Department of Mool Shastra, Department of Tibetan Buddism , Department of Sanskrit, Department of Samajik Vigyan, Department of Sampradya Shastra, Department of Tibetan Language, Department of Tibetan Ayurvijyan and Jyotish and the Department of Tibetan Ship Vidya. The Institute is basically research oriented aiming to produce talented individuals who can undertake such researches.