The Central University of Tibetan Studies (CUTS) at Sarnath is one of its kinds in the country.The university was established in 1967. The idea of the university was mooted in course of a dialogue between Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India and His Holiness the Dalai Lama with a view to educating the young Tibetan Diaspora and those from the Himalayan border regions of India, who have religion, culture and language in common with Tibet.
Originally called Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies (CIHTS), it began functioning as a constituent wing of the Sampurnananda Sanskrit University, and eventually emerged as an autonomous body in 1977 under the Department of Culture, Ministry of Education, Government of India.

The CIHTS was founded by Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru in consultation with Tenzin Gyatso, the Dalai Lama, with the aim of educating the youths of Tibet in exile in Dharamsala and the Himalayan border students, as well as with the aim of retranslating into Sanskrit and translating into Hindi and other modern Indian languages lost Indo-Buddhist Sanskrit texts that now exist only in Tibetan.[2]

Originally it functioned as a special constituent wing of Sampurnanand Sanskrit University, Varanasi. In the early 1970s the Government of India reviewed the progress of the institute and decided to accord it a status of an autonomous body under the Department of Culture, Ministry of Education, Government of India in 1977 with 100% financial support from the Indian government.

The institute steadily progressed and the Indian government declared it a Deemed University on April 5, 1988. The institute is currently headed by Prof. Ngawang Samten, assisted by faculty members, with the goal of achieving excellence in the field of Tibetology, Buddhology and Himalayan Studies.

On 14 January 2009 this institute was officially declared as a university and the inauguration was made by His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama. Now the name of the university is Central University of Tibetan Studies.