Before Sherlock Holmes, Benedict Cumberbatch Taught Tibetan Monks English. But There’s More to the Story

Benedict Cumberbatch, widely recognized for his roles as Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Strange, has a lesser-known chapter in his life that he says influenced his calm and focused demeanor: a transformative period teaching English to Tibetan Buddhist monks near Darjeeling, India.

‘Elementary, My Dear Watson’

During a gap year before pursuing his acting career, Cumberbatch volunteered at a Tibetan monastery where he met a community of warm, intelligent, and humorous monks. His role was teaching English to a group of monks, who ranged in age from 8 to 40. To do this, the actor, who is now worth $40 million, built a blackboard himself and came up with a playful reward systems involving sweets and games to encourage his students.

“They were amazingly warm, intelligent, humorous people,” Cumberbatch told “Lion’s Roar” in 2016. “Hard to teach English to. I built a blackboard, which no previous teachers seem to have done. With 12 monks in a room, with an age range of about 8 to 40, that’s quite important. The reward/punishment thing of sweets or no sweets, or game or no game, worked quite well. But they taught me a lot more than I could possibly ever teach them.”

Cumberbatch, who has not revealed the exact year but the teaching gig is estimated to be between around 2000-2001, recalls how their humor and humanity shaped his understanding of life and spirituality.

The monks, he said, “taught me about the simplicity of human nature, but also the humanity of it, and the ridiculous sense of humor you need to live a full spiritual life.”

His experience extended beyond teaching. Cumberbatch also undertook a retreat with a lama involving days of incantation aimed at purifying the mind. This intense stillness heightened his sensory awareness and sharpened his focus — skills he credits as essential to his craft as an actor.

“I’d always been fascinated by the idea of meditation and what it meant,” Cumberbatch said. “In India, I went on a retreat with a lama — several days of incantation to clear and purify the mind — along with a dozen other people. It was incredible, and I kind of floated out of there after two weeks. When you’ve been that still and contemplative, your sensory awareness is heightened and more sharply focused. You’re taking in detail to the point where you have to pause a little bit. It was amazing.”