This article examines the gift relationships between Tibetans in exile and Westerners, both connected by an informal sponsorship. First the analysis invites to understand logics of the sponsorship and negotiations it supposes. Then we consider the terms of this agreement between Westerners and Tibetans, which conditions and prolongs the gift exchange. Progressively, the analysis reveals the ideological adequacy between sponsorship system and Buddhist gift-giving system which is based on laic/monk relationship and articulation of spiritual and material dimensions. Lastly, we confront the point of view of the informal sponsorship system and the political requirements that the exile situation imposes. It leads thus to understand how Western material support reinforces the Tibetan national conscience but brings also drifts, in the sense where the behaviour of the recipients deviate from the norm imposed by the Tibetan leaders.