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The search for home: Why Tibetans are leaving India

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The search for home: Why Tibetans are leaving India
For decades, Dharamshala has been the seat of the Tibetan government-in-exile and a mini-Tibet in India. But now, the Tibetans are leaving.
INDIA Updated: Apr 05, 2018 09:37 IST

Kunal Purohit
Hindustan Times

dharamsala_88d6072c-3643-11e8-8aa5-05fdb8d0ae52.jpg

McLeodganj is seen on a misty evening from Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh. It is now becoming increasingly apparent that McLeodganj -- the home of Dalai Lama and the Tibetan community is fast losing its Tibetans to migration. A trend, quantified by the number of friends young Tibetans have witnessed either migrating to the West or choosing to go back to Tibet. (Anushree Fadnavis / HT Photo)

Everyone has a number to offer. Six for Kunsang, four for Lobsang, 13 for Yangzom.

Everyone also has stories to go with the number. Yangzom offers one about her friend, Thinley (Name changed). A decade after fleeing Tibet to come to India, he started getting desperate to return. A teaching job in Mcleodganj and a circle of friends notwithstanding, the separation from his family in Tibet had started overwhelming him. With the Chinese authorities not relenting, the only way he could go back was to cross over into China, clandestinely, from Nepal. He tried doing exactly that, only to be arrested by Chinese authorities and deported back to India.

Had he been successful, Thinley would have been Yangzom Tsering’s 14th Tibetan friend to have left India in the last few years.

In Mcleodganj, the home of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan community in India, it is now becoming increasingly apparent: the town is fast losing its Tibetans to migration. Youngsters are quick to quantify this by the number of friends they have lost to this trend.

While some are migrating to the West, many are now choosing to go back to Tibet.

The numbers are hard to come by-the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) confirms the trend but says it has no way of quantifying it, especially those returning to Tibet. Unofficial estimates from the Foreigners Registration office in Dharamshala indicate the number could be as high as around 100 Tibetans of estimated 15,000-strong Mcleodganj’s population having migrated each year in the past two years.

What is worrying the community is that even while young Tibetans are keen to move out, the inflow of Tibetans into India has now reduced drastically; it is “down to a trickle”, says Sonam Norbu Dakpo, the spokesperson for the CTA.

As the community, spread over 44 other residential settlements across 10 states in India, embarks on celebrations to mark the start of the 60th year of its existence in India this week with a host of events spread across the country, many of these questions are now gaining traction, especially after the Indian government’s stunning refusal to participate in these celebrations, purportedly to salvage its ties with China.

Not Just The Lure Of A Better Life

To understand better why young Tibetans are preferring to move out of India is to understand the complexities that surround every Tibetan’s existence here.

On paper, the Indian government recognises Tibetans only as ‘foreigners’, not refugees. India has refused to sign the 1951 United Nations convention on refugees, which defines refugees and makes States accountable for their wellbeing. The government’s obstinance has proved costly for the community. They cannot own any property here, neither can they apply for government jobs. Till 2014, Tibetans could not even avail of loans to start businesses. Though that policy has been changed on paper, there has been little change in ground realities. Although the law allows them to take up private sector jobs, there have been cases of even those being denied by companies since they are not Indian citizens.

“Economically, many of the Tibetans in Tibet and across the world are doing relatively better than the Tibetans in India,” says Lobsang Yangtso, a Tibetan, born in Tibet, who is finishing her PhD from New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University. Yangtso’s statements are validated by data coming out of Tibet indicating robust economic growth in the region. Yangtso is now contemplating a move to the West, possibly the US, to pursue her post-doctoral studies. “I am not allowed to teach in Indian government-run universities here, nor work for the government. This restrict my options a lot,” she reasons.

A close friend of hers recently went back to Tibet, after having been raised in India and studying biotechnology. “His parents insisted on his coming back.”

CTA spokesperson Sonam Norbu Dagpo agrees with the trend. “The number (of Tibetans migrating) is definitely on the increase. The community’s youngsters have rising aspirations which, often, are not realised here.”

Economic migration, however, is a small part of the story. The Tibetan community’s precarious existence in India is symbolised by a document called the ‘Registration Certificate’ and a ritual around it. “The very act of renewing it is an unnerving one; imagine lining up to get a document renewed, knowing your entire existence depends on that one signature,” says Tenzin Choezin, the head consultant at the Tibetan government-run Tibetan Career Centre, which guides young Tibetans through various career options. Till recently, Tibetans would have to queue up each year to renew it. The policy was changed in 2014, making the document valid for five years.

The India Factor

Behind the precarity that the RC carries lie the perceptions around the Indian state and its inconsistent policy towards the community. Prime among these is the contradiction that while it backs the Tibetan struggle in many ways, India has always maintained that Tibet is a part of China.

In addition, with the Dalai Lama’s advancing age, an anxious community in India is increasingly trying to gaze into the crystal ball of State policy, looking for signs that the Indian government won’t turn its back on them after his death.

A string of recent events has not left them feeling very optimistic.

After a Public Interest Litigation last year paved the way for Tibetans to apply for Indian citizenship, the Indian government issued a circular in June that many felt was a rude reminder of their precarity. The government asked Tibetans opting for Indian passports to vacate their homes in Tibetan settlements and the accompanying welfare benefits. Many Tibetans panicked, many protested. The Indian government, later, revoked the order partly-Tibetans will still lose their benefits but they don’t have to vacate their homes anymore.

This partial relief it provided was short-lived. In early March there were news reports of cabinet secretary PK Sinha having issued an order discouraging Indian bureaucrats and leaders from participating, ironically, in a series of events organised by the Tibetan government-in-exile to thank the Indian State for its support to the community in the past six decades. (Union culture minister Mahesh Sharma was, however, present in Dharamshala on March 31 at the opening event of the year-long programme planned by the Tibetans.)

“Many in the community keep wondering what will become of the community after His Holiness and whether India will continue to allow us to live here or not,” says Tenzin Tselha, the National director for the Students for a Free Tibet, an active youth body which mobilises youngsters for the cause of an independent Tibet.

This unease is also driving many to migrate to ‘safer’ places. Older parents, Tselha says, are thinking ahead and asking their children to start looking beyond India. “Parents in Tibet are asking their children to come back while those in India are pushing their children to move to the US and Europe,” she adds.

When Migration Begets Migration

Complicating this mix of the economic and political is the personal.

Some, like Tsering Tso’s sister, just don’t fit in. Her sister came here when she was 17 and stayed on for a few years, pursuing her education. “But she wasn’t enjoying it. She missed family and the environment; she didn’t know how to communicate with people, especially because of the language barrier and hence, returned recently,” says Tsering.

A crucial factor that drives many to migrate is also the distance that migration creates in personal relationships.

Tibetan youth in India, separated from their families in Tibet, are forced to rely on close friends and acquaintances they make. “This situation brings the children together and they become each other’s family away from home, developing very close bonds,” says Sonam Dechen, Associate Director of the Mcleodganj-based Tibetan Centre For Conflict Resolution, which works extensively with young Tibetans. With the growing migration, these bonds might now be coming loose.

Kunsang Tenzing’s story exemplifies this. The 33-year-old came to India at the age of six, after his divorced parents put him in his grandma’s care, who then took Kunsang to India. He has never lived with his family since then; they admitted him to a boarding school and soon after, migrated to the United States. He remembers the winter breaks at school distinctly-he spent them in the school dormitory because he had no family to come home to.

Kunsang found solace in the company of six close friends that he made while growing up. They became his family.

They have now all left, spread across Europe and North America. “In the next one or two years, I will be gone to the US too,” he says.

But, the journey to boarding the flight out is seldom easy. Many first gain entry through a tourist visa and later seek political asylum as a refugee. Often, though, their statelessness makes it difficult to obtain even a tourist visa; locals say only two of every 10 applications are successful.

“Agents get fake documentation made and charge differently for each country. The going rate for the US, for instance, is about Rs 20 lakh,” says Lobsang Wangyal, a journalist and the organiser of the Miss Tibet beauty pageant.

Then there are sham marriages, where foreign tourists offer to ‘marry’ young Tibetans for a price and a visa. A local journalist, not wishing to be identified, recounts one of her friends had agreed to pay an American tourist close to Rs 15 lakh to get a spouse visa.

The CTA admits to these happenings. “There is an international mafia at work which is smuggling Tibetans out and charging huge sums of money. Hence, we are educating our community to not get involved with this,” said Karma Choeying, additional secretary of the CTA’s Home department. He recounts cases of people being dropped “in the middle of Africa” unexpected and being arrested. “We had to work through UN agencies to get them released.”

The Fall-Out

Some in the community believe that migration will have a net positive effect, pointing to the increased awareness about the Tibetan cause being a result of migration. “The Tibetan diaspora contributes immensely to the cause, especially because of their improved financial standing,” says Dawa Rinchen, the CTA’s officer in-charge of the Dharamshala settlements.

But, the emigration is leaving the CTA with few takers for agriculture and handicraft production, the community’s traditional occupations. “Young Tibetans who achieve higher education don’t want to come back to agriculture and instead, want to move to other countries for a better life. Our handicraft societies, especially, are not doing too well,” Choeying, from the CTA’s home department says.

Many point to the resultant ‘brain-drain’. “Migration is not bad for the cause because people continue to contribute to the struggle even when they move away. The problem is that skilled people are moving out of the Tibetan community in India, creating a lack of skilled, well-trained people in India,” says Yangtso.

Choezin, from the Tibetan Career Centre, agrees. “The best of our minds are going away, often to wash dishes in a European café.”

For many young Tibetans, having grown up without as much as a letter from their parents due to the censorship in China, the desire to migrate is often interwoven with a desire to, finally, find a home.

For some like Tsultrim, 30, home might be the United States where he plans to move and settle down later this year with his partner Molly Laurie, an American journalist based in Mcleodganj. This doesn’t come without its pangs of anxiety. Tsultrim has been craving to go back to Tibet to see his ailing mother; his visa request has been rejected eight times by the Chinese authorities.

For many others like Yangzom whose desire to move is driven by financial need, migration means leaving behind her life in India she carefully cultivated. For her, home might mean having to recreate all of that again.

But some like Yangtso have made peace with the realisation that the move might not end the search for home, after all.

“The concept of home is complicated. Somewhere deep down, it is so much more than just being a house. It doesn’t really matter where you settle down.”

She had to check herself in disbelief each time she studied the options. 19 years ago, when she clutched a stranger’s hand to flee the horror of her life in Tibet, she never imagined she would ever want to do this.

But, here she was. For months now, she had been trying to figure out different ways to go back to Tibet. Her brother had been constantly asking her to come back.

28-year-old Tsering Yangzom didn’t remember the last time she saw him in flesh. But, he was calling her now, telling her that they should reunite. “Because we don’t know what happens to people when”, he kept telling her.

Going back was a big decision. When Yangzom left Tibet, she was escaping not just the Chinese invasion. She was escaping from what she had hoped was an escape. Left orphaned when she was only a few months old, Yangzom lived with her aunt and her husband. “I was treated as a maid servant there; by 5, I was working not just on their farm but also on other people’s farms,” she says. A kind neighbour, a witness to her struggle, took her away to Lhasa, a journey that took 15 days on foot. From there, she escaped to Nepal and, ultimately, reached India.

For her, life in India has been ‘like a dream.’ Currently, she handles Public Relations for the National Democratic Party of Tibet, the primary political party of the Tibetans in exile. “I gain immense satisfaction from my job. You can do so much more for the Tibetan cause from here, in Mcleodganj.” Having grown up without it, Yangzom says the thing that she enjoys the most at work is the ‘atmosphere’; the support and the solidarity with her colleagues who have turned close friends has kept her going, she says.

This won’t hold her back, though. Till a week ago, she had been desperately studying every option she could to go back to Tibet. “He really wanted to see me”, she insists. Then, she got an unexpected phone call from her sister in Tibet. Her brother, 42, was dead.

Her family tells her he passed away in his sleep. “I don’t know if that is a fact.”

His death has robbed her of the reason to go back to Tibet. But, it has given her the reason to move out of Mcleodganj nonetheless. “My brother has 5 children and his death has landed them in dire straits. The only hope is if I could migrate to the West and send them money so that they could go to school,” she reasons.

Having worked in non-governmental organisations for seven years now, Yangzom knows that the money is not enough to sustain her family. She can’t be content with the friends and the good ‘atmosphere’ she has found here, any more. She hopes to recreate it again, though. “Of the 14 friends I had here, 13 have migrated to the West; most of them are in America.”

Nineteen years after her escape, Yangzom now prepares to start her life afresh all over again.

https://www.hindustantimes.com/indi...aving-india/story-fs6G56W52aPEjkFPbS5yYK.html
 
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The search for home: Why Tibetans are leaving India

I think india did a noble thing when it allowed the dalai lama have sanctuary and refuge for his people in India.

The rest of the world did little to help Tibet when china invaded it and does little today.

I recommend the movie Kundun directed by Martin Scorsese that tells the story of the Dalai Lama and Tibet.

 
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I think india did a noble thing when it allowed the dalai lama have sanctuary and refuge for his people in India.
I don't know it is a right thing to do to make China a sworn enemy, besides, that's a lost cause anyway.
 
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There is nothing wrong for Tibetan community in India. It's just like before and the usual, some even say Tibetan community as paradise on Earth, as this is the most peaceful place.
 
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Tibetans sought refuge in India from the Chinese invasion 60 years ago, but face economic uncertainty and mistreatment.

by Kunal Purohit
4 hours ago


4a315e35c84f4e7cbaadea2ad61fcce4_18.jpg

A Tibetan chains himself during a protest held to mark the 60th anniversary of the Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule, in New Delhi, India, March 10, 2019 [Adnan Abidi/Reuters]

Mumbai, India - For many years, 34-year-old Kunsang Tenzing has been thinking about leaving India.

His family did years ago. Most of his closest friends have also moved.

Over the last seven years, the Tibetan refugee community in India has dropped by 44 percent, from around 150,000 in 2011 to 85,000, according to Indian government data.

Tibetan authorities say most are going to countries such as the United States, Canada, Germany and Switzerland.

Some are returning to Tibet.


Across 40 countries, the Tibetan diaspora stands at 150,000, Tibetan authorities say.

This month, the community celebrates 60 years in India after the Chinese invasion of Tibet in March, 1959.

If the emigration continues, what will remain of the community in India, the country where its spiritual leader the Dalai Lama sought refuge and made his home?

72f8757d0475479e92655c9a6f7c8adf_18.jpg

Kunsang Tenzing is documenting the lives of Tibetans in India in what one academic says will 'enhance the understanding of the ordinary Tibetan' [Courtesy: Kunsang Tenzing]

"It is very difficult to make money here. There are barely any jobs here," Tenzing says.

Tibetans are not officially recognised as refugees in India. Instead, on paper, they are designated as "foreigners".


India has refused to sign the 1951 United Nations convention on refugees.

"As a result, Tibetans are not allowed government jobs. Sometimes, even universities don't admit Tibetan students," says Sonam Norbu Dagpo, the spokesman for the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), the Tibetan government-in-exile, which is based in Dharamshala, India.

Dakpo says the number of incoming Tibetans fleeing Chinese rule has plummeted, from around 3,000 annually to about 100 last year.

Economic concerns are central; many Tibetans say that buying property and accessing bank credit are difficult, leaving them with few options.

In addition, India's dithering over its support to the Tibetan cause makes people nervous.

Last year, the government issued a directive prohibiting bureaucrats and leaders from attending events organised by the CTA marking 60 years in India.

The directive came on the eve of an informal summit between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

An embarrassed CTA was forced to cancel events featuring the Dalai Lama and hold them outside New Delhi.

It isn't easy to go anywhere, being a refugee. No country wants us.
YANGZOM TSERING, TIBETAN IN INDIA


In the streets of McLeod Ganj, a small hill town in northern India which is the de-facto capital of the Tibetan community and the home of the Dalai Lama, almost everyone has a story of painful separation.

Yangzom Tsering, 29, was smuggled to India from Tibet by her relatives soon after her birth. Both her parents passed away soon after.

Tsering has always yearned to go back to Tibet to see her siblings who still live there.

"My brother kept telling me that I should come back home. I checked out all the options but it [going back to Tibet] was very difficult."

Last year, his brother passed away.

Guilt-ridden, he now feels the need to take more responsibility for his family and plans to migrate to Canada.

"But it isn't easy to go anywhere, being a refugee. No country wants us."

An identity beyond politics
Tenzing is trying to capture the stories of people like him - refugees from Tibet escaping Chinese occupation, seeking a new life in India while trying to not lose hope.

"Stories of Tibetans" (SoT), a recent social media initiative, has managed to reach about 16,000 followers across several platforms.

SoT was designed to explore Tibetan identity away from the political struggle.

"There is so much more about us - our everyday lives, struggles, and joys and the ways in which the struggle has shaped us," says Tenzing.

"We are changing very rapidly as a society and there is an urgent need to chronicle our current existence before it becomes extinct."

6aacd27a369d4c93ae089a8061c9ba53_18.jpg

Tenzin Chokyi is featured on Stories of Tibetans, a social media initiative, and shared her story of dealing with cancer with her community [Courtesy: Tenzin Chokyi]

One of the characters featured on the feed is 23-year-old Tenzin Chokyi's, a cancer survivor.

Cancer is seldom discussed among Tibetans.

Chokyi only discovered her father had passed away due to cancer a month after he died in 2012.

"I wanted to change that," says Chokyi.

Her post has been viewed more than 45,000 times.

"People wrote in saying they didn't know cancer had entered the Tibetan community too."

Tenzing recently highlighted the story of a 24-year-old anonymous Tibetan who walked alone to India because of an abusive father.

Another post focuses on a man who gets nostalgic about his friends who have emigrated, each time he sees the "hope" tattoo they had all got together.

Yeshi Choedon, a professor at New Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University, believes that the initiative might serve as a vital collection of oral histories.

"Hardly anything about the Tibetan refugee community has been documented so far," he says. "Most times, the focus is only on the political struggle. An initiative like this will enhance the understanding of the ordinary Tibetan, in exile."

SoT is now branching into documentaries.

Its latest is the story of two Tibetan brothers who were reunited after a decade. They were separated when one brother managed to escape from Tibet to come to India, while the other was arrested in Tibet twice while attempting the journey.

Tenzing says his work in the community helps overcome his own loneliness.

"I need to give back to my community," he says, "at least for a few more years. But after that, I might migrate too."

https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/60-years-india-tibetans-leaving-190319231424509.html
 
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The search for home: Why Tibetans are leaving India
For decades, Dharamshala has been the seat of the Tibetan government-in-exile and a mini-Tibet in India. But now, the Tibetans are leaving.
INDIA Updated: Apr 05, 2018 09:37 IST

Kunal Purohit
Hindustan Times

dharamsala_88d6072c-3643-11e8-8aa5-05fdb8d0ae52.jpg

McLeodganj is seen on a misty evening from Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh. It is now becoming increasingly apparent that McLeodganj -- the home of Dalai Lama and the Tibetan community is fast losing its Tibetans to migration. A trend, quantified by the number of friends young Tibetans have witnessed either migrating to the West or choosing to go back to Tibet. (Anushree Fadnavis / HT Photo)

Everyone has a number to offer. Six for Kunsang, four for Lobsang, 13 for Yangzom.

Everyone also has stories to go with the number. Yangzom offers one about her friend, Thinley (Name changed). A decade after fleeing Tibet to come to India, he started getting desperate to return. A teaching job in Mcleodganj and a circle of friends notwithstanding, the separation from his family in Tibet had started overwhelming him. With the Chinese authorities not relenting, the only way he could go back was to cross over into China, clandestinely, from Nepal. He tried doing exactly that, only to be arrested by Chinese authorities and deported back to India.

Had he been successful, Thinley would have been Yangzom Tsering’s 14th Tibetan friend to have left India in the last few years.

In Mcleodganj, the home of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan community in India, it is now becoming increasingly apparent: the town is fast losing its Tibetans to migration. Youngsters are quick to quantify this by the number of friends they have lost to this trend.

While some are migrating to the West, many are now choosing to go back to Tibet.

The numbers are hard to come by-the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) confirms the trend but says it has no way of quantifying it, especially those returning to Tibet. Unofficial estimates from the Foreigners Registration office in Dharamshala indicate the number could be as high as around 100 Tibetans of estimated 15,000-strong Mcleodganj’s population having migrated each year in the past two years.

What is worrying the community is that even while young Tibetans are keen to move out, the inflow of Tibetans into India has now reduced drastically; it is “down to a trickle”, says Sonam Norbu Dakpo, the spokesperson for the CTA.

As the community, spread over 44 other residential settlements across 10 states in India, embarks on celebrations to mark the start of the 60th year of its existence in India this week with a host of events spread across the country, many of these questions are now gaining traction, especially after the Indian government’s stunning refusal to participate in these celebrations, purportedly to salvage its ties with China.

Not Just The Lure Of A Better Life

To understand better why young Tibetans are preferring to move out of India is to understand the complexities that surround every Tibetan’s existence here.

On paper, the Indian government recognises Tibetans only as ‘foreigners’, not refugees. India has refused to sign the 1951 United Nations convention on refugees, which defines refugees and makes States accountable for their wellbeing. The government’s obstinance has proved costly for the community. They cannot own any property here, neither can they apply for government jobs. Till 2014, Tibetans could not even avail of loans to start businesses. Though that policy has been changed on paper, there has been little change in ground realities. Although the law allows them to take up private sector jobs, there have been cases of even those being denied by companies since they are not Indian citizens.

“Economically, many of the Tibetans in Tibet and across the world are doing relatively better than the Tibetans in India,” says Lobsang Yangtso, a Tibetan, born in Tibet, who is finishing her PhD from New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University. Yangtso’s statements are validated by data coming out of Tibet indicating robust economic growth in the region. Yangtso is now contemplating a move to the West, possibly the US, to pursue her post-doctoral studies. “I am not allowed to teach in Indian government-run universities here, nor work for the government. This restrict my options a lot,” she reasons.

A close friend of hers recently went back to Tibet, after having been raised in India and studying biotechnology. “His parents insisted on his coming back.”

CTA spokesperson Sonam Norbu Dagpo agrees with the trend. “The number (of Tibetans migrating) is definitely on the increase. The community’s youngsters have rising aspirations which, often, are not realised here.”

Economic migration, however, is a small part of the story. The Tibetan community’s precarious existence in India is symbolised by a document called the ‘Registration Certificate’ and a ritual around it. “The very act of renewing it is an unnerving one; imagine lining up to get a document renewed, knowing your entire existence depends on that one signature,” says Tenzin Choezin, the head consultant at the Tibetan government-run Tibetan Career Centre, which guides young Tibetans through various career options. Till recently, Tibetans would have to queue up each year to renew it. The policy was changed in 2014, making the document valid for five years.

The India Factor

Behind the precarity that the RC carries lie the perceptions around the Indian state and its inconsistent policy towards the community. Prime among these is the contradiction that while it backs the Tibetan struggle in many ways, India has always maintained that Tibet is a part of China.

In addition, with the Dalai Lama’s advancing age, an anxious community in India is increasingly trying to gaze into the crystal ball of State policy, looking for signs that the Indian government won’t turn its back on them after his death.

A string of recent events has not left them feeling very optimistic.

After a Public Interest Litigation last year paved the way for Tibetans to apply for Indian citizenship, the Indian government issued a circular in June that many felt was a rude reminder of their precarity. The government asked Tibetans opting for Indian passports to vacate their homes in Tibetan settlements and the accompanying welfare benefits. Many Tibetans panicked, many protested. The Indian government, later, revoked the order partly-Tibetans will still lose their benefits but they don’t have to vacate their homes anymore.

This partial relief it provided was short-lived. In early March there were news reports of cabinet secretary PK Sinha having issued an order discouraging Indian bureaucrats and leaders from participating, ironically, in a series of events organised by the Tibetan government-in-exile to thank the Indian State for its support to the community in the past six decades. (Union culture minister Mahesh Sharma was, however, present in Dharamshala on March 31 at the opening event of the year-long programme planned by the Tibetans.)

“Many in the community keep wondering what will become of the community after His Holiness and whether India will continue to allow us to live here or not,” says Tenzin Tselha, the National director for the Students for a Free Tibet, an active youth body which mobilises youngsters for the cause of an independent Tibet.

This unease is also driving many to migrate to ‘safer’ places. Older parents, Tselha says, are thinking ahead and asking their children to start looking beyond India. “Parents in Tibet are asking their children to come back while those in India are pushing their children to move to the US and Europe,” she adds.

When Migration Begets Migration

Complicating this mix of the economic and political is the personal.

Some, like Tsering Tso’s sister, just don’t fit in. Her sister came here when she was 17 and stayed on for a few years, pursuing her education. “But she wasn’t enjoying it. She missed family and the environment; she didn’t know how to communicate with people, especially because of the language barrier and hence, returned recently,” says Tsering.

A crucial factor that drives many to migrate is also the distance that migration creates in personal relationships.

Tibetan youth in India, separated from their families in Tibet, are forced to rely on close friends and acquaintances they make. “This situation brings the children together and they become each other’s family away from home, developing very close bonds,” says Sonam Dechen, Associate Director of the Mcleodganj-based Tibetan Centre For Conflict Resolution, which works extensively with young Tibetans. With the growing migration, these bonds might now be coming loose.

Kunsang Tenzing’s story exemplifies this. The 33-year-old came to India at the age of six, after his divorced parents put him in his grandma’s care, who then took Kunsang to India. He has never lived with his family since then; they admitted him to a boarding school and soon after, migrated to the United States. He remembers the winter breaks at school distinctly-he spent them in the school dormitory because he had no family to come home to.

Kunsang found solace in the company of six close friends that he made while growing up. They became his family.

They have now all left, spread across Europe and North America. “In the next one or two years, I will be gone to the US too,” he says.

But, the journey to boarding the flight out is seldom easy. Many first gain entry through a tourist visa and later seek political asylum as a refugee. Often, though, their statelessness makes it difficult to obtain even a tourist visa; locals say only two of every 10 applications are successful.

“Agents get fake documentation made and charge differently for each country. The going rate for the US, for instance, is about Rs 20 lakh,” says Lobsang Wangyal, a journalist and the organiser of the Miss Tibet beauty pageant.

Then there are sham marriages, where foreign tourists offer to ‘marry’ young Tibetans for a price and a visa. A local journalist, not wishing to be identified, recounts one of her friends had agreed to pay an American tourist close to Rs 15 lakh to get a spouse visa.

The CTA admits to these happenings. “There is an international mafia at work which is smuggling Tibetans out and charging huge sums of money. Hence, we are educating our community to not get involved with this,” said Karma Choeying, additional secretary of the CTA’s Home department. He recounts cases of people being dropped “in the middle of Africa” unexpected and being arrested. “We had to work through UN agencies to get them released.”

The Fall-Out

Some in the community believe that migration will have a net positive effect, pointing to the increased awareness about the Tibetan cause being a result of migration. “The Tibetan diaspora contributes immensely to the cause, especially because of their improved financial standing,” says Dawa Rinchen, the CTA’s officer in-charge of the Dharamshala settlements.

But, the emigration is leaving the CTA with few takers for agriculture and handicraft production, the community’s traditional occupations. “Young Tibetans who achieve higher education don’t want to come back to agriculture and instead, want to move to other countries for a better life. Our handicraft societies, especially, are not doing too well,” Choeying, from the CTA’s home department says.

Many point to the resultant ‘brain-drain’. “Migration is not bad for the cause because people continue to contribute to the struggle even when they move away. The problem is that skilled people are moving out of the Tibetan community in India, creating a lack of skilled, well-trained people in India,” says Yangtso.

Choezin, from the Tibetan Career Centre, agrees. “The best of our minds are going away, often to wash dishes in a European café.”

For many young Tibetans, having grown up without as much as a letter from their parents due to the censorship in China, the desire to migrate is often interwoven with a desire to, finally, find a home.

For some like Tsultrim, 30, home might be the United States where he plans to move and settle down later this year with his partner Molly Laurie, an American journalist based in Mcleodganj. This doesn’t come without its pangs of anxiety. Tsultrim has been craving to go back to Tibet to see his ailing mother; his visa request has been rejected eight times by the Chinese authorities.

For many others like Yangzom whose desire to move is driven by financial need, migration means leaving behind her life in India she carefully cultivated. For her, home might mean having to recreate all of that again.

But some like Yangtso have made peace with the realisation that the move might not end the search for home, after all.

“The concept of home is complicated. Somewhere deep down, it is so much more than just being a house. It doesn’t really matter where you settle down.”

She had to check herself in disbelief each time she studied the options. 19 years ago, when she clutched a stranger’s hand to flee the horror of her life in Tibet, she never imagined she would ever want to do this.

But, here she was. For months now, she had been trying to figure out different ways to go back to Tibet. Her brother had been constantly asking her to come back.

28-year-old Tsering Yangzom didn’t remember the last time she saw him in flesh. But, he was calling her now, telling her that they should reunite. “Because we don’t know what happens to people when”, he kept telling her.

Going back was a big decision. When Yangzom left Tibet, she was escaping not just the Chinese invasion. She was escaping from what she had hoped was an escape. Left orphaned when she was only a few months old, Yangzom lived with her aunt and her husband. “I was treated as a maid servant there; by 5, I was working not just on their farm but also on other people’s farms,” she says. A kind neighbour, a witness to her struggle, took her away to Lhasa, a journey that took 15 days on foot. From there, she escaped to Nepal and, ultimately, reached India.

For her, life in India has been ‘like a dream.’ Currently, she handles Public Relations for the National Democratic Party of Tibet, the primary political party of the Tibetans in exile. “I gain immense satisfaction from my job. You can do so much more for the Tibetan cause from here, in Mcleodganj.” Having grown up without it, Yangzom says the thing that she enjoys the most at work is the ‘atmosphere’; the support and the solidarity with her colleagues who have turned close friends has kept her going, she says.

This won’t hold her back, though. Till a week ago, she had been desperately studying every option she could to go back to Tibet. “He really wanted to see me”, she insists. Then, she got an unexpected phone call from her sister in Tibet. Her brother, 42, was dead.

Her family tells her he passed away in his sleep. “I don’t know if that is a fact.”

His death has robbed her of the reason to go back to Tibet. But, it has given her the reason to move out of Mcleodganj nonetheless. “My brother has 5 children and his death has landed them in dire straits. The only hope is if I could migrate to the West and send them money so that they could go to school,” she reasons.

Having worked in non-governmental organisations for seven years now, Yangzom knows that the money is not enough to sustain her family. She can’t be content with the friends and the good ‘atmosphere’ she has found here, any more. She hopes to recreate it again, though. “Of the 14 friends I had here, 13 have migrated to the West; most of them are in America.”

Nineteen years after her escape, Yangzom now prepares to start her life afresh all over again.

https://www.hindustantimes.com/indi...aving-india/story-fs6G56W52aPEjkFPbS5yYK.html

we respect their choice.
 
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I think Dharmasala of today is no different than Dharmasala decades ago.

Decades ago, no Tibetan refugees complained about their living condition there. Even many Western media portrait the place as paradise on Earth, a very peaceful place with very satisfied people, and flourish Buddhism.

But suddenly, today, it's recognized as a hell on earth.

Is all the news about Dharmasala fake?
 
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I think india did a noble thing when it allowed the dalai lama have sanctuary and refuge for his people in India.

The rest of the world did little to help Tibet when china invaded it and does little today.

I recommend the movie Kundun directed by Martin Scorsese that tells the story of the Dalai Lama and Tibet.


Well said.
 
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I think india did a noble thing when it allowed the dalai lama have sanctuary and refuge for his people in India.

The rest of the world did little to help Tibet when china invaded it and does little today.

I recommend the movie Kundun directed by Martin Scorsese that tells the story of the Dalai Lama and Tibet.

We are going to do "noble" things back to India if not already did.
 
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We are going to do "noble" things back to India if not already did.

" We " ?

who do presume you are ?

You represent here no one but yourself , so kindly speak for yourself and do not presume to speak for others who I doubt will support the stupidity that you spread here.


~
 
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I think india did a noble thing when it allowed the dalai lama have sanctuary and refuge for his people in India.

The rest of the world did little to help Tibet when china invaded it and does little today.

I recommend the movie Kundun directed by Martin Scorsese that tells the story of the Dalai Lama and Tibet.


Not really.

India want Tibet.

Do you think India want Tibet to independent?

At least the same as Bhutan status of today.

India uses Dalai Lama as the key to conquer Tibet.
 
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" We " ?

who do presume you are ?

You represent here no one but yourself , so kindly speak for yourself and do not presume to speak for others who I doubt will support the stupidity that you spread here.


~
Do you know why China is always supporting Pakistan and against India? We mean China.
 
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After 60 years in India, why are Tibetans leaving?
Tibetans sought refuge in India from the Chinese invasion 60 years ago, but face economic uncertainty and mistreatment.

by Kunal Purohit
31 minutes ago

4a315e35c84f4e7cbaadea2ad61fcce4_18.jpg

A Tibetan chains himself during a protest held to mark the 60th anniversary of the Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule, in New Delhi, India, March 10, 2019 [Adnan Abidi/Reuters]
MORE ON REFUGEES
Mumbai, India - For many years, 34-year-old Kunsang Tenzing has been thinking about leavingIndia.

His family did years ago. Most of his closest friends have also moved.

Over the last seven years, the Tibetan refugee community in India has dropped by 44 percent, from around 150,000 in 2011 to 85,000, according to Indian government data.

Tibetan authorities say most are going to countries such as the United States, Canada, Germany and Switzerland.

Some are returning to Tibet.

Across 40 countries, the Tibetan diaspora stands at 150,000, Tibetan authorities say.

This month, the community celebrates 60 years in India after the Chinese invasion of Tibet in March, 1959.

If the emigration continues, what will remain of the community in India, the country where its spiritual leader the Dalai Lama sought refuge and made his home?

72f8757d0475479e92655c9a6f7c8adf_18.jpg

Kunsang Tenzing is documenting the lives of Tibetans in India in what one academic says will 'enhance the understanding of the ordinary Tibetan' [Courtesy: Kunsang Tenzing]
"It is very difficult to make money here. There are barely any jobs here," Tenzing says.

Tibetans are not officially recognised as refugees in India. Instead, on paper, they are designated as "foreigners".

India has refused to sign the 1951 United Nations convention on refugees.

"As a result, Tibetans are not allowed government jobs. Sometimes, even universities don't admit Tibetan students," says Sonam Norbu Dagpo, the spokesman for the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), the Tibetan government-in-exile, which is based in Dharamshala, India.

Dakpo says the number of incoming Tibetans fleeing Chinese rule has plummeted, from around 3,000 annually to about 100 last year.

Economic concerns are central; many Tibetans say that buying property and accessing bank credit are difficult, leaving them with few options.

In addition, India's dithering over its support to the Tibetan cause makes people nervous.

Last year, the government issued a directive prohibiting bureaucrats and leaders from attending events organised by the CTA marking 60 years in India.

The directive came on the eve of an informal summit between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

An embarrassed CTA was forced to cancel eventsfeaturing the Dalai Lama and hold them outside New Delhi.

It isn't easy to go anywhere, being a refugee. No country wants us.
YANGZOM TSERING, TIBETAN IN INDIA

In the streets of McLeod Ganj, a small hill town in northern India which is the de-facto capital of the Tibetan community and the home of the Dalai Lama, almost everyone has a story of painful separation.

Yangzom Tsering, 29, was smuggled to India from Tibet by her relatives soon after her birth. Both her parents passed away soon after.

Tsering has always yearned to go back to Tibet to see her siblings who still live there.

"My brother kept telling me that I should come back home. I checked out all the options but it [going back to Tibet] was very difficult."

Last year, his brother passed away.

Guilt-ridden, he now feels the need to take more responsibility for his family and plans to migrate to Canada.

"But it isn't easy to go anywhere, being a refugee. No country wants us."

An identity beyond politics
Tenzing is trying to capture the stories of people like him - refugees from Tibet escaping Chinese occupation, seeking a new life in India while trying to not lose hope.

"Stories of Tibetans" (SoT), a recent social media initiative, has managed to reach about 16,000 followers across several platforms.

SoT was designed to explore Tibetan identity away from the political struggle.

"There is so much more about us - our everyday lives, struggles, and joys and the ways in which the struggle has shaped us," says Tenzing.

"We are changing very rapidly as a society and there is an urgent need to chronicle our current existence before it becomes extinct."

6aacd27a369d4c93ae089a8061c9ba53_18.jpg

Tenzin Chokyi is featured on Stories of Tibetans, a social media initiative, and shared her story of dealing with cancer with her community [Courtesy: Tenzin Chokyi]
One of the characters featured on the feed is 23-year-old Tenzin Chokyi's, a cancer survivor.

Cancer is seldom discussed among Tibetans.

Chokyi only discovered her father had passed away due to cancer a month after he died in 2012.

"I wanted to change that," says Chokyi.

Her post has been viewed more than 45,000 times.

"People wrote in saying they didn't know cancer had entered the Tibetan community too."

Tenzing recently highlighted the story of a 24-year-old anonymous Tibetan who walked alone to India because of an abusive father.

Another post focuses on a man who gets nostalgic about his friends who have emigrated, each time he sees the "hope" tattoo they had all got together.

Yeshi Choedon, a professor at New Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University, believes that the initiative might serve as a vital collection of oral histories.

"Hardly anything about the Tibetan refugee community has been documented so far," he says. "Most times, the focus is only on the political struggle. An initiative like this will enhance the understanding of the ordinary Tibetan, in exile."

SoT is now branching into documentaries.

Its latest is the story of two Tibetan brothers who were reunited after a decade. They were separated when one brother managed to escape from Tibet to come to India, while the other was arrested in Tibet twice while attempting the journey.

Tenzing says his work in the community helps overcome his own loneliness.

"I need to give back to my community," he says, "at least for a few more years. But after that, I might migrate too."

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA NEWS

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kunal Purohit


@ kunalpurohit
https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/60-years-india-tibetans-leaving-190319231424509.html
 
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