“It was indeed an arduous journey. The memories are still fresh, our journey began from Lhasa. It was extremely arduous due to snowy conditions, biting cold, walking along the rough path along the foot of sky-scraping mountains, threat by the Chinese border military men were all posed a challenge to us on our way. But finally, we could brave all these and reached India with our spiritual leader, Dalai Lama. After reaching the Indian border, some of our people settled in some places in India. I spent some time in Thawam in Arunachal Pradesh and later shifted to Masuri in North India. The Indian government was benevolent to allow the Tibetan refugees to settle down in some areas. This area, Bylakuppe a village is located in Mysore district in Southern Indian state of Karnataka is one of them. I chose to live here after accompanying a small group to this area. At that time this area was fully covered by forest. There was a small pond and we decided to settle in the vicinity. As we gradually developed this area, many Tibetans joined us as time went on.”
The above story was shared with us by an eighty year-old Jampa with tearing rolling down his cheek. However, it is not only his story, there are several stories Bylakuppe Tibetans settlers shared with us. Presently they live in Mysore district in Southern Indian state Karnataka.
According to statistics from the Central Tibetan Administration, around 50,000 Tibetans live in Bylakuppe. However, a monk who lives there said the number could be higher and placed it around 70,000. The number of monasteries, temples, colonies, agricultural lands and schools can be seen in this area.
I began my journey to Bylakuppe from Bangalore. After long and interesting journey, I saw some signs of Tibetans Settlement through the name boards and some people who bore Tibetan features. This settlement is situated 90 km from Mysore.
Finally, I entered the Bylakuppe Tibetan settlement and travelled under the metal arc which has been built above the road with gold plated Tibetan symbols such as sun and deer. When I was going further deep into the settlement, my assumptions crumbled one after the other. I thought it might have several refugee camps in a dusty and dirty atmosphere. However, it’s completely different sight than what I thought. I saw a decent and well-organized settlement with temples, houses, infrastructures and neatly grown cultivations.
My first stop at an elderly home which was maintained under Central Tibetan Administrative Authority. It was not a rich-looking elderly home. Some of its buildings were not well maintained. There was a temple for prayers and kitchen within that premises. Around 80 elderly people – both men and women were looked after there. Most importantly, many of them were the first generation of Tibetan refugees to have had settled in India, which means they were born and grown-up Tibet and fled to India with their spiritual leader Dalai Lama, as Tibet came under attack by China in 1959. I met Jampa at the elders’ home and when I spoke to him, he not only spoke about his past, but also about his life which spanned over eighty years. He did not forget to talk about his plans for the future too.
“I did not marry, I spent my life with our people, as our people live here freely and happily. We are thankful to India for all of these facilities. Nevertheless, we want to go back. I am a Tibetan. I was born as a man with plenty of freedom in Tibet. I want to die in Tibet as a man of that soil,” he said.
Kyinzou, a 75-year-old woman who lived in the elderly home and she also had similar story about her journey from Lhasa to India. Her life story was identical to that of Jampa. But she added some more details.
“We live here, and it is true. But our heart is longing to return to our motherland. We are away from our family members, homes, lands, crops and livestock there. Now we have only the memories left with us. The best period of our life has been abolished. But we still have a dream to go back to our motherland and die there,” Kyinzou said.
According to administrators of the elders’ home, all the occupants who were living there, were from the first generation of Tibetan settlers in India. They do not have close family associates such as wives or husbands or children and they all are being cared for by the Central Tibetan Administrative Authority. Many donors from all over the world support them. However, they have been webbed by some issues for years. Caring octogenarians, nonagenarians and disabled elders, providing their traditional food and documentation issues such as registration every year are among the issues.
As my second destination, I reached my abode which was a guest house maintained by the Sera Jey monastery and administrated by the Lamas. It appeared like a star class hotel with comfortable rooms, good facilities and many additional features were there. Apart from providing accommodation and other facilities, it functions as a centre of Tibetan Buddhism. The guest house also had Buddha statues, pictures and posters of Dalai Lama, Potala palace and other important sites in Tibet. A library full of books about Buddhist theories and doctrines is an important feature there. People who come from all over the world stay at this guest house, read and gain knowledge on Buddhism.
I met Maria, a lady came from Britain who had been staying there for weeks expressed her experience as follows.
“I am interested in learning Buddhism, especially the Tibetan Buddhism. I found the true version of Tibetan Buddhism now in India. So, I came here and spent some time and studying them” Maria said. All foreigners who enter the Tibetan settlements must obtain a special permit. However, many foreigners come here to learn Buddhism and to visit the temples.
According to Lama Dorje, who lived in Bylakuppe, said that area has a number of monasteries and temples which follow the Tibetan Buddhist traditions such as Gelug and Nymdroling. Among them, the large educational monastic institution Sera Je stood unique.
We started visiting the temples in the evening and we could see Sera Je monastic intuition which follows Gelug tradition. It consists of three sections. First section is a primary school and hundreds of little Lamas were receiving in-house education there. Also, we saw Sera Je Secondary school where several junior Lamas were studying. Sera Je University is another important place to visit. When we reached the university, hundreds of monks gathered outside and engaged in a special debate exercise based on religious facts. One monk stood up and another was seated in front of him. The monk who stood up asked the questions and the one who seated needed to answer. The one who could not answer three questions, had their positions changed. It’s a notable traditional system followed in their educational programme.
I also visited the Gaden Lachi Monastery Buddhist Cultural Centre. It consists of huge temples and an important place in the centre. The Temple has three big golden statues of the Buddha and Padmasambhawa. Apart of that, there were many other Buddha statues and other statues. Walls inside the whole temple had beautiful paintings which depicted the stories relating to the Buddha and Tibetan Buddhism. Some paintings portrayed exodus and places such as Potala palace, Dalai Lama and others fleeing Tibet. In front of the main golden statue of the Buddha, there is a huge gold-plated chair. It is for Dalai Lama and whenever he visits this place, he sits on it, and no others use this chair.
Here we spoke to many Lamas. A Lama named Chodak who belonged to second generation of Tibetan settlers in India, which means his parents fled China and he was born in India. According to another Lama “Chodak “, India treats them well but they still had some issues.
“India offered land to us. They provided many other facilities. We are happy to live in India. But we do not have refugee status. As a result of that, we have many shortcomings such as renewal of annual registration every year, passport issues that if we happened to go out of the country, there are some strict rules such as to return within one year etc. However, this country offers freedom for us especially freedom for follow our religion. Therefore, we are grateful to India” he said.
India offers citizenship to Tibetan refugees, but they do not want Indian citizenship. Lama “Dawa”, who among the group aired his opinion;
“We are thankful to India for offering us with Indian citizenship. But we are Tibetans. We want to go back to our country. We are still hopeful; until our dream becomes reality, let us live here with freedom. That is our only appeal we place before India” Dawa said.
Many Tibetan refugees in India as I previously mentioned, first and second generation, their offspring as third and fourth generations. Apart from them, there are so many Tibetans who fled Tibet to India during the past decades.
26-year-old Lama Kalsang is an example of this generation.
“I was born in Tibet. I wanted to be a monk. But in Tibet, we did not have religious freedom. We were not allowed to learn real Buddhism. So, I fled Tibet and after some arduous journey, I reached Nepal first and then crossed over to India. Now I can learn real Buddhism here” Kalsang said sharing his experience.
Communication with Tibet is one of biggest problems, Lama Kalsang has had.
“We cannot talk our parents and other relatives in China. They block every social media network. Telephone is tapped. If the Chinese authorities got to know that we spoke to our family members from India, they will definitely be punished.”
Moreover, I privileged to observe Lama’s graduation ceremony that two young Lamas conferred with superior positions in their religious doctrinal studies. That was a mega ceremony, around thousands of monks participated in it and they offered us with food with chanting. It was truly an event that exemplified their religious practice, culture and traditional behaviours over thousand miles away from Tibet.
On the following morning we visited Namdroling monastery, very popular as the Golden temple which follows Nyingma tradition. This temple was built by Pema Norbu Rimpoche in 1963. This Monastery has two large temples and many small temples including gold plated huge statue of Buddha and other statues and wall paintings. A lot of stupas (dagab), education halls and libraries were there. Accordingly, the Lamas of the monastery they conducted many cultural events in the monastery including Buddha poornima.
Nun’s monasteries were also built in Bylakuppe. It was a privilege to visit the main nun monastery which housed around 500 Buddhist nuns. Secretary to the Nun monastery Sonam Pelama descried the situations as follows.
“This place offer mainly Buddhist education. Apart from that, we teach English and other main subjects. Our culture and traditions are taught here” she said.
Buddhist nun Sonam Pelama’s life story also has some significance. She was born in Tibet in 1978 and wanted to be a nun, but under Chinese regime, she could not achieve the target. Finally she decided to flee Tibet and came India through Nepal after strenuous effort and joined the monastery. After education, now she plays a major facilitator’s role to help women and girls who need help as what she had been.
I got opportunities to expose myself to public life in the settlement. I visited carpet weaving and stick making centres. They do not use modern technology, but the technology they use entwined with human effort. Many people in the settlement survived by these industries. These facilitate investors, workers, salesmen and their families.
Finally, I visited a school where Tibetan children learn primarily. It is an SOS school which means established by International NGO called SOS. This is one of six SOS schools for Tibetan children in India.
Dorejel, who is a Head of Sponsors in the school describes its functions as follows.
“Around 1000 children learn here. Apart from a few Indian students, most of them are Tibetan settlers. This is residential school and students live and learn in 35 homes. All the houses have a matron called Amma and students learn everything that support their life such as cooking, washing etc. They learn English, Hindi and other general subjects. These are totally free. By way of donations, we continue with this programme. We produced several learned personnel. I also learnt here now I serve at the place which molded me,” Dorejel added.
I had a chance to take a stroll around the school. Members from third and fourth generations of Tibetan refugees in India are studying here. They make meaningful drawings that depicted the Tibet refugees and India.
When I was returning, I summarized my observations. Tibetan refugees in India are independent and well looked after. But they have some issues. As a solution to that, they do not prefer to get Indian citizenship, but they need more flexibility under the refugee category. Their statement bear testimony to it: “Though we are Tibetans, we are grateful to India for caring us and accommodating us, but we do not live as Indians.” They all have only one dream. It is to free Tibet which does not mean that we want a separate or autonomy state. China still shows aggression on us and does not allow us to live as respectful Tibetans. Thus it is obvious that those refugees are never willing to give up their nationality and want to be staunch patriots.
Viranjana Herath
(Viranjana Herath, PhD candidate in the Department of Legal Studies at the South Asian University, New Delhi, is a researcher in law, journalism and geopolitics. With more than fifteen years of experience as a journalist in print and electronic media, he holds a Master’s Degree in Mass Communication from the University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka and a Master’s Degree in Human Rights Law from the National Law School of India University Bangalore. He holds a Bachelor of Laws from the Open University of Sri Lanka and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka. Viranjana Herath has involved in local and international research and publications in various fields of media, law, and geopolitics including media freedom, media regulation, hate speech and misinformation, human rights law and geopolitics in South Asia.)
