After weeks of arduous trekking across the roof of the world, dodging Chinese troops and risking jail in Nepal, the 56 Tibetan refugees finally arrived in India and the home of their spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.
"All my troubles are now forgotten," whispered 22-year-old Tsering Dolma, one of the 56 who spent three weeks walking from Tibet to neighboring Nepal, where she was jailed for 20 days before Indian and UN officials helped her to reach Dharamsala on the Dalai Lama's 70th birthday on Wednesday.
"I have left behind my mother and a sister but I will not return as I want to study," said Dolma, 22.
PHOTO: AFP
She paid a Nepalese guide 2,300 yuan (US$277) for the journey, but he stole her remaining 500 yuan when she reached the Nepalese capital Kathmandu.
Ringed by the Himalayas and home to the Tibetan government-in-exile since 1959, the northern Indian town of Dharamsala also hosts the Tibetan Reception Center, the largest of three in India handling refugees like Dolma.
Dispatched
"The younger ones on arrival go to schools we run and the nuns and monks are dispatched to monasteries," said center director Dorjee, who uses one name.
The center annually receives 3,000 refugees from Tibet.
"It is difficult to find jobs for refugees above 30 years of age so we give them financial aid as a start-up in a new life," said Dorjee's deputy, Mingyur Youdon, dealing with a throng of Tibetan Buddhist monks.
Dorjee is one of Dalai Lama's busiest executives, pestering Indian diplomats in Kathmandu and officials of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to herd the flow of Tibetans across three volatile borders to Dharamsala.
"Most of them come through Nepal and they sleep during daytime and trek at night."
Dorjee's job became tougher after Nepal in January closed two offices in Kathmandu associated with the Dalai Lama, including the Tibetan Refugee Welfare Office which looked after more than 20,000 Tibetan refugees who left their homeland after the Dalai Lama fled Tibet in 1959 amid a failed uprising against Chinese rule.
China had frequently lodged strong protests with the Nepalese government for permitting the Tibetan office to operate in Nepal in the name of the Dalai Lama. Nepal, which is careful not to antagonize its giant neighbor, recognizes Beijing's rule over Tibet.
Crowded
The refugees who do make it from Nepal and other locations to Dharamsala are initially put up in the two-storey center building that has 40 tiny cubicles or in larger nearby dormitories. It was bursting at the seams with 220 fresh arrivals in recent days.
The center relies on donations from abroad to fund the refugee program including the Tibetan's Children's Village which is educating 14,500 refugees at schools across India, Dorjee said.
Human rights groups, including London-based Human Rights Watch, say Beijing has routinely arrested political protesters in Tibet and imposed censorship of Internet sites and publications on the Dalai Lama.
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