In the Holy Land: The Lives and Activities of Tibetan Refugees in India
PART I
Thubten Dawa’s Story
This case report is the first in a series of three documenting the experiences of Tibetan refugees. The remaining reports, written in collaboration with the Sarnath International Nyingma Institute, are forthcoming.
Location
Sarnath, India. Base map imagery © Google 2022.
Introduction
Note from Dr. Karen Jacobsen, RIT Principal Investigator
This is not our usual RIT report in that it was not written by a refugee researcher, but rather is based on a series of interviews conducted by a doctoral student as described below. These Tibetan refugees living in northern India do not speak English, and the interviews, conducted in Tibetan, were a way to capture their experience for our English readers. The report is also different from our other RIT reports in that we have given somewhat more space to the refugee’s life in Tibet, and his journey and experience prior to arriving in Sarnath.
A Note on Editor-Translator* Positionality and Methodology
I am a doctoral candidate in anthropology, focusing on Tibetic languages and linguistics. Prior to my doctoral training in linguistic and socio-cultural anthropology, I worked for several years in Tibetan-speaking communities in Asia.
I wrote this report based on a February 23, 2022 Zoom interview with a Tibetan refugee living in Sarnath, India (pseudonym Thubten Dawa), where he works for the Sarnath International Nyingma Institute (SINI). Later, in summer 2022, I traveled to India to work at SINI, where I developed a closer relationship with him. The meals and many cups of tea we shared throughout the summer enabled me to clarify details of his story and revise this report.
Except for a handful of English and Hindi loanwords, all our communication occurred in Tibetan. Based on consultation with the refugee and SINI’s leadership we decided that I would write the report in the first-person with direct translations of his words. Thubten Dawa understood that parts of his story would need to be reordered and edited for clarity of understanding in English, but the experiences described, and the words used to describe them, are entirely his own.
While I am highly proficient in Tibetan, I clarified any points of confusion in the story through spoken and written communication with Thubten Dawa. Initially, this occurred through voice and written WhatsApp messages, and later through in-person follow-up interviews over the course of my summer at SINI. The information presented in this report has been rigorously reviewed multiple times to ensure the greatest fidelity to his experiences. At numerous points in the writing process, I sat beside him, laptop before us, and translated back to him in Tibetan what I had written in English. If there were any discrepancies or nuances in meaning lost in the translation, we worked together to correctly represent his experiences. The quotations in Tibetan show the actual words spoken by Thubten Dawa, serving as a reminder of the translated nature of the report.
The interview on February 23, 2022, and all subsequent conversations with Thubten Dawa occurred with free, prior, and informed consent. He understood the aims of this report, and my purpose in writing it, before he shared his story. On numerous occasions, he expressed his aspiration that by reading this story, “others will understand the importance of pure motivation and necessity to prioritize the welfare of others rather than one’s self.”
*The editor-translator authored both the background and the introduction in addition to editing and translating this report.
Background
There are a wide range of opinions concerning the pre-modern relationship between China and Tibet. The Chinese government maintains that Tibet has been a part of China since the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty (1271-1368), while the Tibetan Government in Exile, based in Dharamsala, India, maintains that Tibet was an independent state until the communist People's Liberation Army (PLA) began their invasion in 1949. However, broad scholarly consensus agrees that Sino-Tibetan relations radically changed with the communist takeover and the annexation of Tibet into the newly formed People’s Republic of China (PRC). Since then, there have been severe, and occasionally violent, restrictions on traditional Tibetan education, religion, and culture.
From 1959-1960, an estimated 80,000 Tibetan refugees fled to India, a number that increased to around 100,000 in subsequent years, constituting the first wave of Tibetan migration to South Asia. A 2009 survey found that around 128,000 Tibetans lived outside of Tibet, with the largest number, more than 94,000, living in India.[1]
Historically, Tibetans have fled Tibet for a number of reasons: political, economic, educational and religious. In the case of the refugees interviewed for this project, their primary motivation for migration was the religious freedom and educational opportunities afforded by India. Tibetan Buddhism remains highly restricted within Tibet, and the interviewed refugees all desired the opportunity to study and practice their religion free from authoritarian government control.
Tibetans in India face a number of difficulties, ranging from basic survival, integration with local society, and the preservation of their culture. While many Tibetans express heartfelt gratitude to India for offering them political refuge, their position is precarious. They are not officially recognized by the government as refugees. They are instead designated as “foreigners,” who must annually renew their permission to stay in the country. India has never signed the 1951 United Nations convention on refugees, adding to Tibetans’ tenuous, uncertain status.
Tibetans are scattered throughout India, with large settlements in the northwestern Himalayan state of Himachal Pradesh, as well as in the southern state of Karnataka. Though many Tibetans feel obligated to preserve their language, religion, and culture because of their freedom in exile, such expertise provides very few economic opportunities, which necessitate an understanding of local Indian languages or English. Such problems have led to increasing Tibetan immigration to North America and Europe.
Inaugurated in the winter of 2013, the Sarnath International Nyingma Institute (SINI) offers an important center for the preservation of Tibetan cultural and religious knowledge. Located in Sarnath, India, the site of the Buddha’s first sermon, SINI’s mission is: “to sustain the roots of the Dharma; to advance the study of classical Buddhist languages; to empower the transmission of the Dharma; and to promote interdisciplinary collaborations.”[2] SINI works towards their vast goals by working with Tibetan refugees throughout India, as well as Tibetan Buddhists who are citizens of Bhutan, India and Nepal.
Story One: Thubten Dawa
City Context
Sarnath is a small village located 10 kilometers north-east of Varanasi, a city of nearly 2 million people, and one of Hinduism’s holiest sites. Tibetans generally call Sarnath “Varanasi”, as this is the name used in Tibetan Buddhist scriptures. Tibetans, like all Buddhists, revere Sarnath as one of the four major Buddhist pilgrimage places, which are as follows: (1) Lumbini, Nepal (where the Buddha was born); (2) Bodh Gaya, India (where he achieved enlightenment); (3) Sarnath, India (where he gave his first teaching); and (4) Kushingar, India (where he passed into Parinirvana). Due to its sacred nature, many Buddhist-dominant countries have built temples, monasteries, and other Buddhist institutes in Sarnath, including Bhutan, Japan, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Tibet. Thubten Dawa lives and works at one such international Buddhist center: the Sarnath International Nyingma Institute (SINI). Hundreds of thousands of international tourists, and even more domestic Indian tourists, visit Sarnath annually.
Despite being a major Buddhist tourist destination, Sarnath’s local Indian population struggles with endemic poverty. The COVID-19 lockdown, which began in March 2020, had a devastating impact on the food security of poorer communities within Sarnath. Thubten Dawa, along with all of SINI, responded to this desperate situation by swiftly organizing food relief for the local community, which continued for nearly two years. During this period, SINI distributed more than a million meals to the local community.
Childhood in Tibet and Decision to Flee to India
ངའི་ཕ་ཡུལ་མགོ་ལོག་རེད།
My homeland is Golok.
My homeland is Golok. Within Tibet, Golok is a high place with vast pastures, where many nomads live on the grasslands. From when I was just a little kid until I was sixteen or seventeen, I lived as a nomad, and this is how our family supported ourselves. Then, when I was sixteen or seventeen, I came to the monastery. I stayed there until I was twenty and trained as a monk.
When I was twenty, my father passed away. He was very special. He was a man from the previous world, the world before the Chinese arrived. He spent 16 years in Chinese prison, because he fought the Red Army for three years when they first invaded Tibet.
Just as my father was dying, my older siblings told him Tibet was free. They told him, “Father, put your mind at ease. His Holiness the Dalai Lama has come back to Tibet. We don’t have to live under the Chinese anymore. We are free.” They were trying to make sure our father died with a restful, happy mind. “Really? Is this really true?” he asked. “Really father—this is true. You have no need to worry. We no longer have to live under the Chinese, father.”
My father had great faith in His Holiness and such hope that he would meet His Holiness in his lifetime, but he never had the opportunity. This was a big reason why I needed to travel to India. My father wanted so desperately to meet His Holiness, I felt that I needed to present his ashes to our precious teacher.
I also wanted to study the Buddha’s teachings deeply, and knew this was not possible in Tibet under the Chinese. As a human being, our most important responsibility is to benefit others. To study the Dharma is one of the best ways to benefit others, but we do not have the freedom to study under the Chinese. So, along with four other monks from our monastery, we made the decision to leave for India. I was twenty-one years old. This was in 2005.
Escape from Tibet and Meeting His Holiness The Dalai Lama
We suffered terribly in the time between escaping Tibet and arriving to India. The Chinese army almost caught us when at the border, and later in Nepal, we were very close to starving, as we had run out of all of our supplies and food. One time I even stole.
ཐེངས་གཅིག་ལ་ངས་རྐུན་མ་བརྒྱབ་པ་ཡིན།
One time I even stole.
In my entire life, this was the one and only time that I stole. For weeks, we had sold pieces of our clothes for a plate of food, but by this point, we had nothing left to sell. So, when we came across a big house with two floors, and I saw a bowl of guava in the window, I threw a rock at it and knocked it to the ground. My friend and I stole three out of maybe ten guavas, and shared them with everyone. When they asked us where we got it, we just said that the fruit fell down. We didn’t say if we stole it or not.
Eventually, we made our way to the Tibetan Reception Center in Kathmandu. I wanted to go immediately to Dharamsala to meet His Holiness the Dalai Lama and tell him about my father, but the workers in the reception center wouldn’t let me go. I had become incredibly sick on my journey from Tibet—my intestines were very sick, and I had inguinal hernias. They told me I needed to stay for another month, but I told them no, I wouldn’t stay. I told them, “Maybe I will die soon. Before I die, I must meet His Holiness the Dalai Lama. I have gotten this precious human rebirth, and if I don’t meet His Holiness, I will feel intense regret.”
གཅིག་བྱས་ན་ང་ཤི་འགྲོ་གི་རེད། མ་ཤི་སྔོན་ལ་ང་མཇལ་དགོས་རེད། ངས་མི་ལུས་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་ཐོབ་སོང་། རྒྱལ་བར་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་མ་མཇལ་ན་བློ་ཕམ་ཆེན་པོ་རེད།
Maybe I will die soon. Before I die, I must meet His Holiness the Dalai Lama. I have gotten this precious human rebirth, and if I don’t meet His Holiness, I will feel intense regret.
Eventually, they told me to write a letter explaining all of this. I had to write down that the Reception Center didn’t want me to leave, that they didn’t approve, and that I understood all the risks. I had to write this because they thought if I left so quickly for India, I would die along the way, and then they would be responsible. But all I thought was, “I have to meet His Holiness as soon as possible.”
When I finally had the opportunity to meet His Holiness, I presented him with my father’s ashes, and told him all about my father, how it was his life’s greatest wish to meet His Holiness. His Holiness went into meditation and when he arose, he told one of his attendants to take the ashes and use them to make a tsa tsa (small, sacred statue). He then told me to recite a prayer with him for my father’s positive rebirth, which we recited together. After that, he told me that everything was well with my father.
When I went outside after this meeting, everything seemed completely transformed. After so much effort - so much suffering - all this work I had set out to do was accomplished. It was such a strange, powerful feeling.
Monastic Training and Changing View of India
After meeting His Holiness and fulfilling my father’s dream, I knew that I needed to study at Penor Rinpoche’s Namdroling Monastery in South India. This is because Namdroling Monastery and my monastery in Tibet are like mother and child to each other—there is an incredibly close connection between our monasteries. Not only that, but also, when I was a little kid, Penor Rinpoche visited our homeland, and I saw him. Since that time, I wanted to be close to him. So, there’s always been a very strong connection between my homeland and my home monastery with Namdroling.
I studied at Namdroling’s monastic college (shédra) for more than ten years, until 2017. I studied the many subjects required in monastic college, such as monastic vows, Buddhist philosophy, composition, poetry, history, many, many subjects. There was much more freedom to study in India than in Tibet, where we were constantly under Chinese control. Since my mother and family had made so many sacrifices to allow me to study in India, I felt a great responsibility to study as hard as I could, and to uphold my vows as perfectly as I was able. After more than a decade of study, I received the qualification as a Lopon (a spiritual degree in Tibetan Buddhism somewhat equivalent to an M.A.). I felt very grateful - and still feel very grateful - to India for the freedom that it has given me—to study and achieve the real potential of this human life.
Throughout most of this time, however, I didn’t really have a very close connection with Indian people. At the monastery, I mostly spent time with people from Golok, my homeland, or otherwise with other Tibetans and Himalayan people. To be honest, my first few years in India, I really wasn’t very happy. In Tibet, we call India “The Noble India,” “the land of the Buddha Shakyamuni.” We say that all the men are like courageous spiritual warriors (dpa’ bo) and all the women are like sky-dancing goddesses (mkha’ ‘gro ma). This is based on our scriptures. Otherwise, my only knowledge of India was from watching Bollywood movies, so before coming, I thought everything in India was so beautiful, like heaven.
ཕྱི་ལོགས་ལ་མཐུན་རྐྱེན་ཡག་པོ་རང་མ་རེད། ཡིན་ན་ཡང་ནང་ལ་ཚང་མ་དཔེ་འདི་ཡག་ག་འདུག
…outside conditions aren’t that nice, but inside, everything is much better.
When I arrived to India, it was like the complete opposite of what I had imagined. Unlike China, where all the buildings, cars, and appliances are very new and nice, India is the opposite—everything looked very old and worn out. But slowly, over the years, as I came to know Indian people more and more, I realized how wrong I was. It’s true that outside conditions aren’t that nice, but inside, everything is much better. I realized that most Indians have very good hearts. Their minds are much more relaxed and spacious than the minds of most Chinese. Outside, things don’t look nearly as nice, but inside - psychologically, spiritually - things are much better.
Part of this comes from the fact that India is a free country. People have the freedom to live as they wish, to do what they think is best for their own life. It’s not like this at all in China, where the government tries to control everything. The other reason is because most Indians - whatever their religion - believe in karma, cause and effect. They know that if they do good things, good will come to them. If they do bad, bad will come to them. Other than Buddhists, very few Chinese hold this belief. If you ask me now what is my favorite country in the entire world, I will immediately tell you India. I love India.
Since 2017, I have acted as the manager for the annual Nyingma Monlam Chenmo (the Great Prayer Festival of Tibet’s Old Tradition) in Bodh Gaya. Every year, this entails two months of full-time work. More than ten thousand people attend this event, and we provide them all food, places to stay, and help with whatever else they may need. Many of these attendees are Tibetans, and they also come from Tibetan-speaking, Himalayan communities in Bhutan, India and Nepal.
The Nyingma Monlam has happened annually for more than thirty years now and is of huge benefit to the local Indian community. Local restaurants, hotels, businesses—they all benefit from the more than ten thousand pilgrims that come every year. The Monlam happens during the last ten days of the Tibetan lunar calendar, but there are additional days before and after, so there’s nearly two weeks of extra income for local businesses. This generates a lot of money for the local economy. Even the Indian Ministry of Culture and Tourism has directly recognized this work as one of the most important annual events in Bodh Gaya.
Through Yeshe De and Dharma Publishing, we also distribute thousands of Tibetan language books every year. This is one of the annual greatest giftings of Tibetan language Buddhist books, and this does so much to promote Tibetan literacy throughout the South Asian Himalaya. Since the Monlam first began in 1989, we have distributed more than 6 million Tibetan language books. So many Tibetan-speaking Indian, Nepali, and Bhutanese citizens have access to Tibetan books because of this distribution.
ལོ་ལྔ་ངས་ལས་ཀ་བྱས་པ་ཡིན། ང་རྒྱ་གར་སྐད་ཡག་པོ་ཤེས་གྱི་མ་རེད། ཡིན་ན་ཡང་ང་ཉམས་མྱོང་གཅིག་ཡོད་རེད།་་་མི་དམངས་ལ་ཕན་ཐོག་བྱེད་ཡག་ཐུབ་ཀྱི་འདུག
I’ve done this work for five years. Even though I don’t know Hindi that well, I was chosen for this position because I had some previous experience… I am able to do work that is of some benefit to others.
The Nyingma Monlam is a huge event every year, and requires a lot of work. I’ve done this work for five years. Even though I don’t know Hindi that well, I was chosen for this position because I had some previous experience in: management from Namdroling Monastery, buying food, coordinating logistics, doing all this type of work. I am able to do work that is of some benefit to others, so that’s why I have this position. In total, I have worked with SINI, managing the Nyingma Monlam and doing other social work, for five years now.
The 2020 Lockdown and Immediate Pandemic Relief*
After the pandemic lockdown started in India, beginning in April 2020 and then for nearly two years, I was responsible for distributing food and other essential goods to impoverished people in the Indian community surrounding us here in Sarnath. When the lockdown first started at the end of March, for one month, no one was allowed to leave home, I didn’t leave SINI even once. When I first went out walking, Sarnath looked like a ghost village—the streets were completely empty, and it seemed like the houses were, too. One big difference, though, were all the dead dogs. There used to be many street dogs in Sarnath, fed by the local people, but during the lockdown, they couldn’t get any food so they starved to death. There were dog carcasses all along the road.
On this first walk after the lockdown, when I looked inside some of the houses, the people were lying on the ground—they looked like corpses. They really looked dead, lying there. When some of them saw me, they cried out, “Please, please give us some food,” but they could not even sit up, they were so weak. They were so weak they could hardly use their voices.
གཅིག་བྱས་ན་ང་corona་ན་ནས་ཤི་གི་རེད། ཡིན་ན་ཡང་ང་མ་ཤི་བར་དུ་ངས་ཁོང་ཚོ་ལ་རོགས་པ་རྒྱག་གི་ཡིན། ང་ལ་རོགས་པ་རྒྱག་རོགས་བྱེད།
Maybe I will catch COVID and die. But until I die, I must help these people. Please help me to do this.
You can’t understand how depressed seeing this made me. I thought about how much wealth, how much knowledge, exists in the world, and then to see people literally starving to death… it was such a painful feeling. I called my older sister in America and told her, “Maybe I will catch COVID and die. But until I die, I must help these people. Please help me to do this.” I asked her to help by sending money. Without getting the money to buy food, there really was nothing for us to do.
She sent the money really quickly, but all the shops were still closed, so I talked with my monk friend here in SINI, and he made some kheer (high calorie, sweet rice pudding). He made that and then we went out and gave it to the Indian families. This was the first day. Some people, particularly the elders, could hardly even extend the spoon to their mouths; they were so weak. We had to feed some of them because they couldn’t even lift their arms. The next day, the people were able to move around a little bit - at least to sit up - and show some kind of life. They no longer seemed like corpses. The children were a bit better, but for the older people, it was very, very difficult. We also gave them small parcels of food the following day.
We realized that without us, these people would have no way to get food, and might die of starvation. So, we made a plan: every month, we would distribute food to 200 families. Each month, we bought 2,200 rupees worth of food to give to each of these 200 families. We monks were very exact about this, going to the sellers, weighing every gram of the food, and ensuring we got exactly how much we paid for. When we told the sellers why we were buying so much food, some of them showed compassion and gave us the food at cost, or otherwise donated food to us. This allowed us to buy even more than our money alone could purchase.
Monk and two local Sarnath children during COVID relief efforts. Photo provided by SINI.
After we bought the food, we brought it into the prayer hall, this great mountain of food, and all the monks at SINI would pray over it—we prayed that the food would be of the greatest benefit possible for all those we gave it to. Then we distributed the food ourselves. We gave rice, dal (lentils), oil, flour, essentials like this. For this reason, even though the Indian families around us are very poor, they were okay throughout the lockdown because we gave them everything they needed to survive. They weren’t on the streets begging for money, even though that’s what many did before the pandemic, because they were inside with full stomachs from the food we distributed. I was so happy that we were able to help all of these people.
Several months in, around August/September, I got COVID and was quite sick for a whole month. But by that time, my friends knew the routine very well and were able to distribute the food. And as soon as I was over my illness, I drank a lot of water, wore my mask, and kept distributing the food. It was very important for me to help as much as I could, because I did not want us to waste even a single rupee. Each rupee made a huge difference for the people we were helping. Over this period, we distributed more than one million meals to the local Indian community. It was a huge project, and I’m certain, if it weren’t for our efforts, many of these people would have died.
* The government of India had numerous protocols in place to help those impacted by the lockdown, but the magnitude of the crisis was so great that these responses alone could not meet the enormity of the need. By Indian standards, Sarnath, with its population of around 41,000, is only a small village, and government aid initially prioritized the nearby metropolis of Varanasi. Due to the sheer scale of lockdown emergency, throughout India, many local community groups, including religious organizations, provided direct aid to ameliorate the worst effects of the lockdowns.
Long-Term Aid for the Local Indian Community
After nearly two years of this aid work, SINI asked us how we would benefit the local community long-term if we had the funding to do so. By this time, we had worked very closely with the local Indians, daily for nearly two years, so we had a good sense of their lifestyle and needs. Our group of monks decided these families needed a stable source of income, something that they could do on their own, without needing to rely on others. We learned that cycle rickshaw drivers can make more than 22,000 rupees per month (around $300), which is a good income to support a family. We knew that when we give them food, it only helps for a short period of time, then it’s gone. But if we gave them cycle rickshaws, they would have a way to earn their own income and become financially independent.
With funding from SINI, we bought 22 cycle rickshaws. We decided to give them to families who had between 3 and 5 immediate family
members, since we knew the income from the rickshaw would be enough to support a family of this size. We conducted systematic interviews with many families to decide who would receive the rickshaws. In particular, we made sure the father would not use the money on alcohol, and would be sure to support his wife and children with the income.
SINI’s monastic volunteers preparing tea for free distribution. Photo provided by SINI.
When we went to give the cycle rickshaws, we made sure the police and local government officials were present, and everyone who got a rickshaw had to sign a contract. The contract said they weren’t allowed to sell the rickshaw, they were required to use their income to support their families, they couldn’t buy alcohol with it, and they could not rent the rickshaw out to others and get money that way—they needed to do the work themselves. Everyone agreed to this, signed the contracts, and we gave them the rickshaws. This is still the main source of support for 22 families living here in Sarnath. There are many poor people here in Sarnath who have to struggle a lot just to survive, but these 22 families are fine now. They can secure everything they need with the income from driving the rickshaw.
Conclusion
It was an incredible amount of work, over the past two years, to do all of this COVID relief. And, like I said, I even got quite sick with COVID doing this. But we all knew it was extremely important, and we wanted to help those around us. I feel very strongly that this was the most important work I have accomplished in my human life. As Buddhists, we pray every day to be of benefit to all sentient beings, and these prayers are important—they are an important way to train our minds, just as all the previous Bodhisattvas and Buddhas have done. But I believe it’s also very important to actively help those around us—not to just pray for their benefit, but to actively support it. As Tibetan refugees, we felt incredibly honored to be able to give back to India, to help citizens of the country that had taken us in and given us refuge.
There has always been a special relationship between the local Indian community and the Buddhists in Sarnath. There are 22 Buddhist monasteries in Sarnath, and five of them are Tibetan monasteries. The Sarnath Indian community is largely Hindu, but they have always respected Buddhist monks, as they also have faith in the Buddha. This respect, especially for us Tibetan monks, has increased exponentially since the pandemic. Now, whenever they see us in the street, they always press their palms together in respect and say “Namaste.” They are so grateful for all of the help and support that we provided them over this very difficult period—they saw our spiritual beliefs being enacted in-person.
REFERENCES
[1] "127935 Tibetans living outside Tibet: Tibetan survey". Press Trust of India. 2010-04-12. Archived from the original on 2011-09-27. Retrieved September 20, 2022.
[2] https://www.sinibridge.org/institute/