Articles

I was among the first Tibetan refugees to escape across the snow-capped Himalayas. Leaving just after H.H. Dalai Lama, I was barely alive when I crossed the border into India on a cold day in March 1959. We had really lost everything: our homeland, families, homes and all our personal belongings. Before us, we had an uncertain future as refugees in a country with major poverty problems for their own people. However, we had the greatest value intact—Life, with all the opportunities and challenges it gave us to create new lives and make relationships with people from other countries we would otherwise never have met.

In 1949, President Mao and the Communist Party seized power in China and Chinese troops crossed the border into Tibet. The Tibetans feared that their culture and religion would be destroyed. Therefore, the people of the lama house in Batang in eastern Tibet arranged for me to leave my homeland and travel to Lhasa in Central Tibet.

After I arrived in Central Tibet, I heard that the Chinese Red Army had bombed and destroyed several monasteries in Eastern Tibet. The East Tibetans formed a resistance movement of guerrilla soldiers and established a stronghold in the mountains, but after a few years they could no longer holdout against the superior Chinese army. The guerrillas fled to central Tibet, where they organized themselves into a camp north of Lhasa.

The Red Army reached Central Tibet in 1951. First, Chinese diplomats came to Lhasa. In the beginning the Chinese asked with great politeness if they could borrow a house or piece of land, but after some time they took it over completely and considered themselves to be the owners. Then a large number of soldiers came to Tibet; first with the aim of helping the Tibetans. The Tibetan government also had soldiers, but they were mostly a kind of ceremonial guard who were neither trained for combat nor had up-to-date weapons.

In March 1959, H.H. Dalai Lama was in his summer palace in Norbulingka and the situation had become very tense. On March 10, there were large demonstrations in front of Norbulingka with slogans such as, “Tibet is Tibet. China go home!” The demonstrations created a lot of anger and increased the tension. The guerrilla soldiers from the resistance movement guarded Norbulingka and protected H.H. Dalai Lama. My big brother was one of them. After a few weeks, the Red Army attacked Lhasa with heavy weapons. Fortunately, H.H. Dalai Lama had managed to escape just before the bombings.

My big brother came to Drepung Monastery, where I was staying, with the news that H.H. Dalai Lama had fled. During the night we woke up in shock as the monastery was attacked with cannon fire. I fled in panic with my master and five monks up into the mountains. Behind us we saw Lhasa city and the summer palace covered in dust after the cannon fire.

We headed as fast as we could towards India. We had no food and nothing to drink, and had to cross icy rivers where sharp ice flakes cut our legs. I am very grateful to the poor villagers along the way who shared their food and helped us. That way, after two weeks on the run, we managed to reach the Indian border. Two days after we crossed the border, I met H.H. Dalai Lama at Mon Tawang [Tawang District, North East India].

I have great appreciation for the Indian government and the Indian people. More than 100,000 Tibetans crossed the border into India and the Indians welcomed us with open arms. Although India was a poor country, they provided us with food and shelter and helped with transportation. Everyone was received with open arms, with no one asking whether we were political or economic refugees. We have a saying in Tibet: