July 17, 2011
An Inside look at Tibetan Exiles Trapped without Basic Rights
by Mikel Dunham
- It’s been fifty years since Tibetan refugees began funneling into Nepal and establishing refugee settlements. That first generation of exiles had resisted the 1950s’ Chinese invasion of their homeland. Then, after fleeing Tibet in the wake of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s own escape, the freedom fighters regrouped in Mustang – a Nepali district overlooking the Tibetan plain – to continue the fight with support from the U.S. government. Many of their families set up (what they thought were) temporary homes south of the Himalaya massif. That was the beginning of the refugee camps in Nepal: in Pokhara and, further east, in the Kathmandu Valley.
Most of the oldest exiles have now passed on, leaving second and third and even fourth generation offspring. Unlike their forefathers, these younger refugees harbor no hope of ever returning to their homeland.
Chinese pressure on a succession of weak Nepali governments has been so successful that all major political parties in Nepal now stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Beijing’s insistence on a “One-China Policy”, i.e. China’s spurious claim that Tibet has always been an inseparable part of China.
Where does that leave Tibetan refugees stranded in Nepal? They have no legal status. Tibetan refugees cannot own property or own businesses. They are not allowed to register the births or marriages of their children. Without the proper paperwork, they are deprived of the opportunity to attain higher education, meaningful employment in the Nepali job market, and visas to go to other countries. In short, the only right Tibetan exiles have in Nepal is to be in Nepal and it has left them despondent and idle – not unlike Native Americans must have felt, at the beginning of the 1900s, when their confinement to reservations represented an unjust dead-end.
Over the years, I have seen this constriction of Tibetan hope firsthand. Because of various books and projects, I have had occasion to visit the refugee settlements almost annually since the mid-1990s. Each year, I have seen the exiles’ prospects dim to the point that, now, in 2011, the great challenge for Tibetans stranded in Nepal is finding a legal means to leave Nepal forever.
Westerners who visit Nepal often come away with the false notion that the Tibetan refugees are economically thriving and that they enjoy freedom to practice their religion without interference from the Nepali government. This is not the case and, for years, I’ve tried to address this misconception by conducting and publishing interviews with refugees. It’s been a difficult message to get across to the international community.
Then, about three years ago, I came up with a different tactic: Why not let the Tibetans speak for themselves through cameras?
With the support of the William Hinman Foundation, I distributed ten inexpensive digital cameras to young volunteers living in the Tibetan settlements. None of the recipients had ever owned cameras and only three exhibited any knowledge or experience with photographic equipment. That didn’t matter to me. I wasn’t looking for expertise. I was looking for access to the most intimate aspects of the daily lives of Tibetans-in-exile.
The result of the experiment is my new book, CAUGHT IN NEPAL: Tibetan Refugees Photographing Tibetan Refugees. Out of thousands of submitted photographs, approximately 150 photographs were incorporated into the book, grouped in sections such as “Buddhist Devotion”, “The Importance of Community”, and “Political Struggle”. There is also an accompanying text, written by me, entitled, The History of Nepali-Tibetan Relations and Why Tibetan Refugees are Stranded in Nepal Today.
Politically, the refugees have never been as heavily censored as they are at the present time. That is why I believe this book is so relevant. Tibetans in Nepal may not be able to wave the Tibetan flag or gather publicly to celebrate the Dalai Lama’s birthday – as was recently and heartbreakingly revealed only last week in Kathmandu – but there is still a publisher in Kathmandu who is brave enough to publish the book.
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