Visiting Tibetans
From Bandipur to Pokhara
At 6:30 a.m. there is a banging on our room door, it is our guide from yesterday and at the first moment I fear that we have overslept. Luckily it turns out a little later that it’s early in the morning and we still have plenty of time. The reason for the excitement is the clear weather, because you can see the Himalayas from our bedroom! I’m 200% awake right now. The Himalayas and that view from out of my my bed? I can’t miss this. When I open the window as if stung by a tarantula, I am completely excited. You can really see the high snow-covered peaks of Annapurna and a little further left the peak of Machapuchare, which at almost 7,000 metres is not a hill either. This is a panorama I could actually wake up to every day! Just total awesomeness.
Shortly after 9 am we set off toward Pokhara, because there is a Tibetan refugee settlement in which we will sleep with a host family tonight. I’m not sure what to expect yet, but I’m really excited to meet my new family and see how life really is in the village.
About 30 minutes after we left, our driver gets a call and to be honest I understand exactly one thing between the many Nepali words: Laptop! I can guess what’s coming up now. Unlucky Mirko left his laptop at the hotel. After all, this is not the first electronic device that is half lost on Asian soil. I remember very vividly the mobile phone that he forgot twice in different taxis in Myanmar. However, it miraculously reappeared. Let me put it this way: all good things come in threes. Since the nice Swiss family from yesterday is still in the hotel, we don’t have to worry, because they too will sleep with a family in the Tibetan settlement tonight and can take it with them. It’s always good to know a few Swiss people who will carry your things behind.
Visiting Tibetans
About 2 hours later we reach our destination and are welcomed by our guide for today. Together with him we walk through the settlement and search for our new home.
About 500 Tibetan refugees live in this settlement. Most of them came here during the 1960s, after the Chinese occupied Tibet. Today it is a small cute settlement with practical houses, which is laid out in a square. Inside there is a large open meadow and a small shrine. Every garden is decorated with colorful Tibetan prayer flags and I’m already over the moon. By the way, there are 4 of these camps in all of Nepal.
Our host father Kunga greets us friendly and shows us our room for the night. The family has an extra room next to their actual house, which is simply furnished but clean. So all I need for one night. Well, it’s clean at first glance. On the second one I have to say that the bed linen has certainly seen better days. But never mind, close your eyes and go through it. Water is expensive in a country like Nepal.
Kunga is really very nice and cares about our physical well-being. Not even 10 minutes after our arrival he serves a lot of lunch, which his wife has freshly prepared for us. There is delicious lentil soup called Dal and rice with vegetables. Everything exactly to my taste. A short time later our guide comes around again and takes us on a tour through the settlement and explains many interesting things.
Even if the settlement no longer looks like a refugee camp and everything resembles more the miniature version of a German suburban settlement, this was of course not always the case. When the first refugees arrived in the 1960s, there was nothing more than a large open area and rather sparse tents.
Since the Tibetans knew neither rain nor heat because of the average height of their country of over 4,000 meters, they did not know much about hygiene, which is absolutely necessary in a rather tropical climate. It did not take long before typical diseases such as cholera spread and many people died in the first months after their escape.
The Dalai Lama, the religious leader of the country, fled to India and has lived in exile ever since. He determined that all Tibetan refugees in their settlements should not only learn the national language, but also ensure that the Tibetan language is not lost.
Therefore, there is a school in every settlement where the children learn Nepali, Tibetan and English. In addition, each village has its own monastery, a special Tibetan doctor and a Western doctor.
Even though the Nepalese Red Cross has made sure that there are real houses here today, there is still a big problem for the Tibetans. They only receive a refugee card from the Nepalese government, but no passport, so they are stateless.
This means not only that they cannot leave the country, but also that they are not even allowed to practise all kinds of professions. For example, if you want to start your own company in Nepal, you can only do so if you are a Nepalese citizen. Otherwise you are dependent on the help of locals, like our guide for example. His company runs in the name of a Nepalese friend. If the friend doesn’t feel good about him any more, then it looks rather bad for him.
The same applies to many other professions. Thus the Tibetan refugees can study medicine, but due to their lack of citizenship they will never be allowed to receive and practice official admission.
Some of you may wonder why the Chinese were so interested in Tibet at all. Quite simply, Tibet is on the one hand a country with many natural resources that the modern world needs, such as uranium and lithium, and on the other Tibet is also called the third pole. Because besides the Arctic and Antarctic, Tibet has the most glaciers. In addition, Tibet is the source of the largest rivers in Southeast Asia, such as the Mekong, Yellow River and Yang Tze.
Our guide says the earlier wars were about religions and oil and the coming ones will be about water. It is only logical that an economic power like China would like to assimilate a country with rich water resources like Tibet. After all, almost all Southeast Asian countries are dependent on Tibet’s sources and it makes sense for China to have the trigger in its hand.
This is also the reason why the Dalai Lama, who lives in exile in India, cannot travel to any Asian country except Japan. With the exception of Japan, all Southeast Asian countries are dependent on the Chinese and nobody wants to mess with them. Otherwise, the next dam will probably be built faster than anyone can say „beep“. But we see a lot of photos of the Dalai Lama with Western rulers in the parish hall, including Angela Merkel.
In principle, however, it must be said that the Tibetan refugees are doing better than many a Nepali. Through the Red Cross they have received a lot of help in recent years and the village community secures a part of its income through tourism.
Carpets, souvenirs and a visit to the doctor
In the middle of the settlement we visit the carpet weaving workshop, where the most beautiful hand-knotted carpets are produced. All made of pure sheep’s wool and each one of them with a lot of love. Until the 1990s there was a real boom in the local carpet industry because half the world imported huge Tibetan carpets. But the whole thing came to a quick end when aid organisations looked at the hustle and bustle from close up and realised that of course many children were also employed. Of course there are laws on child labour, but nobody is interested in it. Understandably, the family has to be fed somehow and everyone has to help out.
A few meters further on we meet the souvenir mile of the village and there we also meet our host family and get to know Mama Chinlin. Of course I have to buy a souvenir here! Maybe two! After all, you can never have enough Tibetan prayer wheels.
Next we visit the Tibetan doctor, who is new to the village and commutes the whole week between the four refugee settlements. Traditional Tibetan medicine is basically based on the five elements that are condensed into three basic characteristics of the body.
Bile, the fire of life, wind as a symbol for movement and slime as an expression of the liquid element. If the elements get out of balance, one becomes ill in the long run and therefore the Tibetan medicine sets on prevention. A special practice of Tibetan medicine is pulse reading, in which the pulse is examined with three fingers on each arm. Each touch point refers to a different organ.
By the way, he notices tension in my lower back and recommends that I warm up every day and drink a glass of warm water every morning after getting up for a better digestion. It has never hurt to listen to a doctor.
At the end of our tour we visit the monastery and have the opportunity to talk to a monk. Our monk is one of the few who decided for himself at age 10 to enter a monastery. Usually the family chooses some of their children to send them to the monastery. Since monks may neither marry nor have children, this was also a kind of birth control in earlier times. Nowadays, however, Tibetans no longer do this, which is why most monasteries are concerned about their offspring. So it seems to be just like in church.
Tibetan Family Stories
After leaving the monastery, we say goodbye to our guide and return to the host family. Finally, Mom cooked a wonderful dinner for us and makes us happy today with a vegetarian soup and Timok, a kind of homemade white bread, which is eaten with homemade braised tomatoes. While Mom leaves the house to take part in the local ladies‘ evening, we eat together with Kunga, who tells us exciting things.
His five children are all big and no longer live here. 3 of his children go to school in India and two of them are now in possession of an Indian refugee card, which gives them some advantages. So they can travel normally and also do a job of their choice in India. Kunga hopes that the third daughter will soon also receive the desired card.
The living room of the family is very cosy, it is covered with many Tibetan carpets, and on the sides are some benches, which probably also serve as a bed. It’s really cuddly here and on the walls I discover a picture of Kunga with the Dalai Lama himself!
I wonder how he was able to travel to India without a passport. Smiling Kunga answers me that of course everything can also be bought at the Indian border with money. But you have to be careful and carry only a little with you. After all, Indians are not stupid and know all the hiding places very well. And as it is well known, those who search also find. The visit to the Dalai Lama was an absolute highlight for him and he says he still gets goose bumps when he thinks about it.
For a while we talk about this and that the old dog of the family lies snoring at our feet. He also tells us that nowadays many Tibetans try to come to France. Smugglers bring you to Western Europe for 18,000 dollars and there are apparently some secret ways to get a French visa. Once you get there, you’re on your own. It remains to be seen whether you will ever find a job. However, the expectations of those who stayed at home are high. After all, the family needs support and the money must first be earned in addition to the own rent and the necessary cost of living.
When Kungas youngest son comes home, who is on holiday with his parents, it gets interesting. Because he rides some special motorcycle and of course Mirko is very interested. Kunga says that especially in Nepalese road traffic you have to be very careful. Because if someone injures you in an accident and you can no longer work, the other side has to pay for you for life. That is why it happens very often that the person who caused the accident will try to get rid of you completely. Because if you get killed instead, he’ll only get a fine of about $5,000. Great, I’m sure the thought will calm me down on my next car ride.
I spend the night with my host family almost sleepless. This is because on the one hand Mirko snores so loudly on the right side of the room that actually already the whole village should be awake and on the other hand because the family dog Singi has made himself comfortable in front of our door and Mirkos snoring is in no way behind. Father Kunga, by the way, seems to have the same gene as Mirko, because I can also hear him snoring through the closed door.
Let me put it this way: Normally there is at least a pause between breaths, but if three snore at the same time, the probability that there is no more pause in noise is extremely high.