Gruelling trek of freedom for Tibetans fraught with hardships, danger

“After nearly three weeks of gruelling trekking on foot and on mule backs, the entourage managed to reach Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh from where we were escorted to Bombida, a township,” U Rinpoche, a 65-year-old Tibetan exile who was a part of the Dalai Lama’s entourage and now residing in Arunachal Pradesh said.

The then 24-year-old Dalai Lama’s formal request letter to the Indian government for providing asylum, by mistake reached the hands of a localjournalist in Shillong, former headquarters of the whole of the north-eastern region. “The messenger who carried the letter written in English by the Dalai Lama requesting the Indian government to grant them asylum in India reached me instead of the police chief who was residing adjacent to my residence,” Naresh Rajkhowa, a correspondent of Assam Tribune daily said.

“I first copied the entire letter before sealing it once again to be handed over to the police chief,” the 75-year-old Rajkhowa said.

A Tibetan monk said the trek to freedom for Tibetans fleeing Chinese suppression is a daunting 1,000-km (625-mile) journey through the Himalayas, shadowed by the constant danger of frostbite and avalanches. In order to avoid Chinese troops and border guards, most crossings are attempted during the harsh winter months, and precious few of those making the journey have the right clothing or equipment to combat the high altitude, sub-zero temperatures and hazardous conditions.

“It was well below freezingpoint and we were not equipped with any special clothing to combat that hazardous conditions in altitudes which are very high and rough,” Temp Norbu, a Tibetan monk residing in Arunachal Pradesh said. “But we managed to reach safely without any major obstacles on the way,” he added.

The Karmapa’s reported journey time of one week is extremely short by comparison with the experience of most who make the attempt, suggesting that his trip was well-planned and executed. Many of the refugees require urgent medical attention upon arrival in India, and it is a common sight among the Tibetan community in Dharamsala to see people with amputated fingers or scarred faces as the result of severe frostbite.

“The arrivals really step up between November and March because the Chinese cannot really enforce security in the thick snow,” said Ngawang Norbu, deputy director of the Tibetan Refugee centre in Dharamsala. “Our exiled government’s policy is to give them education here and ask them to go back.”LobsangNyandak, director of the Tibetan Centre of Human Rights and Democracy, said most refugees were driven by the desire to meet the Dalai Lama, who fled into exile in 1959 following a failed uprising against Chinese rule. About 20,000 Tibetan Buddhist exiles are settled in the seven north-eastern states.