The Tibetan Indians by Sakhi Deshpande on Sunday, September 19, 2010 at 10:42pm

Pune, a haven for students from all streams, cultures and backgrounds is a city which can very well be classified as a melting pot. People of myriad nationalities from the nooks and corners of the world find home in this college town and Pune readily assimilates them in its culture. One such community is that from Tibet.

With an effort to become a part of the world culture, the Tibetan community in Pune is not only trying to propagate the cause for a free Tibet, but is also working to be a united, close knit group by preserving their identity amongst themselves. Small in number, the Tibetan community in the city comprises of 22 students, 5 or 6 of them working in call centres and approximately 100 of them selling sweaters. The energetic and smart lot of students here are a part of the large international foreign student commune the city is blessed with. There is only one minor aberration; most of them have been born and brought up in India. “I like to call myself a Tibetan Indian rather than a Tibetan refugee living in India”, says the 22 year old Tenzin Tselha. Thoughtful and endearing, Tenzin is pursuing a Masters Degree in English from Abeda Inamdar College and has been living in the city for the past 5 years. With both her mother and father in the Special Forces of the Army, she was born and brought up in the small, intimate Tibetan community in Ladakh away from the frenzy and wrath of the outside world. Educated at the Tibetan Children Village School (TCV) in Ladakh, one of the 14 TCV schools in the country, Tenzin wants to be a teacher like her mother and her sister. But more so, she wants to go back and teach in the Tibetan community. “I want to go back and work in the Tibetan society and teach at one of the TCV schools or at the Central School of Tibetans, where my sister is teaching now. The Central School for Tibetans comes under the Tibetan Government in Exile in India. TCV was set up by His Holiness, The Dalai Lama’s sister. You can find thriving Tibetan communities in Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh and Ladakh. After I finished 12th grade from Dharamshala, I thought of moving out. My sister was studying in Mumbai at that time and she told me about Pune and that it’s a good place to study further. I, then, moved here to study Arts.” says Tenzin.

Throwing more light on her experiences after moving to Pune from an absolutely secure and close knit Tibetan community in Ladakh, she said the transition was very extreme and the life here was starkly contrast to the life she was accustomed to. “There was just so much exposure when I came to Pune, it was difficult to handle initially. But one of the main issues was with landlords and people we lived under as tenants. They would try to cheat us, extort money from us. I had no clue about all this when I first came but by third year of college, I knew how things worked here”, says Tenzin. Following Tenzin’s thoughts, Sonam Gangsang, a 23 year old working at the Infosys BPO, retorts, “It’s when you hang out at random places that people tease you as “chink chau” and think we are from the North East or Nepal. But we don’t take it seriously. Food was a major problem for me. Despite of living in India all my life, I had never eaten Indian food before! We live in India, but as thorough Tibetans. Talking from the work perspective, working here in Pune has been great. My perception about Indians has completely changed. My colleagues are just like my Tibetan friends now.” After graduating from St. Francis College, Hyderabad, Sonam came to Pune to study and become a librarian but took up a job in a call centre later to support herself and her two young sisters of the nine daughters in her family! After her sisters become self reliant, Sonam plans to get back to teaching in Tibetan schools too. Recalling her life in Ladakh, it’s been 7 years that she has spent away from all the festival celebrations. She misses going to the monasteries the most.

Spending time with each other on Tibetan holidays or watching movies, going to malls is something these students always love. They celebrated their New Year, Losar, on 14th February where all of them got together in their traditional dresses, cleaned their houses, made Tibetan food like “Desil”, a type of rice and “Momos”. They offered their prayers to His Holiness, The Dalai Lama. The week before, they had a noodle eating ceremony at their friends place.

As we talk about the issue of an estranged Tibet and the struggle to have its independence, the community seems poignant and strongly poised to make itself heard albeit the distance that separates them from the country. The international organization, Students for Free Tibet (SFT) was started in Pune a year ago and the Tibetan Student Association (TSA) started in the city was inculcated into it. “SFT was founded in Canada in 1994. There are a lot of foreigners who are a part of this organization and a lot of them are from Bhutan. We try to do something all the time but its difficult to get permission from the commissioner. We try to meet every month, discuss issues, and talk about how we can inform people about Tibet. The TSA became a part of it since we didn’t have resources to run it properly.” says Tenzin, who is also the coordinator for SFT from Pune. They held several candle marches in 2008 and had a couple of film screenings and introductory sessions last year to inform people about their culture and its people. They also held a hunger strike outside Pune Station when the monks from the many monasteries in Karnataka had come for a visit.

Despite having a distinct belongingness to India, Tenzin, Sonam and their friends hope to go back to their nation and they hope it evolves into autonomy by then. While that would give them great pride, Tenzin is of the opinion that it will be best for Tibet and its people to go under China. “We lack infrastructure and engineering right now. Albeit being under China, I think we could still preserve our culture and individuality”

“You must have noticed that Tibetans are generally very shy people. We later realized that it’s not a good quality to possess” quips Sonam in her quiet, articulate manner. Anything but under confident, the Tibetan community stands firm on its feet as it passionately yearns for progress and taking it to their people. Having grown up in a secluded community that strongly holds on to its roots and despite of living in India all their life, these Tibetan students have their own share of trials but an equally high sense of self. They stand exactly for what today’s struggling Tibet wants to represent- unity, self reliance and a calm, peaceful strength.

The Tibetan Indians

Dalai Lama calls for harmony among world religions

Pretoria - In the midst of religious wars and intolerance worldwide, the Dalai Lama says the world’s major religions should find common ground to help people find their quest for happiness. I asked his representative for Africa to elaborate.
The Dalai Lama was speaking on the subject during a visit to Hungary, linked to Tibet by the work of Hungarian scholars starting in the Nineteenth Century. The representative of the Tibetan Government-in-exile, Sonam Tenzing, said in an interview religions had common ground. Speaking on the telephone from his office in Pretoria, South Africa, Tenzing said:
I think, Number One, is to understand Inter-religious harmony. He is trying to focus on inter-religious harmony that is essential in the modern century.
But with extremists calling for conflicts, wars, banning of each other’s clothing, I wondered whether harmony among religions was possible?
Inter-religious harmony is possible, because in all the different faiths ad religions throughout the world, what is most commonly found is love and forgiveness. And all of these religions speak of happiness. I think all of these religions speak of discarding all the miseries and bringing joy and happiness to the adherent of whichever said religion it might be. I think that is really the common ground where all religions harmoniously promote all these human or ethical and moral values. I think he (the Dalai Lama) was referring to these moral values.
Tenzing stressed the Dalai Lama had done a great deal to build bridges between religions:
In the past years efforts were being made with clergy of different other religions: Jewish, Hinduism, Sikhism, Christianity, Muslims, I think he has been in touch with most of the important religious figures in the world. I think his approach to meeting different leaders of different faiths have been applauded and appreciated. I am sure that you would not disagree to the statement that His Holiness the Dalai Lama is one of the leaders who makes a definite effort to promote interreligious harmony.
He added the Dalai Lama’s appreciation of Christian religious contemplatives who practice something not dissimilar to Buddhist meditation. He said:
In his books, he has made references to Christian clergy, especially the late the late Father Thomas Merton, who I think he appreciates very much.
During his visit to Hungary, Tenzing Gyatso, to give the Dalai Lama’s name, paid homage to the first Tibetologist, Sándor Csoma de Kőrösi, and (1784-1842) who went to the east in to find the ancestral homeland of the Hungarians. He was Gottingen-trained linguistic genius who soon spoke a dozen languages and planned to travel to East Turkestan (now the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Republic of China) but was diverted by a local war to British India. There he joined the Asiatic Society and began his study of Tibetan language and culture. He was the first to publish a Tibetan-English dictionary and a grammar of Tibetan. Throughout his journeys he identified with local people and never lived like a “superior” European.

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Sándor Csoma of Kőrös, the Hungarian pioneer of Tibetan studies.
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He lived in great poverty in Ladakh where he studied Tibetan and planned to visit Lhasa in 1842, but contracted malaria and died. He is buried in Darjeeling. The Dalai Lama described the sum of his work as “a great act.” I asked Tenzing whether the Tibetan people knew of Kőrösi:
The Hungarian scholar Kőrösi Csoma Sándor, or to the Tibetans he may be known as Alexander Csoma Kőrösi: What can be said, after they fled Tibet in 1959, the first and second generation who escaped, because of education, interaction with cultures with different people (including) scholars, have led to a knowledge of this pioneering scholar.
Religion and education often go hand in hand. Of Kőrösi possible conversion to Buddhism, Tenzing said:
I would say he studied Buddhist culture and he actually studied under Buddhist masters, so one could say he made an effort to become a Buddhist through his learning.
Relations between Hungary and the Tibetans are very good. Tenzing said:
The pioneering scholar has contributed to this relationship. Today educated Tibetans, when they want to refer to how relations between Tibetans and Hungarians developed, would refer to this scholar and I have seen articles by Tibetan scholars and western scholars and the great effort he made close to Tibet border studying Buddhist culture and his effort to get it to outside world.
There is also a consistent rumour that Kőrösi was made a Buddhist saint or bodhisattva, but if so, this would only apply to a monastery in Japan and could be based on an error.

TIBET AS A STATE

This year SYMBIOSIS COLLEGE of Pune, India has put up TIBETAN FLAG as well with other countries flag. (Tibet is Independent country).

His Holiness the Dalai Lama meets a group of students whose parents and relatives live in the earthquake affected area

His Holiness the Dalai Lama meets a group of students whose parents and relatives live in the earthquake affected area of Kyigudo at his residence in Dharamsala on April 18th, 2010. His Holiness offered his condolences to the bereaved and his prayers for the dead and the survivors. His Holiness advised the students not to lose hope, to keep up their courage, and to continue to study hard.

FACE TO FACE WITH TENZIN TSUNDUE

What was presumed before as an official meeting with a SFT representative turned out to be an evening of laughter, casual exchange of heart felt conversation and memorable gathering.
Tenzin Tsundue visit to pune was indeed in a way replenishing touch for the Tibetan students and quite fitting, Tenzin describes himself as someone who reminds and redirects any who in the rhythm of life strays from the domain that is identity, freedom and Tibet.
He regards health and education as the two most important factors for anyone who aspires to fight on through the challenges how so ever grave and larger than life,answering the queries from the students and sharing intimate knowledge and ever relating moments from his own life, Few hours passed swiftly.
tsundue spoke with fierce dedication and with such compassion chipped with humorous anecdotes, it really hard not to think about his words after he left waving GOOD BYE

International Students stood in solidarity with Tibetans

Pune – Students from 16 different countries in Pune met today to commemorate the 51st anniversary of the Tibetan Uprising day at Symbiosis Auditorium.

March 10 holds a special significance in the hearts of all Tibetans as on this day, 51 years ago, Tibet experienced one of the bloodiest massacre in the history of our struggle. Thousands of innocents and nonviolent protesters were killed by the People's Liberation Army(PLA) in Lhasa. The day also signifies Tibetan people's resistance against Chinese occupation of Tibet when thousands of Tibetans gathered infront of the Potala palace to guard the Dalai Lama and defy the foreign occupation.

“It is our responsibility as Tibetans growing in the free world to share the plight of our brothers and sisters in Tibet to the global community.” said Tenzin Tselha, Coordinator of Students for a free Tibet – Pune chapter. “Organizing this meeting of international students enable us to educate our peers from different parts of the world to understand Tibetan struggle better.”

In today's event, "Knowing the Others", Tibetan students did a special presentation on the Tibetan freedom struggle and Tibetan culture to the gathering followed by presentation of culture by student participants from different countries. The participants also sang their feelings through songs, hence creating an atmosphere of international union.

“Through this meeting, we were able to highlight the current situation in Tibet to the participants.” said Tenzin dolkar, a Tibetan participant and member of Students for a free Tibet. “Situation in Tibet has never improved since the Occupation. We demand the Chinese government to stop oppressing people of Tibet.”

Pune is a city of many communities and diverse culture. Known for its educational facilities with more than hundred educational institutes and nine universities, Pune has attracted international students for different parts of the world.

Students for a free Tibet, Pune chapter remembers this day and wants to acquaint the plight and tragedy of Tibet that is fragmented into the hearts of six million Tibetans to Pune and beyond.