Tibetans (in India)
More than 50 years after they were displaced from Tibet, there are about 100,000 Tibetans living in India today. The Indian government supported them in maintaining their cultural identity and values by identifying geographically suitable areas for separate settlement and providing them with economic, social, and religious autonomy. The Tibetan community has a political and administrative system of its own, and a government in exile in Dharamsala, India.
China began to exert its control over Tibet in 1950, claiming that it liberated the province and its people from oppressive rule and serfdom. However many Tibetans fled from this 'liberation' to India in March 1959, after China had violently suppressed an uprising and the Tibetan political and spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, had gone into exile. Although China sealed Tibetan external borders in 1960, many more left in the following decades. They were escaping political violence, restrictions on cultural and religious expression, as well as other human rights violations.
Every year, new refugees from the region arrive, most of them on hazardous routes through the Himalayas and via Nepal. Despite this and the relatively good conditions in the refugee settlements in India, most Tibetan exiles maintain the wish to return to Tibet. With China being determined to uphold its control of the region, durable solutions continue to seem elusive more than five decades after the Tibetans' initial displacement.
Online Resources
- International Campaign for Tibet.
- Mills, E.J., Singh, S., Holtz, T., Chase, R.M., Dolma, S., Santa-Barbara, J. and Orbinski, J. J. (2005), 'Prevalence of mental disorders and torture among Tibetan refugees: a systematic review', Bio Med Central.
- Nersesian, P. (1998), 'Process evaluation of the Tibetan refugees reproductive health project', Tibetan Refugees Reproductive Health Project.
- Norbu, D. (1994), 'Tibetan refugees in South Asia: implications for security', Paper for Seminar on Refugees and Internal Security in South Asia, 10 - 11 July 1994, Colombo.
- Sudeep, B. (2006), 'Organizing for exile! "Self-Help" among Tibetan refugees in an Indian town'.
- UNHCR (2000) 'Chapter 3: Rupture in South Asia' in The State of The World's Refugees 2000: Fifty Years of Humanitarian Action, UNHCR.
Offline Resources
- Bhatia, S., Dranyi, T. and Rowley, D. (2001), 'A social and demographic study of Tibetan refugees in India', Social Science & Medicine, 54(3), pp. 411-422.
- Routray, B. P. (2007), 'Tibetan refugees in India: religious identity and the forces of modernity', Refugee Survey Quarterly, 26(2), pp. 79-90.
Relevant Organisations
- Office of Tibet
- The Tibet Society of the UK / Tibet Relief Fund of the UK
- H.E. The Dalai Lama
