Rural areas of India have poorer road conditions. The government of India recently announced a new budget for in which infrastructural improvements to roads, railways, and ports are due to receive a sizable increase in funding. But in October , not long after granting Tibetan refugees the right to vote in Indian elections, the government of India approved the Tibetan Rehabilitation Policy, which sets a uniform policy across all Indian states regarding the rights of Tibetan refugees.
In part, it specifies that Tibetans are allowed to undertake any economic activity, including starting enterprises, and are entitled to all associated permits and licenses. The policy states that Tibetans can pursue and take any jobs for which they are professionally qualified.
Most of India has a tropical climate, although the mountainous northern and northeastern regions have a more alpine climate. Droughts, floods, cyclones, and other natural disasters happen sporadically but can be severe. The land and climate in the southern and eastern Tibetan settlements is more suitable for agriculture than in the northernmost settlements.
Although relations are good between Tibetans and Indians, the two groups generally maintain their separate identities. Despite establishing settlements in India over 50 years ago, most Tibetans still consider their residence in India temporary and look forward to a time when they can return home to Tibet or, in the case of younger Tibetans born abroad, see Tibet for the first time.
Most Tibetans do not seek Indian citizenship or intermarry with Indians. There are some generational differences among the social attitudes of Tibetans. Many younger Tibetans were either born outside of Tibet, or left Tibet when they were very young, and thus have grown up under the influence of outside cultures.
Many Tibetan youth speak English, use the internet, enjoy western entertainment, and leave their communities in search of employment. The older generation of Tibetans worries that their traditional culture is being diluted.
Successive Indian governments have permitted the Dalai Lama to live in India since , and the Indian government has allowed the CTA to operate schools, health clinics, and other community amenities. Federal and state governments in India have leased out thousands of acres of land for refugees to live in self-sufficient compact communities, as well as for the establishment of monasteries to educate monks in Buddhism and Tibetan culture.
In , the government of India granted Tibetan refugees the right to vote in Indian elections, and also approved the Tibetan Rehabilitation Policy, which sets a uniform policy across all Indian states regarding the rights of Tibetan refugees. This policy has clarified, standardized, and extended the rights and benefits available to Tibetan refugees in India. The geographical isolation imposed by the Himalayas allowed Tibetans, over a long period of time, to develop a unique culture separate from those of other peoples in central Asia.
Tibetans have their own distinct language, art, music, dances, literature, architecture, cuisine, calendar, and cultural traditions. Tibetans both in Tibet and in the rest of the world are committed to preserving the traditional elements of their culture. The library houses more than , manuscripts, books and documents, as well as photographs, artifacts, and works of art.
Many of these cultural artifacts are religious in nature. The sight of Tibetan Buddhist monks, in vivid crimson and golden robes, is familiar to people all over the world, as are the brightly colored strings of prayer flags commonly seen in the Himalayas. The overwhelming majority of Tibetans practice Tibetan Buddhism, which is not so much a religion as a way of life for most Tibetans.
Although there are only an estimated million followers of Tibetan Buddhism, the emigration of Tibetans to other parts of the world in recent decades has helped popularize Tibetan Buddhism across the globe.
Buddhism was introduced to Tibet in the 7 th century, and over time, Tibetans adapted it and made it their own, differentiating it from other schools of Buddhism by incorporating some elements of the Bon religion, a common folk religion in Tibet, and by the establishment of lamas, the title for their spiritual leaders. The most famous of these is the Dalai Lama, well known around the world today as the public face of Tibetan Buddhism.
The Dalai Lama is believed to be the manifestation of a bodhisattva, or enlightened being, who has postponed his own nirvana in favor of reincarnating to serve humanity. Tenzin Gyatso is the 14 th and current Dalai Lama. For several centuries, successive Dalai Lamas served as both the spiritual and political leaders of the Tibetan people, until when the 14th Dalai Lama initiated a process of transferring his political authority to the democratically elected Sikyong, or prime minister, of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile.
The government of India has allowed Tibetan refugees to establish Buddhist monasteries to educate monks in Buddhism and Tibetan culture. As a result Tibetan Buddhism continues to thrive among Tibetan refugees. Download the Background Information on Tibetan refugees Word document. Disclaimer: Any views and opinions expressed within the above resources are those of the individual authors or creators and do not necessarily represent the views of the University of Rochester.
There are International Tibet Support Groups and their chapters spread across the world, and several World Parliamentarian Forums to support the just cause of Tibet. In the Tibetan refugee settlements in India, Nepal. What has been lost and destroyed by China in Tibet is properly preserved and maintained in exile.
This is how the Tibetan community in exile has earned the reputation of being strong, efficient, and resilient. Spiritual and cultural renaissance. With the coming of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and other High Tibetan masters, India has experienced a great spiritual and cultural renaissance through revival of Buddhist science, philosophy, and religion.
Buddhism took its birth in India and spread across Asia, but it suffered setback and negligence for a long time due to various internal and external factors.
Buddhism has now reached Western countries not only as a religion but also as science and philosophy. Most of the Tibetan monasteries in India and Nepal have numerous students from the Himalayan regions and from other parts of India. There are students from South-east Asian countries and from the West who study Buddhism in these Tibetan monastic universities. India has once again assumed its position as the source of authentic Buddhist teachings.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama rightly said that, what the Tibetans have learned from the Indian masters long before, now they are handing it back to India. But we have been reliable chelas. Dialogues with China. Mao Zedong died in , and his successor Deng Xiaoping suggested that the Tibet issue can be resolved if the Tibetans stop seeking separation from China. Tibetan language and culture are under great threat due to increased state-sponsored migration of Han Chinese into Tibetan areas.
Huge ecological damages are being done through excessive mining and damming of the rivers. China is getting more powerful militarily. Under these circumstances, there is a danger that, within ten years or so, Tibetans will become a minority in their own country, and Tibetan language, religion and culture will be eradicated. The gist of the MWA is that the Tibetans will not seek separation from China, while rejecting the Chinese repressive policy, and that China should give genuine autonomy to Tibet as prescribed in the Chinese Constitution.
This is, in fact, against the Chinese Constitution, which has promised regional autonomy to national minorities living in concentrated communities. India and Tibet had a strong cultural and spiritual bond since ancient times. Tibetans looked at India as a holy land, and a visit to Bodhgaya is considered a lifetime spiritual achievement. Mount Kailash and Lake Mansorover are greatly venerated by the Tibetans. Tibet is equally revered by the Hindu community as the abode of Lord Shiva and his consort Paravati.
For the Hindus, a pilgrimage to Mount Kailash and the Lake is a lifetime spiritual achievement. Tibet is Trivistapa for the Indians, and India is Aryabhumi [the land of noble beings] for the Tibetans. Tibetans and Indians traveled freely across the borders without any hindrances.
Now, with the Chinese invasion of Tibet, the long and peaceful border between Tibet and India has become their most militarized and expensive border.
China attacked India in , and it continues to make border intrusion in Ladakh, Arunachal, and Sikkim. India has lost a friendly buffer state and the abode of Lord Shiva; its borders are under perpetual threat from Chinese aggression. Tibet is a source of major rivers in South-east Asia. Any ecological damage to these sources will have a great repercussion to the riparian states down the streams.
China already has tried to dam the Brahmaputra River, causing strategic as well as livelihood threat to the people living along the river. Continued and increased Chinese pressure forces Nepal to crack down on the rights of Tibetan refugees living in that country.
Many Tibetans have achieved great things in exile—especially the Dalai Lama, who has lived as a refugee for most of his life. But as the Dalai Lama has said, Tibetans want to return home and rebuild their own country. To do that, they need our continued advocacy. A year old Tibetan nun, Kelsang Namtso, was shot dead by Chinese police during the incident.
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