Little Tibet in Kohima, Nagaland... Every day after school, 13-year-old Tenzin Tseten attends another class at the Tibetan community hall at Phoolbari in Kohima with 19 other Tibetan children where she learns the Tibetan language and script. The special class was initiated in 2008 among the Tibetan community which felt the need to impart Tibetan culture and history to the children growing up in a foreign land. Born and brought up in Kohima, Tseten enjoys Naga food and watching the Kohima night view; she belongs to one of the few remaining Tibetan families in Kohima. The early Tibetan settlers came to Kohima around the 1970s, when they started earning a livelihood by selling secondhand clothes at Phoolbari. Some years back the Tibetans in Kohima consisted of more than 50 families; today they comprise around twenty families—the sole reason being a decline in business in the last three to four years. The remaining few have more than business to stay back in the hills of Kohima for. “I like the climate here that’s why even if business is not good, we are still settling,” says 58-year-old Sumchhung who came to Nagaland in 1997. He came to know of Nagaland from a friend who was once settled here. In May 1997, he visited Nagaland and on finding out the pleasant climate, he went back to his village in South India and told his wife all about it—that is how they came to settle in Kohima. 37-year-old Tenzin came to Kohima in 1997 with her husband. Tenzin got her Physiotherapy degree from Chennai. Ask her why she left the profession, she says, “Since we’re refugees, jobs do not come so easily to us. Our older generation is hardly educated and so is the same among our generation. It is our kids who are able to pursue such privileges.” Left with no other way, engaging in business becomes the only resort. Although they are allotted land to cultivate crops by the Indian government, Tenzin says that the next generation will hardly have land to cultivate. “We (Tibetans and Nagas) are the same. We belong to the same race, it’s just that our language and dharm is different,” says 62-year-old Penba who has lived in Nagaland for 41 years. Nagas and Tibetans are like brothers, he asserts, which is one of the main reasons why he continues to live in Kohima. Perhaps one of the oldest Tibetan settlers in Kohima, he arrived in Nagaland in 1972 where he first lived in Dimapur. They started by selling second hand clothes and later upgraded to selling first hand goods. Penba belongs to a generation which walked all the way from Tibet to India during the 1960s with his family. He was around 9 years old during the exodus. His parents died within 2 years of arriving in Nepal. From Nepal, Penba arrived in Himachal Pradesh where he stayed for some years and moved to Chattisgarh. “Although the Indian government gave us land, the soil there was not cultivable, so we had to ultimately get into business,” adds Penba. Every day after school, 13-year-old Tenzin Tseten attends another class at the Tibetan community hall at Phoolbari in Kohima with 19 other Tibetan children where she learns the Tibetan language and script. The special class was initiated in 2008 among the Tibetan community which felt the need to impart Tibetan culture and history to the children growing up in a foreign land. Born and brought up in Kohima, Tseten enjoys Naga food and watching the Kohima night view; she belongs to one of the few remaining Tibetan families in Kohima. The early Tibetan settlers came to Kohima around the 1970s, when they started earning a livelihood by selling secondhand clothes at Phoolbari. Some years back the Tibetans in Kohima consisted of more than 50 families; today they comprise around twenty families—the sole reason being a decline in business in the last three to four years. The remaining few have more than business to stay back in the hills of Kohima for. “I like the climate here that’s why even if business is not good, we are still settling,” says 58-year-old Sumchhung who came to Nagaland in 1997. He came to know of Nagaland from a friend who was once settled here. In May 1997, he visited Nagaland and on finding out the pleasant climate, he went back to his village in South India and told his wife all about it—that is how they came to settle in Kohima. 37-year-old Tenzin came to Kohima in 1997 with her husband. Tenzin got her Physiotherapy degree from Chennai. Ask her why she left the profession, she says, “Since we’re refugees, jobs do not come so easily to us. Our older generation is hardly educated and so is the same among our generation. It is our kids who are able to pursue such privileges.” Left with no other way, engaging in business becomes the only resort. Although they are allotted land to cultivate crops by the Indian government, Tenzin says that the next generation will hardly have land to cultivate. “We (Tibetans and Nagas) are the same. We belong to the same race, it’s just that our language and dharm is different,” says 62-year-old Penba who has lived in Nagaland for 41 years. Nagas and Tibetans are like brothers, he asserts, which is one of the main reasons why he continues to live in Kohima. Perhaps one of the oldest Tibetan settlers in Kohima, he arrived in Nagaland in 1972 where he first lived in Dimapur. They started by selling second hand clothes and later upgraded to selling first hand goods. Penba belongs to a generation which walked all the way from Tibet to India during the 1960s with his family. He was around 9 years old during the exodus. His parents died within 2 years of arriving in Nepal. From Nepal, Penba arrived in Himachal Pradesh where he stayed for some years and moved to Chattisgarh. “Although the Indian government gave us land, the soil there was not cultivable, so we had to ultimately get into business,” adds Penba. Whether settled in Nagaland, Karnataka or Dharamsala, Tibetan refugees consider their current place of stay temporary despite all the provisions given by the Government of India, be it land or citizenship. Much like the Naga struggle for independence, the Tibetans too have been fighting for their homeland against forceful Chinese occupation of it. Alongside, the Chinese force their culture on the Tibetans. Their stance on non-violence amidst violence, and their effort to preserve their culture are values that Nagas need to learn from the Tibetans. With the hope that one day they will return to Tibet as the rightful owners of their land, they consider their present settlement temporary. But even the temporary cannot go on forever. In the words of Sumchhung, “What started as temporary has almost reached fifty years.” Source : SevenSister project Pic: Vibi Yhokha
Posted on: Tue, 15 Jul 2014 16:10:43 +0000