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Background information on Tibet and the refugee problem
Tibet was an independent country until the Chinese army invaded in 1949. There was a gradual occupation, which became more stringent. In 1959 it came to a major eruption in Lhasa, the capital. In that year, about 80,000 people were killed. The Dalai Lama, the temporal and spiritual leader, fled to India and there was given asylum. Meanwhile, life is more than 130,000 Tibetan refugees in India. In Tibet are over 1 million people killed. The influx of Chinese are now the Tibetans a minority in their own country.
Tibetan culture is steeped in Buddhism. In the country were many convents, nearly all have been looted and destroyed during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). Meanwhile, whether they are rebuilt with great effort by the Tibetans. But the communist rulers are very negative toward religion and Tibetan culture.
They see monasteries and tourist attractions and at the same time as hotbeds of resistance. Many monasteries have become sites where there is no place for Buddhist study and prayer. Guards and guides walk around dressed as monks there. The number of monks is strictly regulated and the line is closely monitored by the Chinese.
The Dalai Lama tries on a consult nonviolent and peaceful way with the Chinese government to get to reach a settlement with the Tibetan cultural and religious autonomy. In 1989 he received for his performance the Nobel Peace Prize.
In India, the refugees lived initially in the foothills of the Himalayas. Among others Dharamsala, where the Dalai Lama lives. Later she received from the Indian government assigned in the south of the country pieces jungle as residence. The Dolma Foundation focuses mainly on such a Tibetan enclave in Mundgod, near Goa, about 300 km. inland.
McLeod Ganj
