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71 Chapter 5 “Displaced People” Adjusting to New Cultural Vocabulary Tibetan Immigrants in North America  Yosay Wangdi At the reception center in Dharamsala, India, sixty-two-year-old Wangyal from Jonta Dzong District in Derge, Tibet, recalled his twenty-two painful years in prison (1959–1982) in the People’s Republic of China. During the horror of the Cultural Revolution, he added, many Tibetans were killed, many committed suicide. “What kept you alive?” I asked. “Hope,” he responded. He hoped that the United States would some day come to the “aid” of Tibet.1 Improbable yearnings characterized Wangyal’s “hope”; yet it gives insight about how human consciousness encounters untenable situations, such as the despair of long-term incarceration. On another level, hope transformed Tibetan exiles from an insular group into a transnational community, living around the world in diaspora. To fathom the immigration of Tibetans abroad, one must grapple with Tibet’s traumatic history of invasion: immigration to North America can be best understood within Tibet’s modern history. This chapter endeavors to understand what it means to be a Tibetan in America, and to contemplate the cultural influences driving attempts at reconstructing identity in exile. To this end, the chapter analyzes U.S. policy toward Tibet and the exiled Tibetans, the anomalies of their status as refugees, and the consistent efforts made by Tibetans in the construction of identity. Finally, this chapter aims to articulate the aspirations and experiences of Tibetans in North America. Historical Perspective The year 1959 is burned in Tibetan consciousness as the dramatic turning point in modern Tibetan history. Despite brave Tibetan resistance, China’s formidable army routed the Khampa forces, and their surrender sealed the fate of the country. Faced with an impossible situation, the fourteenth Dalai Lama and approximately 100,000 Tibetans fled to India. Since then, with key support from the government of India, a diaspora community has taken root in South Asia, a 72 Yosay Wangdi community led by the Dalai Lama and supported by an exile government based in Dharamsala, India. Notwithstanding ambiguous legal standing, the exile government functions with a cabinet (kashag) and an assembly elected by members of the exile community worldwide. Today, the bulk of the Tibetan exiles, approximating over 130,000 people, are concentrated in India, Nepal, and Bhutan. A small percentage are scattered in Australia, East Asia, and western Europe, with the largest concentration in Switzerland. Of late, the diasporic community is spreading to North America. Early Tibetans in North America Tibetans in North America form but a tiny fraction of diverse immigrants. Still, Tibet and the Tibetans appear to capture disproportionately the interest of millions of people. Whether through the popularity of the Dalai Lama, Western attraction to Tibetan Buddhism, or Hollywood portrayals of Tibet, the influence of Tibetans has grown far beyond their numbers. Tibetan culture and religion continue to influence social change in the United States and elsewhere. The earliest record of Tibetan presence on American soil dates to 1948, when a small delegation led by Tsepon Shakabpa, who represented the Tibetan government in Lhasa, visited Washington, D.C. However, President Harry S. Truman elected not to meet with the delegation, ostensibly to avoid generating tension with China.2 China’s invasion of Tibet several years later occasioned deeper contemplations by Western governments regarding the situation of Tibet, especially concerning Tibetans in exile. The focus of the Western gaze on refugees can be seen in the nature of the literature on Tibetans, which largely ignores Tibetans who are citizens of countries in South Asia. Such domicile Tibetans exist below the radar. Yet we know that prior to the invasion and exile, the Tibetan presence in the Himalayan belt was significant.3 One such domicile Tibetan from the Himalayan town of Darjeeling, Tenki Tenduf Davis, was the first lay Tibetan (not a government emissary) to set foot on American soil. Granddaughter of Sardar Bahadur S.W. Laden La, the chief of police in Darjeeling under the British in India, Tenki came to the United States in 1951. She studied medicine at Columbia University, later becoming the director of a medical establishment in Northern California. However, Tenki was an isolated case of a nonexile Tibetan in the United States. More representative of exiled Tibetans immigrating to the United States were the monks.4 In 1949, Telopa Rinpoche arrived at Johns Hopkins University to teach Tibetan language. Three years later, 1952, witnessed the arrival of Thubten Jigme Norbu, elder brother...

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