'Three Tibetan Nuns in Mumbai'
(By Manoj Nair | Mumbai Mirror | June 18, 2005)
Bombay: They were expecting a blue sea; brown swells of Marine Drive was surprise
to three Tibetan nuns on their first visit to a big indian city, since
their escape from Tibet last year.
Looking incredulously at the rolling waves stretching beyond the horizon,
they said they now understood why the ocean is called the "limitless sea"
in Tibet. Watching the tall building in the background, in the noisy
stream of traffic flowing past the buildings, Dhamchoe Drolma, 29, said
its a strange world. it is like a dream; it is almost like watching
cinema."
The nuns are part of the trickle of Tibetan refugees continuing to flee
Tibet. Dolma, who was a nun at Shar Pumbpa nunnery from Phenpo district,
60 km away form Lhasa, the Tibetan capital.
Her companion Nyima, 27, who like many Tibetans has only one name and
Nyima Dolkar, 28, were nuns at Poto nunnery in the early 90's the Chinese
government came up with the Chinese forbidding Tibetan women below 18
years of age from becoming nuns; they three were expelled form the nunnery
because they were under age. They were imprisoned after they protest their
expulsion.
They spent five years in jail till their release in 1999. Dolma says she
spent 22 months in solitary confinement. Unable to get back into the
nunnery after their release, they started an eatery; however, they were
under constant surveillance by the Chinese authorities. " Our parents were
worried about or future; they asked us to go to India," said Nyima Dolker.
Dolma says she left home in December 2003 and trekked over the Himalayas
and was guided by Sherpa guides. She reached Dharamsala in March 2004.The
two Nyimas traveled by another route ad reached India after braving frost
bites and Chinese guards.
They are now studying english and Tibetan culture at Dharamsala, the
headquarters of Tibetan government in exile. The friends of Tibet, an
organization sympathetic to the Tibetan cause has brought them to Mumbai
for a conference. The journey from Delhi was their first train ride; since
they had made a night stopover in Delhi, Mumbai is their first experience
of a big city.
They are accompanied by Tenzin Tsundue, poet, storywriter, and freedom
fighter. "We were forbidden to learn Tibetan language in Tibet. Young
Tibetans are advised by their parents to leave Tibet for the sake of
preserving the Tibetan identity and culture.
"Every year, over 2,500 Tibetans take the dangerous journey into India"
said Tenzin Tsundue.
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