Tenzin Tsundue describes the world of a new generation of Tibetan youth growing up in exile.

This Sunday, Dharamsala will witness a film festival - not the usual
Kundun or Brad Pitt in Shangri-La type movies. The organizer, Jangchup, a young graduate from Madras calls for sensible and meaningful cinema; a collection of classics spiced up with new offbeat films from around the world.

While Jangchup and his friends make a list of 20 odd films to choose from, they scurry around for DVDs and other technical support. There is no big screen and no one has money to buy a projector, so a friend offers to carry his big TV set from his house for the cause.

Sonam Wangdue, comedian and theatre activist, now runs the Dharamsala chapter of Tibetan Youth Congress and is perhaps the youngest ever to have been elected the president. Gekyong, a graduate from Chandigarh is the head of a youth organisation called Longsho. This Jewish-Tibetan youth exchange programme organises excursions and youth camps where average of 100 youngsters take part.

Tenzin Dhondup, alias Anto, the forever RTYC Delhi member who has been
To Tihar jail perhaps for the maximum number for protesting in the streets for Tibet, is now working with his friends to make “our own films on our stories”. In small ways he may be challenging established master narratives of Tibet like Shangri-La, Dalai Lama and the burden of “the good people”.

Tenam is a freelance writer and Kelsang Rinchen the editor of the most popular Tibetan web portal phayul.com. Both worked with the Information Department of the Exile Government. Jamyang and Lodoe are unassuming youngsters, but could very well go for fashion conscious ignorant kids from rich families, because of their stylish hair-do and dress sense, but both are hard core activists available at a blip of an sms. Tsering Ngodup works with the Tibetan Reception Centre, besides his 9 to 5 job, he volunteers with SFT.

Tenzin Choeying, a law graduate from Delhi is a youth leader here, runs about doing his “small things” on his sleek 150 cc motor bike. He plays a central role in co-ordinating youth activities. He has been appointed formally as the co-ordinator of Students for a Free Tibet to run the India chapter from its central office in New York this year.

Dharamsala youth is rocking. If you are a late comer, you may end up judging them on their language, dress sense and the easy going attitude as do the international journos who skim through the surface during their two-day visit to this hill station and portray them as the lost generation.

But, now a whole generation is growing up defying easy definitions. These are the youngsters who were born in early 1980’s here in Dharamsala, studied in Gangkyi Day School or the one in Mcleod Ganj. The children of exile are slowly coming of age.

Often Tibetan youngsters complain that they are not getting jobs. This was one of the central concerns at a recent Tibetan youth meet at the Sarah Tibetan College. One student opined: “It is not the quality of BA degree itself, but the poor quality with which we graduate in.”

As if to illustrate this point, photography maniac Tenzin Choenjor did not have fifteen days after his graduation in Mass Communication that he was offered a job as the resident news photographer for the Indian Express and the Tribune.

A better case is Jampa, 27, a brat from Lhasa who said he loved beating up Chinese kids in the streets of Lhasa with his gang, has recently accepted a job at the Motorola company with a salary of e-hem… Rs. 35,000 a month. And he hasn’t even been to any college. In his four years of stay in India since his escape from Tibet, he worked hard on his English over the high school Chinese he has from Lhasa that he has now become an efficient translator. These are inspirational stories in our young Tibetan world.

As Choeying calls a meeting today, along came Karma Sichoe, thangka painter and activist, who sat for 47 days on hungers strike in 1998, Jamyang, painter and activist, Jamphel, a schooldrop and a budding poet, Tenzin Lhamo a nurse and Lobsang, ex-army and now a watchman at the Tibetan Exile Government establishment, and a host of others. The team is now planning to start a theatre group, and they already have a script to work on.

I came here about two and half years back from Bombay. I work with fellow youth activist some of whom, I have mentioned above. Quite often we have meetings over a cup of tea. There is tension everyday while working. It is exciting too; so much is happening down here at our level, when nothing seems to be happening up there on the surface of the freedom movement, and the process of confidence building measures seems to have almost completely silenced the scene in exile. Whatever be the situation on the surface, the fire must not die from inside, and to keep the fire alive, we must daily fend it from our complacency and cold wind from outside.

We are doing what our forerunners like Dawa Norbu, Jamyang Norbu and
Lhasang Tsering did in those years of 1970s, when we were not born. We are a fraternity of youth bound by a common umbilical cord of quest for a common identity. People of differently skilled and resources are coming together for the greater common cause. Today more and more youngsters are joining us, placing their knowledge and experiences at the service of the grand cause.

Dharamsala has a huge population of Tibetan youth. A good number works
At the Exile Government offices and the various NGOs, more number are jobless or doing odd jobs around here. From our various public awareness programmes and youth meets, we felt an acute need of an intellectual atmosphere, perhaps a library.

For a need of space to meet and work, as we have been troubling our restaurant owner friends, we now plan to start a library in McLeod Ganj, a place where anybody can come and read newspapers, magazines and books, and a China study corner. Sometimes in the evenings we can screen a film or host a talk and discussions. As a first step we have hired a small room to stock books, magazines, and films.

Revolutions have been born in teahouses, reading rooms and small theatres. If we are not too modest, we are making one here on this side of the Himalayas to bring changes on the other side. While we dabble with Kurosawa, Chomsky and Gandhi, keep singing this to PRC ‘we will…we will…rock you!’

Tenzin Tsundue is a writer and activist for free Tibet

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