Losar is drawing near. Losar is Tibetan New Year and the biggest festival of the year besides the Dalai Lama's birthday. I am so excited to celebrate it with Chouying's family.
The big monks left for Orissa on the 4th about 2am. I got up to wave goodbye and am glad I did because I got to see everyone in pants. One of the strangest things I've seen on this trip. For weeks I've been wondering why everyone going to india was shopping for jeans, showing off their purchases, etc. Now I know. You shouldn't cross the Nepali border dressed as a lama. And this leads me to transcribe my newly acquired knowledge about Tibet, Nepal, China, refugees, child soldiers, and lama robes.
Though Nepal is considered a friendly country towards Tibetan refugees, every year relations between refugees and Nepali police worsen. Each year china puts more and more pressure on the Nepali government to harass Tibetans and in particular (of course) Tibetan monks. China is promising Nepal favors and, more importantly, funding for civil projects like hydro-dams in exchange for arrests made of Tibetan monks. Normally monks are arrested, put in jail, and released as soon as they pay the bribe, I'm sorry I meant fine, just so Nepal can show China the number of arrests. Patrols are increased around Losar and his holinesses birthday making celebrating harder each year. At these times violence against crowds is common. Arrests are high and so are injuries among all Tibetans, not just monks.
At the beginning of the Chinese occupation Nepal had no problem with refugees and even put a limited immigration program in place to allow Tibetans a way to become Nepali citizens. This program still technically exists but not in any meaningful way. By promising hydro-power China chose the best carrot that Nepal couldn't possibly refuse.
Now Tibetan monks crossing the border into India (the home of the Dalai Lama and Tibetan government-in-exile) have to pretend to be civilians. For the most part Nepali-Tibetans don't have many problems. The exception is police violence against crowds during Tibetan celebrations. Chouying doesn't have problems with police because he is a Nepali citizen for all his family is Tibetan and he is a monk. But he's gotten at least two calls from other monks at the monastery asking for bail money and a ride from the police station.
On a side but related note I recently learned about another part of the world that suffered from child soldiers.
Who ever heard of child soldiers in Nepal? Seriously? Few people even know about the (basically) civil war between the Maoists and Nepali government. Most of the conflict took place in the Humla region on the Tibetan border. Before anyone starts off on anything China-communist related the Maoist party in Nepal has nothing to do with China or Chinese communism. Anyway, during the 90's the Maoists took children from Humla to turn into child soldiers. Consequently parents began sending their kids to Kathmandu as soon as they were old enough for school. This started a trend with interesting consequences.
The Humla area holds one of the most pristinely preserved examples of Tibetan culture in the world. Partly because of it's proximity to Tibet many refugees settled in the area. And partly because the Tibetan border kept jumping throughout history, sometimes including Humla and sometimes not (like now). Consequently it has escaped Chinese influence. However, now that Humla parents send as many children as possible away for school the community and culture are being impacted. All of the families little money goes to paying for school with none left over for anything else such as visits home. Consequently the kids grow up away from their families and culture and are not inclined to return once they finish school. Thus Humla's culture will take a huge hit in the next few generations.
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