By : Surinder Thakur
Mcleodganj is India’s little-Lhasa, a name given by the travel guides for the large settlement of Tibetan refugees here. Living that name to its fullest, Mcleodganj is now a Tibetan celebration of their own culture, religion and the way of life, in its full bloom.
Seeing them living their life in Macleodganj, is a beautiful image of the confluence of two cultures on a sharing mode. But is it that easy for people coming from another culture to adapt and carry on?
“Most of the Tibetans don't find much problem here in regard to communication or whatever”, says Tenzin Lhaksam Wangdue, Secretary of Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts (TIPA), a major cultural entity for the Tibetan community in Dharamshala. “However, for new comers, language is a major issue”, says Wangdue. According to him, there are NGO's who are conduct language training sessions for these new comers, trying to bridge the gap. “Teaching English and Hindi to the newcomers often takes lots of time”, adds he.
For Tibetans, adapting to the local culture is not a big challenge. But retaining their cultural identity is often daunting, especially since they fear that the Chinese government is hell-bent on wiping out the traditional culture of Tibet.
“If you look at Tibet, from 1959, right after occupation, many of the monasteries were destroyed by China. All the learning institutions of Tibet were destroyed. Throughout the year, Chinese propaganda classes to brainwash Tibetans are being held. Because of this Chinese treatment, Tibetan languages are getting marginalized,” says Wangdue.
“Out here in India, in exile, what we are trying to do is trying to re-alive those languages and also the old cultural habits and tradition”, he adds. This makes the Tibetan community in Exile to focus more within the community and try to retain the loosing strains of their cultural fabric.
So in a way, the local Himachali culture when added to this scenario makes it a puzzling picture. “We have around 80,000 Tibetans living in various parts of India, in settlements in exile. In these settlements, maintain our culture is very difficultht when it gets involved with the local culture", said Wangdue.
But love knows no bounds. So these are no hurdles for inter-community marriages between Indians and Tibetans. “There are not many such cases, but very few”, says Wangdue.
Tibetan community here enjoys warm relationship with the local Himachali community. Since Buddhism with its roots in India serves as a bridge which brings certain cultural similarities, people in both communities maintain social ties very much. “When we attend a wedding in the local community, we gift them Tibetan shawls, scarfs and special Tibetan eatables”, says Wangdue.
At little Lhasa, both these communities are on an on-going learning process, through which both the cultures enrich each other, bringing a new culture out of the convergence, in the Himalayas.
 |
| TIPA Secretary Tenzin Lhaksam Wangdue at his office |
Seeing them living their life in Macleodganj, is a beautiful image of the confluence of two cultures on a sharing mode. But is it that easy for people coming from another culture to adapt and carry on?
“Most of the Tibetans don't find much problem here in regard to communication or whatever”, says Tenzin Lhaksam Wangdue, Secretary of Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts (TIPA), a major cultural entity for the Tibetan community in Dharamshala. “However, for new comers, language is a major issue”, says Wangdue. According to him, there are NGO's who are conduct language training sessions for these new comers, trying to bridge the gap. “Teaching English and Hindi to the newcomers often takes lots of time”, adds he.
For Tibetans, adapting to the local culture is not a big challenge. But retaining their cultural identity is often daunting, especially since they fear that the Chinese government is hell-bent on wiping out the traditional culture of Tibet.
“If you look at Tibet, from 1959, right after occupation, many of the monasteries were destroyed by China. All the learning institutions of Tibet were destroyed. Throughout the year, Chinese propaganda classes to brainwash Tibetans are being held. Because of this Chinese treatment, Tibetan languages are getting marginalized,” says Wangdue.
“Out here in India, in exile, what we are trying to do is trying to re-alive those languages and also the old cultural habits and tradition”, he adds. This makes the Tibetan community in Exile to focus more within the community and try to retain the loosing strains of their cultural fabric.
So in a way, the local Himachali culture when added to this scenario makes it a puzzling picture. “We have around 80,000 Tibetans living in various parts of India, in settlements in exile. In these settlements, maintain our culture is very difficultht when it gets involved with the local culture", said Wangdue.
But love knows no bounds. So these are no hurdles for inter-community marriages between Indians and Tibetans. “There are not many such cases, but very few”, says Wangdue.
Tibetan community here enjoys warm relationship with the local Himachali community. Since Buddhism with its roots in India serves as a bridge which brings certain cultural similarities, people in both communities maintain social ties very much. “When we attend a wedding in the local community, we gift them Tibetan shawls, scarfs and special Tibetan eatables”, says Wangdue.
At little Lhasa, both these communities are on an on-going learning process, through which both the cultures enrich each other, bringing a new culture out of the convergence, in the Himalayas.
No comments:
Post a Comment
All comments to Delayer will be moderated. Please avoid using vulgar or obscene words in the comments. comments with links in the body will be accepted only if they are relevant to the context.