Personal Profile: Sonam Gangsang, Tibetan Exile from Ladakh

PART TWO: Sonam's Personal Story (this will be the first of two installments, as Sonam provided a lot of details to us):

I was born in a Tibetan exile community in Ladakh in 1985.

At age 6 I was admitted to boarding school with my 2 elder sisters. As we have so many children at our home, my parent sent 3 of us (middle children of 9) to the boarding school.

Out of 26 children's homes or Khimtsangs, seven are allotted to destitute Ladakhi children. Each home has 20 - 22 children and being taken care a foster mother. By the grace of H.H the Dalai Lama and S.O.S sponsors, food & shelter are given free of cost.

I feel very lucky and happy that I have a god mother, Ingibjörg Steingrímsdóttir, from Iceland, who took care of all my other expenses since I was 6 yrs old. She not only helped me financially but also sends letters & parcels to me often with lots of love and care.

One funny thing I would like share with you all is, I don't know my actual birthday, and my parents and I have never celebrated each others birthdays. We used to check our RC Refugee Registration Card or Green Book (Tibetan Govt in Exile document) to know our birth date when we are asked to confirm it.

However, my god mother never forgets my birthday. Every year she sends a big cake in a metal box all the way from Iceland to me in Ladakh. She writes a letter to our school sponsorship secretary to distribute part of the cake to my fellow home-mate of boarding school, part to my family and part to me to ensure no one feels bad or left out. When she sends money to our house, my parents use the part of the money for prayers for her well-being, saying that although she has never met me, she still supports me with so much trust. I am extremely grateful to her for her support and can never forget her in my life.

Here are some of the difficulties Tibetan exiles, especially those from Ladakh, face.

It was quite hard when I graduated from class 12 in Tibetan School and joined college. It was the first time I went anywhere where there were no other Tibetans.

Weather was the biggest problem when I first reached South India during May. Summer was unbearable as I was used to only cold whether in the north.

Food was also a major problem. Though we were born and raised in India, we had only stayed in Tibetan Community. So for the first few weeks eating Indian food was very difficult, but it soon became normal. Tibetans are known to be highly adaptable to other environments.

Although Indian people are very friendly, it took me several months to open up to make friends with them. Tibetans are often very shy and Introverted. I later realized being shy and Introvert is as same as low confidence.

The biggest problem is Tibetans have been in exile in India since 1959, but still every 6 months we have to renew the RC (Refugee Registration card) at our respective location FRO (Foreign Registration Office). Its illegal if we do not renew it on time.

As Ladakh is very remote, people mostly go out to study and for job to other places. We cannot come back to Ladakh every 6 months to renew the RC. Recently, they made it mandatory that you should either go to office personally to renew RC or send an updated proof letter stating you are within India.
1)My parents cannot send the letter through email in attachment form (which is known to be easiest).
2)Sending fax is also difficult because you have to go to the main market to receive the fax.
3)If we send it through post, sometimes my parents do not get it.

It's not easy to ask the organization where you are working or in college for such letters as they rarely come across these kinds of requests. We have to explain why we need the proof letter which is not an easy task at all.

Once my parent receive the letters from all 5 of us living away from Ladakh, they have to travel to the main market (where the FRO is located) to renew the IC. If you exceed the renew date, they many impose a penalty.

Another problem is, when we go to Indian college, if we write the national in the form as Tibetan then they ask us to pay the fee of Foreign students. So, we write Indian as our nationality in our documents, but its a very sad feeling that we cannot write our true country Tibet.

(watch for the final installment coming next week)