In Dharamshala, Tibetans Worry About Preserving Their Identity

0:00Today on State of the World, in Dharamshala, Tibetans worry about preserving their identity. You're listening to State of the World from NPR. We bring you the day's most vital international stories, up close where they're happening. I'm Greg Dixon. When the Dalai Lama fled Chinese-controlled Tibet in 1959, he eventually settled in the Indian town of Dharamshala, in the shadow of the Himalayan mountains. A Tibetan government-in-exile was set up, and for decades, thousands of Tibetan refugees followed their spiritual leader there. But now their numbers are dwindling, and there are concerns about their future.

0:42NPR's Dia Hadid takes us to Dharamshala. Music teacher Tenzin Norder leads kids through a Tibetan song in a classroom overlooking an alpine forest.

0:56This is how the Tibetan children's village teaches students their language, culture and faith in a place vastly different from their homeland. Here, theatre kids practice Tibetan operas They wear Tibetan clothes, even while they shoot hoops The Dalai Lama set up the Tibetan children's village with his sisters after he fled to Dharamsala amid a failed uprising against China's rule more than 60 years ago The school expanded as thousands of Tibetans followed the Dalai Lama Then there were people like Tindap Galpo My father and me, Krusty Malaya. Galpo guesses he was seven when his father left him at the school and then returned to Chinese-ruled Tibet.

1:43He hasn't seen his father since. He was raised by his teachers, who also supervise the school's boarding houses. Now, Galpo's a schoolteacher and... After class, I'm a father of 32 children. He works at the boarding school that raised him, helping kids with their homework, reading, bedtimes. At least, for now. Everything is, I don't know. Changing. Changing. The Tibetan children's village is shrinking. The school has capacity for about 9 ,000 kids across India. Only about half that number attend. That's partly because Tibetans are having fewer kids these days. And China has hardened its borders dramatically in the past two decades.

2:26So fewer kids have reached Dharamsala. One person who did make it across is 27-year-old Namki. she only goes by one name. She'd been trying for nine years to find a way to flee, ever since she was released from a three-year prison sentence, she says, for brandishing a picture of the Dalai Lama.

2:50But since reaching Dharamsala last year, Namki says she's been noticing the change.

3:00Her friend Sonam translates, He also only goes by one name. Those in India, many of them are migrating to the West. Migrating to the West. The Tibetan government in exile estimates there were about 100 ,000 Tibetans in India. That number began falling as migration to the West stepped up in the 90s. Now India hosts about 70 ,000 Tibetans, and about the same number live in Europe, the US and Australia. Sonam, who's translating for Namki, describes it like... It's like throwing rice in a cotton field. Like throwing rice in a cotton field, where it's scattered, where it doesn't belong, where it won't flourish.

3:41Because, he says, the institutions that keep Tibetan identity alive are here in Dharamsala. At the children's village, some of the brightest kids are looking for the exits. Like Gawa, he's 15 and a minor, so we aren't using his full name. We met at the school library. He speaks four languages. French, Hindi, English and Tibetan. And he loves Lana Del Rey. The song that goes like, Dear Lord, when I get to heaven, please let me bring my man. Goa loves poetry but figures he's got a better future as a doctor. He's vying for a scholarship to study in the UK. There's more opportunities, there's everything.

4:28This westward drift comes at a precarious time. The Dalai Lama turned 90 in July. Beijing insists it will select the next Dalai Lama against the wishes of the Dalai Lama and Tibetans. That's our most volatile period. Lapsang Sangay is the former head of the Tibetan government in exile. He says Tibetans were heartened when President Trump, during his first administration, signed into law an act that sanctions Chinese officials who interfere in Tibetan religious matters. But in Trump's second administration, the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, halted some$12 million of aid earmarked to Tibetan exiles in the spring.

5:10He then restored just over half of it. Amid these worries that many Tibetans express about this moment, Sangay says Tibetans cling to a simple truth. Our job is simple. That is, we have to survive. As long as we survive, he says, Tibetans will have the opportunity to meet this changing moment. Dear Hadid, NPR News, Dharam Shala.

5:40That's the State of the World from NPR. Thanks for listening.