Nearly Seven Decades After Their Mass Exodus, Tibetan Refugees in India Still Grapple with Their Cultural and Political Identity

The Indian government rehabilitated the Tibetan refugees across the country, building separate settlements for them. The Dalai Lama and his cabinet would go on to establish an independent administrative framework in India, headquartered in Dharamshala, an autonomous government that was denied to them by China in their own homeland. 

Bylakuppe, a remote rural region in the state of Karnataka, was developed to be the largest Tibetan settlement in India in the 1960s. At present, the Bylakuppe town has earned the distinction of being the world’s largest Tibetan settlement outside Tibet, spanning over 4,300 acres and home to a Tibetan population of around 6,200. 

Tsewang Choedan has just returned from participating in an important ceremony for her, and her fellow community members. It’s the day of the visit of His Eminence the 7th Kyabjé Yongzin Ling Rinpoche, recognised by the Dalai Lama as his 'root guru' – the reincarnation of his Principal Teacher. Tsewang is the Vice President of the Tibetan Women’s Association of the Tibetan settlement in Bylakuppe, Karnataka.

Tsewang sits down for a meeting with me at her office. She becomes pensive momentarily. 'I was three years old when I came to India in 1959 with my parents and a sister. My mother passed away recently in her 90s. Until her last breath, my mother hoped she would return to a free Tibet.’  

Tsewang’s family was one of the hundreds of Tibetan refugees who were rehabilitated in Bylakuppe in 1960. The families that first arrived here, including hers, she recalls, cleared the wilderness and built the camps that we see today.

Kyab Lhamo (27), a teacher of forensic medicine at Bangalore, carries an infectious smile throughout our meeting, which fades slightly only when he speaks of his family in Tibet. Kyab was just a five-year-old child in 2003 when he arrived in India, leaving behind his mother and a twin brother. Kyab’s case isn’t uncommon. Many of the families in Tibet over the decades have chosen a single member to flee the country.

‘On the day I left Tibet, my uncle says I clutched my mother’s hand tightly and refused to let go. The pain of separation lies deep within my heart still.’

Of Culture and Identity, Representation and Preservation

While some of the Tibetans born in India have opted for Indian citizenship over the years, a vast majority of the Tibetans have held on to their refugee status. Every Tibetan I talked to feels that accepting Indian citizenship feels like indirectly submitting to the oppressive regime of China, and being a refugee is emblematic of their resistance.     

They face their share of difficulties as well. Tibetan refugees cannot own land or property in India. Several countries that hold close diplomatic ties with China refuse entry to a Tibetan with refugee status. The Dalai Lama has been denied visa multiple times by the South African government over the years. Refugees cite similar experiences with other countries in the continent, like Kenya. In 2017, a Tibetan women’s football team was denied visas to participate in a tournament in the U.S., despite neither India nor Tibet being on an official travel ban list at the time.  

Rigchen Wangyal, who came to India from Tibet in 2004 as an eight-year-old, was also the only member of his family to migrate. As a lawyer based in Mysore, a major part of Rigchen’s work is around land settlement issues faced by Tibetans in Bylakuppe. 

The Tibetan economy has boomed in the past few decades, Rigchen says, which is one of the reasons, he reckons, there’s less migration from Tibet to India these days. 

‘But, having economic stability cannot be a trade-off for freedom of speech and expression and forsaking one’s cultural identity,’ he adds.

Dhondup is a schoolteacher in Bylakuppe, bespectacled and soft-spoken – like many in the Tibetan community I have encountered. He migrated to India with his father in 1983, when he was eight years old. He feels that the refugees like him, who came to India much later, have a slightly different perspective of Tibet than those who were born here.

‘Everything they learnt about Tibet has been through other sources. Someone like me has witnessed Chinese oppression firsthand before fleeing my homeland,’ Dhondup reflects.

Palden Tsering, whose house is in Camp 1 of the old settlement, is one of the handful of Tibetan refugees alive today who can vividly recollect the period of turmoil in Tibet leading to the mass exodus. Palden, nearly 90 now, was 24 when he fled with his wife and daughter to India in 1960. The couple had one more daughter and a son born in India since then.

Many of the houses in the Bylakuppe settlement, built during the first phase of migration in the 1960s, have been renovated over the years, either by the CTA or by the refugees themselves. Unlike many others who have replaced the old structures with completely new ones, Palden’s family has kept remnants of the early structure intact. To him, it’s a reminder of their exile and the new life they built here.

Roots, Homeland and Family

For most of the Tibetans in India, maintaining the bond with their family back in Tibet is extremely important. At the same time, communication across the two countries is no easy feat.

Since WhatsApp has been banned in Tibet (and China), WeChat has been the main tool for the Tibetan diaspora to reach their family back home. Although the app was banned by the Indian government in 2020, many Tibetans continue to access it through virtual private networks.

Kyab, Dhondup and the others who still connect with their relatives in Tibet are told that speaking His Holiness Dalai Lama’s name or keeping a photo of him is punishable by law in (Chinese-occupied) Tibet. On the Dalai Lama’s 90th birthday, participants of events held to celebrate him in Tibet were arrested by the Chinese government.  Kyab tells me that it was dangerous for those living in Tibet to possess those images.

According to Phurbu Dolma, Legal Officer at Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD), there have been more than 5600 cases of Tibetans being arrested, detained or tortured in prison in Tibet, since 2016, and at least eight custodial deaths. 

At the same time, the tightening of the borders and harsher regulations by the Chinese government in recent years meant that seeking asylum in India has become more challenging for those in Tibet. A vast majority of Tibetans have historically crossed to India through Nepal, with Kathmandu even having an UN facility for the Tibetan refugees. In the recent past, though, migration through this channel has become a lot more difficult for Tibetans, owing to China’s increased hold in Nepal. There’s a significant decline in the rate of migration of Tibetans, especially after 2008, compared to the previous five decades, a worrying sign for the Tibetans in India and other parts of the world. 

Tibetan refugees who fled the country in the last few decades, like Rigchen and Kyab, are even more distressed by the situation in Tibet because all their immediate family members are still in the country. 

What Lies Ahead for Tibetans Away from Tibet

Claude Arpi, an Indian-French Tibetologist based in Pondicherry, observes in a conversation with FP that a bigger concern for the Tibetan community in India at present is the outward migration of the younger crop of refugees to Europe and elsewhere.        

The Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), headquartered in Dharamshala, was established in 1959, when the Dalai Lama and his delegation arrived in India as political refugees.

Jigme Tsultrim, a second-generation Tibetan born in India to refugee parents, and the Chief Representative Officer (CRO), South Zone, CTA, believes that the principal political priority of the Tibetan Administration will be to find ways to re-engage with the PRC (People’s Republic of China) government and resolve the Sino-Tibet conflict based on a middle-way policy for a mutually beneficial and lasting solution. 

The administration has especially focused on reaching out to the international communities of Tibetans (outside India) during this tenure. To ensure the preservation of Tibetan culture, religion and language, the CTA has committed to providing steadfast support for establishing weekend schools as well as looking after the sustainability of Tibetan monasteries.

‘Nearly 25,000 children study in 65 different Tibetan schools across India. Till 2018, the schools were entirely funded by the Indian government. But in the recent past, the Tibetan administration has made the decision to shift from this structure and be more self-reliant,’ Jigme notes.

The Tibetan diaspora can find some solace in the fact that their cause has increasingly found support from across the globe in this century. In November 2025, the International Religious Freedom or Belief Alliance’s fifth conference reaffirmed the Tibetan Buddhist community’s right to select the successor of the 14th Dalai Lama without the Chinese state’s interference.

At the Namdroling Monastery Golden Temple in Bylakuppe, Sherab, a young monk, tells me that a week-long 'pooja' has been going on. Although the outside of the monastery brims with tourists, the inside is serene. A group of monks sits on the floor, chanting the rituals.

Tourists flock to Bylakuppe throughout the year, mostly to visit the Buddhist monasteries and check out the Tibetan shops around them. The monasteries play a pivotal role in preserving the Tibetans’ cultural and religious identity. It’s customary for many families in Tibet to choose a member from their family to migrate to India to join the monkhood. 

On a Wednesday, I am lucky enough to stumble across a 'Lhakar' ceremony being held in Bylakuppe. It involves a non-violent protest, through traditional dances and other symbolic activities embracing Tibetan culture. The Lhakar ceremony is practised across the planet by the Tibetans, a gesture symbolising their oneness. Men, women and children form a circle in a basketball court on this day, dancing gracefully to a soothing Tibetan song, played over a loudspeaker. The participants, and most of the crowd, are dressed in traditional Tibetan attire, called 'Chupa'. As a member of the dancing circle takes a break, someone else waiting on the sidelines replaces them, keeping the flow smooth. A small crowd has gathered there to witness and cheer the performers, and I join them. The ceremony is a weekly reminder for the Tibetans in India and across the globe to not be detached from their roots.