California Dreamin’II: The judgement Day
Now that the US Tibetan Resettlement Project has finally taken off the ground, it is coming under flak from many quarters, and not only from Tibetans.
All these criticisms seem to be based on sincere concern for the future of Tibetan identity. Some seem to fear that the ‘American Tibetans’ will soon dissolve in the infamous melting pot which will have the effect of supplementing the Chinese immigration policy in Tibet. Others find it repugnant that Tibetan government employees and teachers are also among those seeking their fortune in the decadent West. They are having nightmares at the prospect of empty offices and teacherless classes.
All these adverse reactions have come in only after the project was finalised and all that was left to do was to get 1,000 Tibetan physically moved from India and Nepal to the United States. When the project was first announced Tibetans generally greeted it as a flood of Californian sunshine; everybody I know wanted to bask in it. After all, this is exactly the sort of thing most Tibetans—most people in the underdeveloped world—wanted, especially if you have not done all that well here. When people actually started to queue up—no, throng—for the application forms, the Californian sunshine suddenly turned into Dharamsala monsoon.
The portrayal of those leaving for the US as crass villains is more than slightly unjustified. Those who worried that their transference from India to the USA will put an irreparable dent on the Tibetan cultural heritage have cause to worry more in the coming years. The project envisages reunion of these pioneer settlers with their families. This, coupled with indigenous birth, will soon turn the Tibetan population in the United States into the fourth largest in the world—after those in Tibet, India and Nepal. Those veterans of the Western decadence, in Switzerland and Canada, will be trailing behind miserably. Does that signal the end of Tibetan civilization? My considered opinion is, hardly.
When the 500 or so Tibetans who are already in the US entered the country they did not say their aim was to settle down there—if they’d said that they wouldn’t have been allowed in. So they are not in a planned community but scattered all over the place, many of them married to Americans. Yet they have not lost their language or philosophy of life as a Tibetan—whatever newfangled creature comforts they may enjoy or whatever papers they may carry for reasons of employment and travel. So how can anyone say that groups of 50 or more Tibetans living in properly planned clusters will soon lose their identity? Neither the project nor the hosts, nor anyone else connected with it aims at wiping out the Tibetan identity of the new immigrants; infact they have gone out of their way to ensure that something like that does not happen. My bet is that some among the 1000 will soon find themselves taking part in Tibetan cultural and religious activities for the first time in their lives. That is the sort of thing happening with young Tibetans in Switzerland and Canada. They are brushing up their Tibetan, studying Tibetan history and religion and many come to India on extended visits, presumably to discover their ‘roots.’ (The Tibetan youths from Switzerland who had communication problems when they came to visit their parents were those who were given away for adoption to Swiss families.) In marked contrast, many Tibetan children sent to ‘English’ schools in India pretend to forget—or maybe they really do—their Tibetan within a year or so. And worse, their parents appear so proud of this achievement.
The sweeping generalization that the West is bad, degenerate and materialistic whereas the East is good, wholesome and spiritual is a load of cowdung spread around by institution of dubious merit such as the Hindi film industry. Given half a chance, most people in the East would gladly outdo Westerners in pursuits of wealth and pleasure through fair and foul means.
As for the unmanned offices and understaffed schools, isn’t there supposed to be a problem about finding employment for the increasing number of Tibetans who complete their education? The fear that they would not fill those vacancies adequately is unfunded supposition. Are they never to be given their chances? Perhaps some of them will turn in even better performance than their predecessors—even they don’t know that yet. And they—and we all—will remain ignorant of their potential if this orthodox line of thinking carries on.
Now that the US Tibetan Resettlement Project has finally taken off the ground, it is coming under flak from many quarters, and not only from Tibetans.
All these criticisms seem to be based on sincere concern for the future of Tibetan identity. Some seem to fear that the ‘American Tibetans’ will soon dissolve in the infamous melting pot which will have the effect of supplementing the Chinese immigration policy in Tibet. Others find it repugnant that Tibetan government employees and teachers are also among those seeking their fortune in the decadent West. They are having nightmares at the prospect of empty offices and teacherless classes.
All these adverse reactions have come in only after the project was finalised and all that was left to do was to get 1,000 Tibetan physically moved from India and Nepal to the United States. When the project was first announced Tibetans generally greeted it as a flood of Californian sunshine; everybody I know wanted to bask in it. After all, this is exactly the sort of thing most Tibetans—most people in the underdeveloped world—wanted, especially if you have not done all that well here. When people actually started to queue up—no, throng—for the application forms, the Californian sunshine suddenly turned into Dharamsala monsoon.
The portrayal of those leaving for the US as crass villains is more than slightly unjustified. Those who worried that their transference from India to the USA will put an irreparable dent on the Tibetan cultural heritage have cause to worry more in the coming years. The project envisages reunion of these pioneer settlers with their families. This, coupled with indigenous birth, will soon turn the Tibetan population in the United States into the fourth largest in the world—after those in Tibet, India and Nepal. Those veterans of the Western decadence, in Switzerland and Canada, will be trailing behind miserably. Does that signal the end of Tibetan civilization? My considered opinion is, hardly.
When the 500 or so Tibetans who are already in the US entered the country they did not say their aim was to settle down there—if they’d said that they wouldn’t have been allowed in. So they are not in a planned community but scattered all over the place, many of them married to Americans. Yet they have not lost their language or philosophy of life as a Tibetan—whatever newfangled creature comforts they may enjoy or whatever papers they may carry for reasons of employment and travel. So how can anyone say that groups of 50 or more Tibetans living in properly planned clusters will soon lose their identity? Neither the project nor the hosts, nor anyone else connected with it aims at wiping out the Tibetan identity of the new immigrants; infact they have gone out of their way to ensure that something like that does not happen. My bet is that some among the 1000 will soon find themselves taking part in Tibetan cultural and religious activities for the first time in their lives. That is the sort of thing happening with young Tibetans in Switzerland and Canada. They are brushing up their Tibetan, studying Tibetan history and religion and many come to India on extended visits, presumably to discover their ‘roots.’ (The Tibetan youths from Switzerland who had communication problems when they came to visit their parents were those who were given away for adoption to Swiss families.) In marked contrast, many Tibetan children sent to ‘English’ schools in India pretend to forget—or maybe they really do—their Tibetan within a year or so. And worse, their parents appear so proud of this achievement.
The sweeping generalization that the West is bad, degenerate and materialistic whereas the East is good, wholesome and spiritual is a load of cowdung spread around by institution of dubious merit such as the Hindi film industry. Given half a chance, most people in the East would gladly outdo Westerners in pursuits of wealth and pleasure through fair and foul means.
As for the unmanned offices and understaffed schools, isn’t there supposed to be a problem about finding employment for the increasing number of Tibetans who complete their education? The fear that they would not fill those vacancies adequately is unfunded supposition. Are they never to be given their chances? Perhaps some of them will turn in even better performance than their predecessors—even they don’t know that yet. And they—and we all—will remain ignorant of their potential if this orthodox line of thinking carries on.
posted by editorla at
9:11 PM
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