visit to Rasuwa Tibetan Settlement,shyabru Nepal

Rasuwa in Dashain 2010

Rupshree Joshi 

Its Dashain time, the festival time in Nepal. News is in the air that tickets for buses are not available as people are all going out of Kathmandu to their native home for the festivities.

I have to give up my mood to travel in the big bus and head towards Rasuwa in a hired vehicle. Finding a willing driver I feel elated. Sahila dai is a popular taxi driver in sanobharyang area and also hails from rasuwa district. We pass through valleys and hills driving through rugged roads and we reach a gate named welcome to  tamshaling ,autonomous region depicting the  ethnic movement that is in the air.The land scape is as beautiful where as the roads is as bad. the roads are not meant taxis and big four wheelers and pajeros pass by big bullies throwing much air and dust.We reach army check posts and received exclamations in great admiration saying “how did taxi reach here?

Early morning we head for thangboche . The road has reached till  kerung  the border and we take the off road and head towards chilime passing by villagers carrying salt in narrow trails,and village goats in  and pass suspension bridges. After two hours hike we reach a tamang village where the house holds are not more than five. We reach a small square where there is a tap and  a woman is  busy washing clothes. More travelers with sacks of herbs come to rest for some time. soon there is a big crowd in a very quiet surroundings. A old woman is feeding the livestock. Octogenerain Dolma lives alone with her livestock.Her children live in kathmandu and she was preparing food of barley for the livestock. Dolma Shrestha is the second generation Tibetans like many others  who live in hills of Nepal.She is  Tibetan mother and nepali father. She is wearing a traditional Tibetan dress and she has a spoon on her belt which  she uses it during the travel  time where she doesnot get water to wash her hands.we strike a conversation with the village belles who have been carrying the herbs to trade . they bring the  herbs which will be used as medicines for herbs and to be sold in kathmandu.They bring it from the community forestry .

We chit chat and head towards thangboche and motorable road has come to chilime due to the hydroelectric power plant.the Tibetan households and the Nepalese are living next to each other and Nepalese families are in perfect harmony . we enter the village and see corn baskets and pig slaughtering and people playing cards .

24 families of tibetans stay there . we get to meet the a few families.

Dawa tsering came from Tibet when he was 20 years old and settled in kerung .  after staying for two years at kerung working in daily we ages when the land was to be allocated he and many other families moved towards thangboche. The settlers settled in the different parts of the district were allocated land and with the supervision of one of the contractors called phillipe. the houses were constructed with labour charges of rs 4 per day and rs 3 per day for females.12 families were settled.The early settlers contributed in forming their own houses .  not enough houses were built and as more settlers poured in and the houses were allocated in lottery system .more construction took place to accommodate more settlers.

Dawa’s two wives support him to provide for his family.most families are working towards knitting  the zaama shyamma which is very popular for women living in langtang.one of the wives weaves and he  goes off  to sell in the local markets in nearby villages,syabru and even as far as langtang .he goes house to house  and often goes away for a month from home and often gives on credit so that he collects in his next trip. the apron usually is sold for rs 800 and they ,manage to sell 2-3 in a month.His elder wife looks after the store they have opened in their house bring on credit.from shabru. There are plenty of small stores like theirs in the hamlet but it has very limited consumers so the retail  business is more of passing time than enterprenuership.

Old couple Pema and singcho both in their eighties lives there. They used to graze livestock in the hills and used to lead a nomadic lifestyle but they are unable to do so as they are very aged and sick. The monthly pensions that they get helps a bit. As they are very old renewing the refugee card has become a nuisance as they need to walk and travel more than 5 hours to go to the district office which is based in dhunche.Out of their four children one daughter lives with in a nearby house in the same hamlet with her husband Gurmey.Gurmey and his wife run a small shop .His shop is more stocked than the rest of the other shops in the hamlet as he also retails clothes .Earlier in his youth he used to work for wages in Kathmandu. As his wife belongs to the settlement they chose to live there. Their children are in schools in kathmandu and in India.Like most of the settlers they are living their simple lives amidst complexities like land encroachment and also worrying about the future of their children who have not been given refugee cards.

 The land where the settlement is not barred by wire and so there is always a fear of encroachment that is happening.The land is in the name of the Red cross society and previous owners are still threatening the settlers that they will sue them for the land.With the motorable road that has been built due to the chilime hydro power has brought accessibility to the village. Rapid development will soon follow and as it is it is in the Langtang trail .soon the quiet settlement will face more development challenges as the price of the land goes up higher than ever.

We have rice with green chilies and veggies and listen to  the laughter of the  children who are  back from school .I take a round of the village and see most of the women who are busy weaving and knitting and children playing an laughing .

Most of the children of the settlement go to the school in Syabru where they teach Tibetan,English and maths till class 5 and also consecutively attend the nepali government school nearby.After the completion of the primary school they move towards school in Kathmandu and India.In the district as the people are living in various clusters the children are staying  in the hostel.After completion of their education most of them remain in Kathmandu and in India seeking more employment oppourtunities and also due to the lack of oppourtunities in their own villages.

Just as migration is happening for Nepalese from villages to cities to foreign countries for a better life,similar migration is happening within the Tibetan settlements where most of the elderly and aged live with their children living else where seeking oppourtunities that are so scarce.Tibetan children who become educated but will not be able to cope with living withour oppourtunities in their settlements.It is more frustating as the refugee status limits them from working outside.Like every body else in Nepal they took have a dream of making it big in life which become restricted with out the employment oppourtunties and prospects of travel becomes a hindrance in absence of easy availability of travel document and exit permits.

While going back when I look around I see so much tranquility and beauty in the air and imagine how life is so very difficult and beautiful  to look at the same time.