In transit

I was in the middle of a trip documenting daily life of Tibetan monks and refugees somewhere close to Indo Tibetan border in the Trans-Himalayan belt of Himachal Pradesh whilst I bumped into this view.

Spiti valley, also known as ‘land of lamas’ is home to some oldest Tibetan buddhism monastery and chamurti horses.

For centuries, the horses have been used by the people of Spiti Valley to transport silk, salt and other trade goods over the high mountain passes between Tibet and India, there at the backdrop.

Distinctive, well-muscled mountain ponies, Chamurtis are believed to have descended from the hardy horses that run wild across the steppes of Central Asia.

Millions of people are being forced from their homes, risking everything to escape conflict, disaster, poverty or hunger.

Tibetan have been seeking asylum in its neighbouring country India since the Dalai Lama fled Lhasa back in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese occupation.

Most of them has since lived in Dharamsala in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh, where they run a small government in exile and advocate autonomy for Tibet by peaceful means.

Unfortunately, Tibetans do not have citizenship rights, which limits their access to government jobs and freedom of movement within and outside India.

Those without identity documents are at risk of harassment, arrests and deportation to China. The status of statelessness is demoralising and frustrating, as one the refugees said. Yet, they’re not alone.

More than 65 million people around the world are now officially displaced from their homes by conflict, violence and persecution — the highest figure recorded by the United Nations since the Second World War.

The Tibetans is part of my extensive project on global refugee crisis.

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This essay was first published via Medium on Dec 10, 2018.