by Yolanda O'Bannon with translation by Thinley

When the food ran out, we were scared, but we ... had to go on whether we died or not.
Tenzin, Tibetan refugee

This is the story of a 23-year-old Tibetan refugee named Tenzin who in 1994 survived a harrowing escape from Tibet.  Like most of the 100,000 Tibetans who have fled their country since its invasion by China in 1950, Tenzin walked to freedom through the heart of the Himalayas. In 1994 alone, 3000 other Tibetan refugees survived the hazardous escape routes into Nepal.  Yet Tenzin's journey that year was a particularly traumatic one.  For six months, he struggled to reach the safety of the Nepali capital of Kathmandu -- sometimes walking through knee-deep snow, sometimes carried on his friend's back, when his feet were too frostbitten to walk.  On the journey, he was robbed, jailed by the Nepali police, deported back to Tibet, and brutally beaten by the Chinese border guards.  But he never gave up, and his story is typical, not only of the suffering, but also of the courage and resilience of the Tibetan people. The following account of Tenzin's journey is based on interviews conducted in Dharamsala, Northern India, in July and August of 1995.  In order to protect his identity, and that of his family still under Chinese rule in Tibet, "Tenzin's" real name will not be used.  The same precaution applies to the much-appreciated translator of over seven hours of interviews, "Thinley."

Growing Up A Nomad

As a child, Tenzin rode horseback on the plains of Amdo, Tibet's vast northwestern frontier region.  He grew up in a family of nomad yak herders. In the summers, his family lived in a tent in a hill station;  in the winter, we drove the yaks on horseback to a warmer place twenty kilometers away. He is one of the lucky minority of ethnic Tibetans to receive schooling in their own language, for education in Chinese-occupied Tibet focuses on Chinese.  After completing high school, Tenzin moved to near Labrang Monastery, one of the six major institutions of the Gelukpa sect, and attended classes on Buddhism for several years.

From Amdo to Lhasa

When he was 22, Tenzin decided to leave Tibet:

I wanted to see His Holiness the Dalai Lama and I needed to learn English.  Many foreign visitors came to Labrang Monastery, and I needed to be able to talk to them ... to explain to them about the history of Tibet ... how the Chinese invaded.  Also, English speakers are rare in Amdo, so if I knew English, I might be able to get a job as a translator.  So I needed to go to India.

Tenzin's friends and family raised about $600 U.S. dollars worth of Chinese yuan for his journey, and in January of 1994, he left Amdo with a 27-year-old male companion.  They spent one month in Tibet's capital city, Lhasa, preparing for the trip.  In Lhasa they found a man who sometimes acted as a professional guide for escapees to draw them a map.

For the journey, I brought a backpack with tsampa [roasted barley flour], butter, meat, a blanket, some Tibetan poetry, and one book on Buddhism: Shantideva's Bodhisattva's Way of Life.  For clothes, I had what I was wearing, some running shoes, and a long coat.  My friend brought a Tibetan sling shot.