The Secret Tibet (The Forbidden world)

Dharamsala: TibetPost-20-February-09 - For many Tibetans, the arduous journey across the Himalayas is only the beginning – the problems they face on a day-to-day basis in Dharamsala constitute another journey in itself.  Among the many changes Tibetans face once they flee Tibet, health is a primary cause for concern.  

Since Tibetans' forced flee from their homeland, cases of communicable disease such as TB have found their way in the refugee community.  Substance abuse, as well, has become more and more common as more and more Tibetans face unemployment and poverty in their new environments.  

Among the most prevalent of these problems, says Tibetan Health Minister, Chope Paljor Tsering, is TB. The Tibetan Government in Exile officially acknowledges on their website that there have been over 35,000 cases of TB since 1959, when the Dalai Lama went into exile. "The problem has been from day one", he says "This fight has been going on for some years.  It's been a very long fight, but compared to those years when Tibetans had to work on the road construction site, it is now contained quite well."  

While treatment of problems like TB has become more successful in past years, promoting awareness of problems within the Tibetan community is still a major issue that the Health Department is trying to tackle.   The Tibetan community in particular, Health Minister Tsering says, is "prone to diseases like HIV AIDS" because of the "open" and "mobile" nature of the community.  

"[HIV] is a serious concern for us because Tibetan society is a very open society …  and we are in a country where the growth of HIV AIDS is amongst the fastest in the world … We have in fact, from the 1st of December … announced that anyone coming for a checkup to see if they have HIV AIDS are free.  We have made it free for at least three months, and, amazingly, a lot of people have signed up and we are very happy with the turn out."  

Other future concerns for the Health Minister include the shortage of doctors within the community. "We have a shortage of doctors in the hospitals.  So, number one priority in my department is to recruit doctors.  So we raise their salary two-fold.  They used to get just over R13,000, now we try to make it R24,000 per month, in order to try and attract doctors.  If not Tibetan doctors we try to get Indian doctors, any doctor."  

Also on the list of future concerns is mother and child care. "Now we are in the 21st century," Health Minister Tsering says, "We wish all the child, born and unborn, get proper medical facilities provided, including various vaccinations.  We also have traditional Tibetan medical pills that are supposed to help the mother to become healthy and the child to have a sharper brain."

Beyond the physical health of refugees, however, lies deeper cause for concern when it comes to the mental health of Tibetans in India. "We have a section which looks after Tibetans who've been tortured in Chinese prisons and there has been … research on the mental health of people who have undergone torture." Says the Health Minister.  "…Amazingly, they have found that Tibetans are more resilient.  They seem to be able to cope with it much better than many of other people in that situation."

Mental health, it seems, is also compromised by the daily stresses of life in McLeod Ganj. "I think if you have to adapt to a new country, a new situation, a new environment, new food, the changes can affect the health", the Health Minister says.  Not only are Tibetans faced with difficulties getting a job in McLeod Ganj, they are exposed to a new kind of materialism and, potentially, more opportunities to turn to drugs and alcohol.  

The Health Minister, however, is hopeful for the new generations of Tibetans in exile and their ability to cope with new problems as refugees.  A recent finding by an NGO has shown that, "for the last two or three years, [there has been] really good change for young people not smoking and less … substance abuses ... It means that this department has been working on this for some time.  So it means a little progress has been made.  Of course there is a long way to go, but some progress has been made."  

For Tibetan communities in exile, life is not simple after the long trek from Tibet.  Oftentimes, refugees must face problems they never had to worry about in their motherland.  Education it seems, as Mr. Tsering says, is probably the most important undertaking of the Ministry of Health.  Tibetans must know the diseases they are more prone to, and have the ability to educate future generations.