Barring their occasional emotional outbursts, especially during visits of Chinese delegates to India, they are mostly mistaken as people from the Northeast. Spread thinly across the country, maintaining their identity has always been a struggle for Tibetans. While nearly 30 of them call Mumbai their home, they try to stick to their roots as a close-knit group.
"We meet once in two months over momo parties but are connected through the social media. We have a Facebook page called Mumbai Tibetans and gather on our New Year 'Lo Sar' and to remember the day when his holiness Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel prize," said 26-year-old Thenzin Thinlay. Born in Byllakuppe in Karnataka, the biggest Tibetan settlement after Dharamsala, Thinlay, now an assistant manager at an insurance firm in Bandra, came to Mumbai two years ago.
They are a shrinking community in the city, courtesy high cost of living. Majority of them work in the hospitality and beauty industry.
"Most us are born in India but we are not Indian nationals. We have a refugee certificate and it is very difficult for us to get admission into colleges and get jobs. Education is the only weapon we have to get a free Tibet, said Thenzin Khechok, a chef at a Khar restaurant. Khechok, 26, said they want to vote but can't. "We can't even have a passport. I struggle to get a bank account. I can't even buy a gas cylinder."
With no temple in Mumbai to practice their religion, the community members do it at their homes. They have two Tibetan medical centres – at Malad and Vashi – that treat people with traditional herbs called 'Men-Tsekhang'.
"Nobody knows the real issue of Tibet. We never shared a border with China before their occupation. It is in our national interest that we help Tibet win its complete freedom," said CA Kallianpur, national director of Indian friends of Tibet, an organisation that raises awareness on the issue. For movie aficionados, 1997 Hollywood blockbuster Seven Years in Tibet provided some insight into the issue.
Language problem may have prompted many Tibetan women to opt for the beauty and nursing industry, but some have chosen to swim against the current. When she was 18, Ladakh-born Tsering Dolkar decided to set up a noodle factory here. The 48-year-old Grant Road resident said, "Mumbai is my second motherland. I toiled day and night for 30 years to succeed in my business and helped everyone along the way." Dolkar also has a biography in her name in Marathi.
Another successful businesswoman is 32-year-old Tenzin Kalden, owner of Dimsums restaurant in Versova. She fell in love with an Indian and married him. "We celebrate each other's festivals. Every Wednesday, I wear the Tibetan national dress, which is a new global trend."
Kalden, whose father was in the Tibetan army that fled with the Dalai Lama in 1950 and went back to fight at the border, said her parents were shocked when she decided to go to Mumbai to pursue the kitchen in 2000. Kalden, who was born and brought up in Himachal Pradesh, said, "I follow all Tibetan traditions that my parents taught me as they told me to remember my roots."
Kalden and many others believe that the little-known community should come out of its hermit attitude and mingle with others if it wants others to support the Tibet cause. All of them wish to see their homeland they have only heard about.
BOX
Many Tibetans throng Mumbai during winter to sell woolen clothes as that is their main source of income. They come from various parts of the country to Maharashtra and Gujarat and will be seen for three to four months outside CST selling their goods.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}