I was born and brought up in a very small Tibetan Settlement in Miao, located in the extreme north-eastern part of India, Arunachal Pradesh. I did my schooling till the seventh standard at Central School for Tibetans (CST), Miao and then was transferred to Upper Tibetan Children’s Village School (TCV), where I completed my schooling. I studied English literature for my undergraduate from Lady Shri Ram College for Women and went on to pursue Graduate studies in International Relations from Jawaharlal Nehru University.
After completing my Master’
s program, I thought of doing M.Phil. but then decided to take a sabbatical to introspect and explore my interests further before I head on to engage into a proper research field. While in JNU I got the opportunity to intern at National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in Delhi and I realized the need of experience and the importance exploring before committing to any field of research. And that is how I decided to apply for an internship at Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD).
My interest in Human right studies was the primary catalyst for the internship at TCHRD which is the only NGO in the Tibetan Community who monitors, do research and expose Chinese Government’s gross violation of human rights in Tibet. The Centre also works for the promotion of democratic values in the Tibetan Community.
I have been doing the internship for two months and I feel enriched and enlightened like never before. The Centre is a huge platform to learn, reflect and grow. I worked on several things; I helped in standardizing the names of political prisoners from 1991 to 2016 and fact checking and verifying the information of political prisoners’ database.
While I am interning at TCHRD, I got so many opportunities to be part of their programs like workshops, and events. I got the privilege to attend two days of the four-day workshop on data collection for TCHRD staffs. I learnt a lot from the workshop, especially how to collect data and how to make the same a reliable source for any individual or organizations. One would think that possessing a graduate degree would be enough to equip a person to work professionally, but this internship proved it otherwise. It was a challenging experience but staff members at the centre guided me through my projects and also taught me to use softwares I had never heard of before.
Moreover, I have also attended two book launch events; first one was collection of poems and articles ( “For Freedom and Equality”) by an imprisoned writer Shokjang (Drukar Gyal) by TCHRD in collaboration with PEN (Tibetan) International during International day of the imprisoned writer (15th November) and second event was fully initiated by TCHRD to launch a book, “Bhod kyi Shewei Thaptsoe” (Tibet’s Peaceful Struggle) written by a Tibetan activist Lingtsa Tsetan Dorjee who ‘disappeared’ in June 2013 while he was undertaking his second peace march from India to Tibet.
The staff members of TCHRD are very cordial and welcoming. I have made the great connection with each one of them. Ms. Tsering Tsomo la, director of TCHRD is very encouraging and inspiring. I have learnt so many things from her. It has been a great experience working with the staffs of TCHRD. I would like to offer my heartfelt gratitude to the director of TCHRD for giving me this internship opportunity and letting me explore and enlighten my knowledge and to all staffs of the Centre for being so supportive and amazing.
I would like to thank you Empowering the Vision (ENVISION) for always being there for us whenever we needed your guidance and support. I am always grateful to ENVISION for their unwavering support and opportunities that they bring forth for the Tibetan students like me. I am honoured to be one of the recipients of this year’s fellowship. I would like to encourage other Tibetan students to take this opportunity to explore and get exposure in various fields of interest.
I think taking a year or even few months to explore your interest is a new phenomenon that is slowly beginning to interest our community. And having done that myself, I would gladly recommend it to others.