Dear Editor,
After going through an article on Tibet Sun titled “Time for CTA to distribute vacant houses to new-arrival refugees“, I was drawn back to my own days in Dharamshala as a newcomer, and the sense of unwelcome I felt from the Tibetans already settled in the diaspora. I am coming out to write about this so that otherSsanjors would feel empowered to share their experiences. I think the time has come to do bring the case into the open.
Here and there, one comes across references to the “Sanjor vs Shichak” topic in conversations, but the amount of literature on the matter — when compared to other prejudices such as ‘regionalism’ or ‘sectarianism’ — is eerily scant. One might wonder — why? But that’s another point. We do have some materials which will act as a backdrop to my opinion expressed here.
Dharamsala Days, Dharamsala Nights by a British woman is a book detailing the lives of a number of newcomers, or — as they are rather offensively called, ‘Sanjors’ — who wandered around Dharamshala trying to survive day by day. Then there is the brief ‘Sanjor vs Shichak’ on Tumblr. That particular author likened the label ‘Sanjor’ to the banned term ‘Negro’ — in that both strip the subject of their individuality and humanness, and therefore places them outside the social group. Tashi Wangchuk, a Tibetan filmmaker, writes on the Sanjor phenomenon in Miyul, entitled ‘Sarjor vs Sanjor’. Facebook is another source where, according to my observation, Sanjors discuss their sense of alienation from the wider India-born Tibetans. I hope readers will read through these, and contemplate, before denying the validity of these writings, and by extension, my writing.
Of course, the Sanjor vs Shichak issue isn’t one generally touched on by Tibetan politicians and Lamas. It is mostly taken up by Westerners or Tibetans who are no longer dependent on CTA, and can therefore speak up. That always struck me as a curious fact. I saw no advice by HH Dalai Lama on how to integrate Sanjors into existing Tibetan society.
Even more maddening is a video making the rounds on Facebook condemning Sanjors for migrating to the West in search of dollars. But why isolate Sanjors? All Tibetans — including the Tibetan-born ones — go abroad.
Further, Sanjors do have a strong feeling that CTA is prejudiced against them. CTA has sent Tibetans abroad in 4-5 waves. A group of Tibetans to Switzerland in 1960s, another group to USA in 1990s, another one in 2000s, and the latest one last year to Canada in 2018. But in all of them, Sanjors were excluded. CTA has sent people who are already settled in India, while ignoring newcomers who have no home? The question is — why?
An interesting thing about the Sanjor vs Shichak phenomenon is this: Shichak Tibetans always deny it, and say ‘you are imagining it’ or ‘you are being negative.’ But Western people – whether in Dharamshala or in the West — seem to acknowledge the problem. And they express their shock and sadness. What the heck is one refugee group doing to another?
This question came up during Sikyong’s 5-50 forum, where a student asked “Why are sanjors returning to Tibet?” Sikyong said “many reasons,” and acknowledged CTA might have failed. But in what way? He implied CTA failed to provide jobs and housing. But the question wasn’t only that. The man was talking about the societal discrimination and prejudice, the social environment in Dharamshala and other refugee settlements, that are faced, and continue to be faced by Sanjors. And to that, Sikyong said nothing! Nothing! And we need to hear something about the social attitude of the old settlers.
What do I want out of this write-up? Well, CTA can do a review of whether or not CTA and/or Shichak Tibetans have done injustice to the Sanjors. And secondly, there should be two MPs representing Sanjors in the Parliament so that their suffering could be put to an end. Otherwise, the war of Sanjor vs Shichak will get more and more intense; and I have no doubt in calling this divide worse than Cholkha-choelug case, and more like Blacks vs Whites, and nothing short of a symptom of an apartheid system.
Tenzin Tsering
Paris, France
15 September 2018
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed are those of the writer and not necessarily that of Tibet Sun
The author has a point. Those who are born and brought up in Shichak (Settlements) are in character and sentiment are Indians. I came to India when I was 14 years old, and meeting people from India, it is immediately clear they know nothing of Tibet and their taste and sentiment were more like Indians. A good example is Sikhong and Penpa Tsering, who act just like Indian thug politicians. A friend who was older than me and had received good Tibetan language education, he said that it was the arrival of the newcomers in 1990s that revived Tibetan language use in CTA.
Acha Tashi from Switzerland spoke againt Dalai Lama. She’s a newcomer from Tibet. She certainly resent Dalai lama. But she doesn’t sound out of her mind, she seemed to have her own reasons.
I think it is true what the author says here regarding Sanjor and shichak topic. On facebook, Indianized Tibetans(shichags) condemned her. But Sinicised Tibetans(sanjor or newcomers) were somewhat restrained in their comdemnation.
They think her agonies have some legitimacy considering the wide gap in privileges, social status, wealth, and life chances between the two groups of Tibetan refugees.
Up until recently, when Tibetans in US learnt of things like ‘ racism’ or ‘ prejudice’, it is socially acceptable to say, ” You can’t even do this?! Are you a Sanjor!’ These casual exchanges are sufficient proof that there’s bad blood between the sanjors and the shichags.
They are so different from one another. Their accepts are often mutually unintelligible. The inter-marriages between sanjor and shichak are as rare as marraiges between, say, Tibetans and Nigerians, or Cubans. In coming years, this issue will come out more visibly on the surface from the undeground. and it is gonna be wierd and uncomfortable.
Tibetan exile world is so messed up. Swiss Tibetan achala might have a point or two, perhaps?
My friends are ambivalent about my immigration status. I was born in Lhasa, moved to Nepal at 3, then lived in india, Dehradun. We moved to California in 2000 when I was 14. So my background is mixed.
Some day I am shichak. Someday I am sanjor. And both groups seem to accept me. But then I observed my sanjor friends and nyingjor friends are sarcastic about one another. Bit sad.
So the umbrella group “sanjor” is a fluid and dynamic concept.
My observation on this peculiar sanjor -shichak phonomenon
Self-immolation by Tibet-born Tibetans= 149
self-immolation by exile -born Tibetans = 2
Number of Tibetans sent abroad by CTA = 4,000
Number of Sanjors in the groups = less than 20
Obama can become US president. But a Sanjor cannot become CTA’s president. There never was, and never will be.
In the Tibetan exile society, newcomers are treated as just that slightly inferior to shichags. Personal anecdoate – One of my sanjor friend’s marriage to my girlfriend of three years fell apart after her family said ‘their princess will never share a bed with a third class Sanjor man.’ So this is the situation. Race relations in diaspora sucks. I secretly get bit ashamed of this stimagized subject.
Huping Ling writes of the subject:
“…The relationship between older immigrants and new arrivals are strained for a variety of reasons…
A 32-year-old sarjor Tibetan in USA said this ” Because I am a sarjor [Newcomer from Tibet],most Tibetans who are here are from India and Nepal. I feel they make fun of our accents, styles, appearance. Somehow[I feel]…left aside a lots of social interaction.”
source: Emerging Voice: Experience of Underrepresented Asian Americans at https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=EJfrLhHyjM8C&pg=PA83&lpg=PA83&dq=sarjor+tibetan&source=bl&ots=2xbsIMPCAJ&sig=HNC0qDLqN882Zewp16ut2EW6dU0&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjHtPvhlcTdAhUMZlAKHRWxBuUQ6AEwFHoECAIQAQ#v=onepage&q=sarjor%20&f=false )
“All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.”
” All Tibetans are equal, but Shichags are more equal than sarjors”
“Sarjors are happy in Tibet, Shichags are happy in India”
“A sarjor in India can call a shichak man sanjor in NY if the former had come to USA before the latter.”
“Those who arrived post 1979 are classed as Sarjors.”
“Sarjor is a one-way term. Early Tibetan refugees don’t refer to themselves as ‘Nyingjor.’ They simply class themselves as legitimate Tibetans. “This stand in sharp contradition to the tradition of refering to the older group if there happens to be two groups. ‘ Nyingma’ (or the Ancient Ones) are the shichak equivalent in terms of Tibetan Buddhism sect. The new schools of sakya, kagyu, and gelug are actually called ‘Sarma’ sects.
Can we call shichak people ‘ Nyingpa?’ or the old arrivers? Anyway, in France, tables are turned, and shichaks are becoming sarjors because sarjors were there FIRST.
Yes, it is TRUE 100 %. I still remember the painful experience amongst my fellow exiles in India as a newcomer in 1990s.
I was in a foster home called Tintin home in Upper TCV School. I came from Tibet in 1993. When I arrived, most kids made fun of me – they said I looked dirty. They called me’ Sarjor’, ‘Leypa Jangku’ ‘Khampa boy’ and what not, all in that tone which suggested they were cooler than me.
But looking back, there was nothing cool about their name-calling. As school years progressed, I moved from OC (opportunity class) to fifth standard in two years. Then due to hardwork, I scored the highest in English language in Class 12 board exam, and I won scholarship in US.
Now I work in a bank, and I see TCV students in America now and then. And most of those cool shichak kids were languishing in poor jobs like kichen assistents. And I am sure the Americans must still be taunting them as ‘new arrival refugees’ from the third world. or, as Tibetan parlance would have it, white american colleagues must be calling them’ Sarjors’.
So, this is my life story. How I was born in Tibet, educated in TCV India, and now working in the Big apple. My life in india was beset with pride and prejudice from thankless settlement people. And I am sorry, I hate them more than the Red Chinese who occupied my country. Shichaks are cruel, selfish, and uncaring people.
It is right that my mom used to say, ‘No matter what happens, never marry a Shichak girl. Shichak people have no honour. ‘I have the proof.
Yes, two Sanjors chithues to represent sarjor interest.
actually parliament should be 70% sanjors and 30 % shichaks because it represents tibetans inside tibet, not 1.5 lac in india.
but present parliament structure seem to cater to only exile population.
Sadly true. Let me start by saying that the second wave of Cuban exiles was met with comparable disdain and coldness.
Why is it not acknowledged? Well, I’d say humans in general and asians in particular don’t like to examine – much less openly acknowledge – their behavior when they know deep inside they are being petty at best, cruel at worst.
How about Donald Trump ? He is from a German refugee family and look at him !
The problem is that we expect more from HH’s people, and they are only human.