Mila Rangzen
NEW YORK CITY, US, 24 June 2018
My background
I am a bona-fide Tibetan born in Nepal who grew up in Dhondenling Tibetan settlement, Kollegal in South India, since its establishment in 1974 with my family in the midst of nature. I moved to the United States of America in 2001. After completing my schooling and College Education, I served my community as a school teacher for seven years. My wife is also from the same Settlement, and we are blessed with two sons with the ages of five and ten years, who are residing in the same settlement with their grandparents.
My 74-year old mother-in-law has a severe knee problem in the right leg, and my 83-year-old father-in-law has numerous medical issues including asthma and bronchitis. According to doctors, his days on earth are nearing their end.
Thus, Dhondenling Tibetan Settlement is the root of my family where we grew up with the same historical background — socially and culturally. All our relatives also reside in the same Settlement, abiding by the law of the land.
What is PAP?
PAP stands for Protected Area Permit. According to the website of Bureau Office of His Holiness, Delhi: All the Tibetan settlements established in India are classified as Protected Areas by the Government of India. Foreign nationals who wish to visit the Tibetan settlements in India for whatever reasons are required to apply for Protected Area Permit (PAP) as MANDATORY for visiting Tibetan Settlements in India.
The Foreigner PAP Act of India requires a foreigner to acquire PAP for two main reasons: for security reasons, and to protect the native people from outside influence on their culture.
Since the movement of Tibetans to the west in the 1990s, many Tibetans have moved to different parts of the world for better opportunities and a better life for their families. They have become citizens of different countries with different passports. Likewise, many Tibetans who have their roots in Dhondenling Tibetan Settlements Kollegal have also become citizens of other countries.
During ‘Trungla Yarsol’, the birthday celebration of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and ‘Losar’ the Tibetan New Year celebration, Tibetans who have gone away from the Settlement make it a point to visit their roots to be with their dear and near ones. This also serves as a family reunion period when all scattered family members out of compulsion come to their settlement to meet and rejoice with their loved ones.
Many Tibetans with different passports have travelled to different parts of Tibetan Settlements to meet their family members and relatives over many years, and many will visit in the future. I wonder how many of them have awareness about the requirement of getting PAP before the visit. Here I would encourage Tibetans with different passports (other than Indian) to share their personal experiences if they ever applied for PAP to visit their family members in Tibetan Settlements, and what was the length of the stay. If you were unaware of PAP and if you had visited Tibetan settlements, what was the kind of experience you underwent during your stay?
The reason why I am putting this question is that I had a very adventurous experience for not having applied for PAP to visit my two children and their ailing grandparents in Dhondenling Tibetan Settlement, Kollegal, as a Tibetan-American. I am sharing this experience not only to build awareness among Tibetans with different passports about the act but also how this act impacts the lives of many Tibetan families who share everyday peaceful society with the same political, cultural, and social heritage. I wish to also describe my reservations on how my case was handled at whose behest or instigation.
My present status
I am a veteran Tibetan-American who works independently as a translator, blogger, voiceover, and document preparer for Tibetans with issues related to asylum, immigration, medical, and legal. I also teach Spoken English to Tibetans and Spoken Tibetan to Americans. I am the editor of Tibet Star, which is a news portal about anything that is related to Tibet, Tibetans, and the world. I am a critical analyst who keeps a close eye on the misconduct, nepotism, negative regionalism, and lack of transparency and accountability of the political authority of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA).
Since both the Constitution of United States of America and the Charter of Central Tibetan Administration are framed on a democratic system of Governance, it gives me space and freedom to ask questions and reach to the bottom of the truth. Hence I write to shake up the consciousness of the everyday people not to take everything on face value but to cross-check facts and figures for the sustainability of the administration and society when it is never too late to question, and faith of people remain intact in the elected political leaders and the institution. I am clear in my heart and head not to be prejudiced or to have personal ill will towards any of the leaders apart from their accountability towards their people.
My vacation and the snitch
I was vacationing in India from January 2018 to June 2018, mainly to be with my loved ones strolling down memory lanes, and also exploring some new places with my family for pure pleasure and to share experience. During those five months, I visited the schools and the colleges that nurtured me into what I am today and met some people who made a difference in my life. I also captured those precious moments in my camera for future keep.
One must understand that even without PAP you can visit those protected areas during the daytime, but cannot stay over night. I visited Dhondenling Tibetan Settlement a few times during the daytime and returned to the nearest town for the night, which is entirely legal according to Indian law. But to my utter surprise the local cops and district intelligence came after me for PAP, and when they found there was no breach of rules from me, the next pretext was that I had overstayed in the Settlement by two weeks. My effort to reason out things failed because they were obeying the orders from the Home Ministry of India.
And guess what? Who is snitching the ears of Ministry of Home Affairs of India as if I were a double agent for both China and the USA? It is none other than the President of Central Tibetan Administration Sangay!
If my being a US veteran had raised this suspicion then I would argue that President Sangay also could be called an agent of PRC, because Chinese leaders hosted him during his visit to China before he was elected to power in CTA in 2011.
What triggered this malicious and baseless attack is this informative piece
Fortunately, Sangay’s attempt to hurt me and to silence my dissent by poisoning the ears of the home ministry proved at the end of the day nothing more than a loud fart in the water.
How does PAP impact Tibetans?
The primary purpose of having a Protected Area Permit is said to be for security reasons.
How can a Tibetan-American pose a security threat to the India who has raised him? Or will a Tibetan with a foreign passport adversely influence the culture of the Tibetans in the Settlement? Tibetans are the most peace-loving community in the world, who share the same compassionate and forgiving culture to such a degree that there is no point in influencing the culture of the Tibetan Settlement adversely.
If Tibetans with foreign passports neither pose a threat to Indian security nor to the Tibetan culture in the settlements, the yardstick by which the availing of PAP is determined, why didn’t the authorities concerned in CTA review it with their counterpart officials of the Government of India?
What is the point of having these restrictions when we are accusing the PRC leadership of giving no freedom of movement for the Tibetans in Tibet, whereas the tourists who are non-Tibetans have more freedom to move inside Tibet itself?
How come the administration of President Sangay, instead of misusing PAP for his political vendetta, had not raised it with his Indian counterpart for the relaxation of PAP for a person of Tibetan origin (who is not a citizen of China or any Islamic countries) to visit their families and relatives in the Tibetan Settlements? Is this Sangay’s gift to Tibetan origin with a foreign passport and a legacy to their children for having elected him to power to serve their interests?
From now on the instruction from the district law enforcement officials to the Settlement Officer is, that anytime a Tibetan-foreigner visits his village he must produce copies of the PAP to the village leader. And the village leader, in turn, hands the documents to the Settlement Officer, and the Settlement Officer, in turn, informs the district police. If the village leader fails to report, the Settlement Officer will chew him out. And if the village leader did his part and the Settlement Officer fails to inform the police, the latter will chew out the former. And this is not going to be a pleasant experience.
Sangay’s vindictiveness hurts thousands of Tibetans when they visit to stay in the settlements with which they have a long history and a deep connection. He reinforced the cops’ knowledge of our weak-kneed situation, and his act of snitching on me reminded them of how much money they can make from each Tibetan-foreigner, and the settlements are now infested with informants both locals and Tibetans too! As we speak the district cops in all the 28 colonies are reading this piece with acute interest. The entire blame goes to Sangay for ratting on me.
PAP is killing tourism
This PAP requirement is also ruining the economy of the Tibetans living in these settlements, and even the locals living around them, because tourism in these places is dead from day one.
Once tourism is allowed and promoted in these areas, with some renovation there is the possibility that every family, both Tibetans, and locals, living there can become multi-millionaires within a decade thereby eradicating poverty and becoming a contributing machine to the health of the local economy and also the economic health of the nation at large.
What can we do?
If the protection of Tibetan culture through non-assimilation is the number one objective because Tibetans are a different ethnicity and its culture even more unique, then the argument is flawed from the start. Matter of fact, the most significant influence on the Tibetan culture comes from local Indian culture, not that I am against it, but stating this for argument’s sake. Majority of the Tibetans in my settlement speak Kannada, smoke beedis, drink toxic white liquor, and eat with our right hand and wash our ass with the left hand whenever the shower is not available. Some of us wear longyi and local headgear. We hang around in the streets playing the state lottery eight hours per day as if this is our 9-5 job.
5% of the settlement people have love affairs and relationships and even marriages with the locals. For evidence, you need not dig deep. Just go and visit the Central School for Tibetans, Kollegal, and look at the 200-odd students gathered on the playground in the morning assembly and you will find that a good number of them are bi-racial.
If the non-assimilation of our culture with other cultures is the reasoning, then why did the CTA let over 50,000 Tibetans go to the West in the first place? In fact a few years ago the Dalai Lama begged the Canadian government to immigrate a thousand Tibetans from Arunachal Pradesh, and the process completed recently.
Thousands of Tibetans are living abroad who have their family members and relatives in India in the 28 Tibetan settlements where PAP is mandatory. This act separates Tibetans who share the same historical background and cultural affinity. It also separates husbands from wives, and wives from husbands, and parents from children. The Central Tibetan Administration headed by President Sangay, whose first job to solve the issue of Tibet, is duty bound to look into the grievances of Tibetan welfare works too. Hence we must urge the Indian administration to look into the relaxation of PAP to the Tibetans visiting Tibetan Settlements.
In the democratic set-up of governance, the difference of opinion is but natural with constructive criticism if only CTA President can understand. President Sangay cannot stab his critic with the dagger of PAP because Mila Rangzen, the Red Lamb of Utsang, will never cease to surface the hidden malice of power-greedy political leaders. If Sikyong refuses to straighten things up, I will from now on run my piece and more in both the Indian paper and the mainstream western media.
Till then dear reader, stay strong with a strategy and be determined to pay any price. Don’t succumb to a pitiful political vendetta, but instead make them pay an even more heavy price for treading on a king cobra taking care of rats that are destroying our crops.
About the author
Mila Rangzen is a US armed forces veteran serving the New York Community as an immigration translator. He can be reached at [email protected]
More articles by Mila Rangzen on Tibet Sun.
First thing, there won’t be any sound when you fart in the water, forget loud. Secondly, if your doubt is entirely resting upon Mr. Sangay then you should fight the matter through merit; because we believe you all are sailing in the same boat. I hope you got my point!
Mila,
Beggars are not choosers. yes, the rules are tough. and I think it is deliberate from Indian government side.
accept it, or don’t visit india again.
Mila has raised a very important question about real life problem that needs to be addressed, unfortunately, most of the people posting comments seem not to understand the issue. 1. There is an increasing number of Tibetans migrating to the West, and obtaining citizen of their country of residence, such as Canada, US and England. 2. The Tibetans with foreign citizenship cannot reside in the Tibetan settlements even though they are originally from the settlements, and still have a family connection. 3. The local Indian police abusing their power and extract bribes from visiting Tibetans from abroad. 4. Those who refuse to pay bribes are often reported for security violations, and often refused a visa for a future visits. I know of a number of Tibetans who have refused a visa because of this. This is a very serious problem facing our community and CTA has to find a solution. If you don’t think this is a serious problem, let me pose this to you: Sikyong Lobsang Sangay is an American citizen and holds US passport. By Indian law, Lobsang Sangay can not visit or stay in the Tibetan settlement. if he does stay, he would be violating Indian Law and can be deported.
The people who are posting stupid comments about Mila’s post are the idiots. There is a saying when a wise person points to the moon, the fool look at the finger.
Mila Rangzen is always dissing Sikyong Lobsang Sangay.
Why??? what’s going on?
Is it because sikyong is khampa, and Mila is a fundamentalist Utsang?
If mila rangzen is a Utsang fandamentalist then 99% of the the khampas are khampa fundamentalists too. How about that? He is doing exactly what you khampas have been doing for the past six decades in exile. The tribal mindset politics “us” against “them” mentality?
We Utsangs wholeheartedly support his attempt to awaken Utsangs who have become slaves of khampas. It will take time but he will be successful.
finally cowards want to become real men. although its coming from the comfort and security of your four walls at least its a start.
This start is the beginning of the end of khampa hedgemony and will pave way for a truly democratic society in exile now and in Tibet if ever it sees the rays of the sun of freedom.
Dhonchomphe, the guy who reported on you is none other than sumdho Norbu Tsering. This is how he became the chamcha of Sikyong. His daughter didn’t have the required percentage in class 12 th exam result to deserve medical scholarship from CTA but he went to Dharamshala to beg lobsang sangay to give it to his daughter anyway. Sikyong hooked him up. We Kollegal Tibetans should boycott his business for hurting so many Tibetans from foreign countries. He stole rs 20 lacs from CCF and had to resign. Shame on this lapdog.
Also this chophel Tsering from Bangalore needs to be taught a lesson. He is also behind it. Also kaydor.
spies spies spies everywhere.
tibet sun has never posted about the chinese spy in sweden, he is a tibetan called dorjee gyantsen! because of such spies many families are suffering inside tibet and also in exile, many rangzen follower youngsters in switzerland have families who have faced problems due to the similar tibetan spies in switzerland, they are no more active in our society, what a pity.
and since last 19 years of my stay in this country, i have learned, there are two tibetan womens organisation, one is called TFOS, or TWO and another one is a branch of TWA. the TFOS group does not accept HH Dalai Lama’s TWA, they claim they are swiss tibetan women, and playing fake role of TWA that people hardly doubt on them. now the result is that almost all the TFOS TWO, tibetan womens organisation, presidents are going to Tibet freely, are there spies in this group?… please wake up tibetans, i have learned and seen all these, you all should be aware of these, we should be careful about the active members in our community too.
Mila Rangzen too is probably one of them, he is so negative and always saying negativ words towards CTA, wake up tibetans.
Mila Rangzen seems to have just one objective in mind whenever he writes any piece for this news portal run by equally biased individual. Whatever topic he chooses to write, he ultimately comes down to degrading present Sikyong. His closeness with one of the strong adversaries of Sikyong is well known. It is highly laughable when he says that Sikyong could influence the MHA, govt. of India. I never knew CTA has so much influence. PAP has been there since the start of Tibetan settlements in India. And to say that Tibetans are no threat, recent conviction of a Tibetan in Sweden is there for all to see. So grow up, come out of your vicious cocoon and be an unbiased person as you say you are, which is another laughing matter in your post.
Tibetans generally pose a threat to most countries including India. since lot of Tibetans get passports by false means, such as refugee status and later citizenship in the west, this poses a complication for intelligence personal.
spies of Tamang area, chinese spies, nepalese tribes including lepchas, manangis, etc, all can get asylum as tibetan. Between 1970s to early 2000s, lots of nepalese sought asylum as Tibetans before tibetans knew about asylum in usa!!! Then they come and visit the settlements. Indian government recently proposed screening Tibetan visitors to dalai lama from tibet because tibetans are shady and cannot be trusted.
Please research and check your facts before blindly supporting Phayul Chippa on anything. More then 80,000 Nepali were resettled in US as a Nepali refugee from Bhutan.
I found multiple grammatical errors in your piece. I agree with the expressed sentiment, but have noticed a trend in ostentatious conduct from those Tibetans originally from India. Many seemingly believe that their English is amazing, when in fact it is at the level of an American undergraduate student. I suppose it is vastly superior to the English proficiency of most Tibetans in the West, which explains the ego. Nevertheless, Tibetans born in the West will always roll their eyes.
lobsang sangay did 3 year BA in ST Joseph college in Darjeeling, did 5-year law in Delhi University and studied and did research in Harward university for 16 years and still, his English both written and spoken not good enough but that doesn’t mean he should wallow in self-pity in the corner. or does it? you do the best you can and then move on. time and tide wait for none. so don’t get stuck with a colonial language.
Monty,
Grammar is important but not to the point gramma nazi like you to put us down. You must understand English is our second or even fifth language. Besides English what language can you write in? Those born in the West especially Europe sucks in writing too. This is not surprising because 10% of the western population are illiterate.
Monty, email the author directly and correct his english. he is open to criticism and feedback and will definitely appreciate it but you must understand it is his second language like it is with most of us indian tibetans. can you speak a language other than english let alone writing in a foreign language? tibetans born in europe which is also west sucks in english which is again understandable.