Hello! My name is Emily and I'm preparing to leave for India on the UA TEXT Project. First, a little bit about the purpose of the program. We are traveling to Dharamsala in the Himachal Pradesh region of Northern India, which is where the Tibetan Government in Exile operates. It is also where a large chunk of exiled Tibetans live as refugees. Tibetans began fleeing Tibet beginning in 1959 at the height of the Chinese takeover, traveling through the Himalayas and crossing into India, Bhutan and Nepal. Many followed the 14th Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual and political leader, to Dharamsala where he set up a democracy in exile for Tibetans in preparation for one day returning to Tibet.
We are journeying to Dharamsala to record the stories of the Tibetans who fled Tibet in 1959. We want to make sure that life in Tibet before the Chinese occupation is preserved. The TEXT (Tibetans in Exile Today) Project conducts and records interviews with elderly Tibetans during our stay in Dharamsala. Before we get to Dharamsala we will be spending time in Goa and Mundgod in the Karnataka region of Southern India. We are also spending time in the capital New Delhi and of course going to see the Taj Mahal in Agra.
I’ll have a million pictures and stories to tell while I’m there, let’s just hope I’ll find cyber-cafes or any other form on internet access!
