To My Friends:

My name is ----------- and I was born in 1975 in Amdo (Northeastern), Tibet. I have four younger sisters and one brother who live with my parents. At the age of ten, I started primary school. The school was very poor and they had no chairs, but they had four Tibetan teachers and seven Chinese teachers. When I was 17 years old I left school and learned to make statues of clay for a few years, and also I helped my parents.

In 1998, I began my escape from Tibet to India. I was trekking zigzag over roads and around high mountains for 30 days. After that the Nepalese police arrested use. One of them told me that I must go back to Chinese-occupied Tibet. After a little time, they took us in a van.

I felt very afraid to return to Tibet and I sighed repeatedly in disappointment. I thought of escaping from the police by jumping out, but the van was going very fast and the police had rifles. They were sitting on the roof of the van. Suddenly, people started to jump down from the van. Ten of us jumped but our two friends died when they hit the ground. It was a very sad moment in my life.

Finally we reached the Tibetan Reception Centre for refugees in Kathmandu. They gave us some money for our bus fares to Dharamsala, India. In Dharamsala, I was lucky to gain admission to the --------------- School to study English and Tibetan. I was only allowed to study for three years.

Now, my school time has finished and I’m having great difficulties with living in Dharamsala. I don’t have any relatives in India.

My major aim is to study English, but I would also like to study Tibetan and Chinese, too. My priority is English because it is the international language. If I learn English very well, then, when Tibetans carry the day, I can serve my government and my people. I have this sort of desire very strong in my mind. But, for example, for somebody to till fields, then some basic conditions are needed: a rich earth, enough water, etc. He or she, then, might get a good harvest. Even if such conditions exist, people often are afraid of the natural calamities. Similarly, it is hard to say how much result I can gain.