A book gives wings to voices in exile

March 7, 2016;

Times of India, March 5, 2016,

KOCHI: Tibetans in exile have many stories to share with the world, stories of how they were uprooted from a land they inhabited for centuries, how their people were scattered across the Indian subcontinent, where they sought aslylum and how they hold on to their culture and continue to live with the hope of returning to homeland.

K N Raghavan, commissioner of customs, Kochi, traces the history of Tibet and its people in his new book ‘Vanishing Shangri La’, released in Kochi on Friday.

“It was my friend M K Muneer, minister for social welfare and panchayats, who sparked my interested in the topic by gifting me a book. Very little is known about their political history, and how Tibetans became a nation in exile since 1959. Dalai Lama is a world-renowned and widely respected figure, but few people know what happened in Tibet and why the people were forced to flee,” said Raghavan, whose book traces the history of Tibetan nation from the time of its 13th Dalai Lama. The greatest challenge in writing a book, when the author isn’t directly related to the subject, is always a sense of distance that the reader may feel, but according to Raghavan, such a distance is sometimes necessary, especially when dealing with a delicate issue involving two countries. “As a bureaucrat, and as someone looking at the matter objectively, getting a detached view was imperative. But I had the good fortune of meeting his holiness in person and he helped me greatly in understanding the situation,” he said

The book was released by Tempe Tsering, the representative of his holiness the Dalai Lama, on his first visit to the state

“As a people, we believe in non-violence and harmony so that only way we shall approach the issue is with peaceful propositions. The people of Tibet have made India their second home, but how long can we live in exile with younger generations, who don’t have any idea of how their motherland looks and feels. But we are hopeful that a day shall come when we will return to Tibet,” said Tsering. The emissary said he has been enthralled by Kerala and would request the Dalai Lama to make a trip to the state.