Note: Following the recent fake Bhutanese refugee scandal involving high-profile politicians and bureaucrats in Nepal as well as refugee leaders, the Nepali media, Setopati, published a long form on the refugee issue. The piece in Nepali begins with Chandra Dhungana's story -- a refugee whose identity is maligned in the midst of the recent scandals. It then discusses Nepal-Bhutan relations from a historical standpoint. It suggests Nepalis began migrating to Bhutan as early as the 8th century. Additionally, it dwells some time on Nepal-Bhutan relations during the times of Mallas in Nepal and Zhabdrung in Bhutan. Finally, the article highlights the current status of refugees who are still in the camps in Jhapa.
This morning a friend shared a link to the article. I tried translating it. But to translate it manually is too much of an effort. So I used AI to translate the text. However, I realised that AI's version can be misleading sometimes. So, I compared the Nepali and the English version produced by AI and, whenever necessary, I manually translated the text to reduce the distortion of meaning from the original. Whenever the text was matching in meaning, I retained it. This has caused a significant variation and the quality of the prose. But the meaning is more or less retained.
I can say not much information is lost in translation, though the stylishness of the Nepali writing is certainly lost. I, however, do not agree with all of what is written. Historicity is questionable at times. Plus, the sources the article mentions, besides being too few, are mostly not very reliable. Of course, except for the one Nepali source - नेपाल भुटान ऐतिहासिक सम्बन्ध र जोङ्–सार–पा एवं ल्हो–छाम्–पा समुदाय- which I have not read and am not in a position to comment on. The article raises some pertinent issues as well as mentions some incident in history that are worth researching.
Bhutan: 400-Year History
Sudip
Shrestha
Introduction
"My
name is Chandra Dhungana. And I am not a fake Bhutanese refugee."
As
he introduced himself, it felt natural to mention his name and surname, but in
the current context, we thought it was natural for him to attach “a genuine
Bhutanese refugee” tag to his name.
Following
the reports about defrauding Nepali citizens of millions with the promise to
send them to the US as Bhutanese refugees, genuine refugees like Chandra find themselves
in a midst of an identity crisis.
Chandra
resides in the Beldangi refugee camp in Jhapa, Nepal, in hut number D2/159.
Apart
from his six-year-old son, Chandra has no other family members. Most members of
his family, including his mother, have already migrated to the United States
years ago. Neither Chandra nor his son's name is currently listed as a refugee.
In
2006, 2008, and 2012, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) verified the Bhutanese refugees. In all these events Chandra was not
present in the camps; he was in India for work. His minor son, Surya Dhungana,
was also not included in the list after his father's departure.
In
2019, a joint team of UNHCR and the Refugee Coordination Unit (RCU) returned to the
camps to take photos and conduct interviews with refugees who had missed registrations
earlier.
Chandra
didn’t miss that opportunity.
He
went along with his son, got their names recorded, had their photos taken, and gave
an interview.
As
the list was compiled, Chandra's satisfaction knew no bounds. But now, he feels
disappointed that the list is now caught in a controversy.
After the fraud of Nepali citizens having been registered as Bhutanese refugees has been
made public, everyone included in the
list is being looked at suspiciously.
"We
are like the genuine note kept inside the wad of fake notes," says
Chandra. "Once the wad is counterfeit, who cares to recognise the genuine!
Our genuine story will overshadow the wealth of the fake ones!"
...
This
series about Bhutanese refugees began starts with Chandra Dhungana because of
the ongoing controversy.
We
have been working on this series for more than three years. We were researching
how Nepali people entered Bhutan, when it started, and how they became
refugees, expelled from their country.
Bhutan
built an international image as “happy and peaceful", but we wanted to
shed light on the tears and pain of the Nepali people behind that image. We
wanted to tell the story of the ethnic cleansing that took place against the
Bhutanese Nepalis.
Our
series begins in that era when Bhutan did not exist as a country.
What
we now know as Bhutan was called "Lho Mon" by the Tibetans. Lho Mon is
a Tibetan term for “southern land”. The Nepalis called it Bhot-anta.
In
the mid-17th century, a person entered the land we now call Bhutan or Lho Mon,
and he turned this land into a country. He united small kingdoms and
communities, and connected small territories and sects. He established a rule based
on religion and introduced the new identity of "Druk Yul," meaning
"land of the Thunder Dragon."
That
person was the first Dharma King of Bhutan, Ngawang Namgyal.
Ngawang
Namgyal history is almost legendary. Before coming to Bhutan, he was a monk at
the Ralung Monastery in Tibet. He considered himself the reincarnation of the
religious guru Pema Karpo of the Drukpa lineage and claimed his right as the
successor of the Ralung Monastery. However, the rulers of the Chang region of
Tibet did not support him. His conflict with these rulers ultimately made it
impossible for him to stay at the Ralung Monastery.
How
strange the coincidence in history! Four hundred years later, the country founded
by Ngawang Namgyal – a refugee himself –should evict Bhutanese of Nepali origin,
just the way Ngawang Namgyal was evicted.
Over
a hundred thousand Bhutanese of Nepali origin had to become refugees from a country
founded by a refugee!
In
this series, we will take you back to that time when Nepalese first entered
Bhutan.
Fourteen
hundred years ago, in the seventh century, there was an emperor in Tibet,
Srong-tsang-Gampo. He had married Bhrikuti, the daughter of the Licchavi king
Udayadev of Nepal. According to Tibetan oral tradition, Princess Bhrikuti
brought with her the statues of Akshobhya, Maitreya, and Tara as dowry. Some
artisans from Kathmandu had accompanied Bhrikuti to Tibet. Later, Srong-tsang-Gampo
became involved in the propagation of Buddhism. He went to Bhutan and built
Buddhist monasteries. These Buddhist monasteries are believed to have been
built by the Nepalese artisans who had gone to Tibet with Bhrikuti. There is a
belief that some of these Nepalese artisans stayed in Bhutan.
Then
comes the entry of the tantric religious guru Padmasambhava. In the eighth
century, Guru Padmasambhava visited various regions of Bhutan and imparted
tantric teachings. Even today, the Buddhist community in Bhutan reveres him as
'Guru Rinpoche'. It is believed that this religious guru once came to Farping
in Kathmandu for penance, and then went to Bhutan via Tibet. At that time, some
Nepalese followers are also believed to have followed him to Bhutan and settled
there.
We
do not know who these Nepalis were that had accompanied Srong-tsang-Gampo and
Padmasambhava. No historical records are available on these events.
The
entry of Nepalis into Bhutan which is verified by historical records began some
four hundred years ago.
At
that time, Dharma Raja Ngawang Namgyal, who was trying to consolidate Bhutan
into a new structure and establish a systematic state, had established diplomatic
relations with the Malla Kingdom of Gorkha and Kathmandu. He was influenced by
the governance system set up by King Ram Shah in Gorkha, and the Buddhist
monasteries of the Kathmandu Valley had a great influence on him. There is a
history of him coming to Swayambhu in Kathmandu before he went to Bhutan as a
refugee, where he stayed for some time and received Buddhist education.
Because
of these bilateral relations, Bhutan’s Dharma King Namgyal paid two visits to Gorkha
and the Kathmandu Valley during his reign. During both visits, he took with
him a large number of people of all four varnas (Brahmins, Kshatriyas,
Vaishyas, and Shudras) to Bhutan. King Lakshmi Narasimha Malla of Kathmandu and
King Siddhi Narasimha Malla of Patan also sent Newar artists, including
sculptors and painters, along with Namgyal to Bhutan.
Based
on historical records, this is the first
phase of Nepalese entering Bhutan.
Does
history acknowledge those Nepalese? Are their names recorded in history?
In
this series of stories, we will introduce you to those individuals who, four
hundred years ago, entered Bhutan by crossing over the bridge of the
relationship cultivated by King Ram Shah of Gorkha and the Dharma Raja Ngawang
Namgyal of Bhutan. Today, some of the refugees might even be their descendants
from Gorkha!
From a historical standpoint, the diplomatic relationship established between the then
Gorkha state and Bhutan was even firmer over time. This resulted in a protracted
migration from Nepal to Bhutan. The Bhutanese palace had allowed those Nepalese
to cultivate the dense jungle of the southern region. They farmed there. They
did business. They also defended the southern border as
human walls.
What
was the settlement of the Nepalese in Bhutan like at that time? How did the
state manage them? We will elaborate on this for you.
The
political ties between Nepal and Bhutan were deeply rooted to the extent that
Nepal provided its support when the first king of the Wangchuck dynasty, Ugyen
Wangchuck, ascended to power. Ugyen Wangchuck had asserted his dominance over
other provincial rulers in Bhutan, proclaiming himself as king. This marked the
inception of a monarchy rooted in dynastic tradition in Bhutan.
History
has it that Chandra Shamsher Rana convinced the British to accept Ugyen
Wangchuck as the monarch of Bhutan. Chandra Shamsher and Ugyen were mit[1]. Due to this camaraderie,
he facilitated a meeting between Ugyen and Lord Minto of the British
Government. In this series, we have encapsulated a plethora of such historical
instances of bilateral relations between the two nations.
Among
the Bhutanese Nepali were such persons who had earned the trust of Bhutanese rulers
and been entrusted with the rights to administer the southern belt. Garjaman Gurung
was one of them. His status among Bhutanese Nepalis was equivalent to that of a
'king'. One day, he went to the Bhutanese court and requested to be made the
'Prime Minister', or a tin sarkar.[2] This startled the
Bhutanese court, and they conspired to assassinate him. We will narrate to you
the story of his rise and fall.
In
the 1950s, when India became independent from the British Empire, and Nepal
overthrew the Rana regime to establish a democracy, a democratic movement also
sparked in Bhutan. Girija Prasad Koirala himself went there to organize the
Bhutanese Nepalis who were participating in the Bhutanese movement. How did
this movement in Bhutan start? How did it end? What strategies did the then
Bhutanese King Jigme Dorje Wangchuck adopt to suppress the movement? We will
describe all of this in detail.
At
the same time, we will also tell you the story of the first martyr of Bhutan,
Mahasur Kshatri, who lost his life in the said democratic movement.
After
the first democratic movement, King Jigme Dorje Wangchuck granted two
important political rights to the Nepalese in Bhutan — first, he granted them
citizenship and second, he ensured their participation in the National
Assembly. In this regard, Jigme Dorje's reign was a happy time for the Nepalese
in Bhutan.
That
happy time was interrupted by his own son, Jigme Singye Wangchuck.
During
the reign of Jigme Singye Wangchuck, many such laws were abolished or amended,
which his father had introduced with the intention of integrating the Nepalese
in Bhutan into the national mainstream. He implemented discriminatory laws
against Nepali speakers. Their rights to citizenship were revoked. Their rights
to land were lost. Their rights to language and culture were taken away. And,
finally, they were forced to live as refugees after leaving Bhutan.
What
were the discriminatory laws that forced the Nepalese in Bhutan to become
refugees? How were they turned from citizens into non-citizens? And how were
they forced to leave their country and become refugees? We will discuss these
issues in detail in this story series.
We have written this series reflecting four
hundred years of Bhutanese history in a narrative non-fiction style. The events
mentioned herein have been drawn from historical records, tipots, and books.
Some incidents have been recounted by historians researching the subject, and
Bhutanese refugees. We have used narration occasionally to present these
historical events more simply. We are aware that narration should neither obscure
nor curtain history. Hence, we have only adopted the narrative style in places
where it aids in the lively and engaging depiction of non-fiction. You will be
easily able to distinguish which part is narrative and which is non-fiction as
you read through this series.
We
have divided the story series into various chapters. Starting tomorrow, we will
be publishing two or more chapters every Friday. Each instalment will be about
ten thousand words long. The entire series will amount to approximately 80,000
words.
We
visited the Beldangi camp twice and interacted with the Bhutanese refugees
living there. They shared with us the injustices they had to endure in Bhutan
and the pain of being displaced from there. They shared the hardships they have
faced living as refugees in Nepal. We have recorded their stories, which were
told over conversations lasting more than fifteen hours. These experiences and
stories will be included in our series.
Similarly,
we spoke with the families of Nepali Bhutanese who have spent their lives in
various prisons in Bhutan. They still go to Bhutan with great sadness to meet
their family members. Sometimes they get to meet them, and sometimes they just return.
We will share their stories with you.
We
have also heard about the experiences of Bhutanese Nepalese who have settled in the
United States under the third-country resettlement program. Their journey from
Bhutan to Nepal and finally to America will also be part of our series.
Historian
Ramesh Dhungel, who has delved into the history of Bhutan and the dimensions of
Nepal-Bhutan relations, has greatly helped us. We had more than a four-hour
discussion in three different with Dhungel, who conducts historical research on the Tibetan language, Tibetan civilisation, and Buddhist culture and tradition. His
book 'Nepal Bhutan Historical Relations and Jon-Sar-Pa and Lho-Cham-Pa
Community' (नेपाल भुटान ऐतिहासिक सम्बन्ध र जोङ्–सार–पा एवं ल्हो–छाम्–पा समुदाय)[3] greatly
assisted us in preparing this series. Many of the events we have mentioned here
are based on this book.
We
also used 'Unbecoming Citizens' by Michael Hutt, a scholar of Nepal and the
Himalayan region, and 'Bhutan: A Movement in Exile' by DNS Dhakal and
Christopher Strawn as source materials.
Michael
Hutt's book was helpful for us to understand the settlement and arrangement of
Nepalis in Bhutan from the historical events of Bhutan. Similarly, the book by
Dhakal and Strawn assisted in understanding the first phase of the democratic
movement and subsequent events. Dhakal himself is a Bhutanese refugee. He has
long advocated for the rights of refugees.
While
we were exploring, unearthing, the four hundred years of Bhutan's history, the
fake refugee case became public. Some high-level political leaders and
administrators were involved. A case against 30 of them has been filed in
Kathmandu District Court on Wednesday.
This
new development added a new chapter to our story series - the chapter of
Chandra Dhungana.
We
got in touch with Chandra through Dil Bahadur Mahat, also known as Dil Bhutani,
who lives in the Beldangi Refugee Camp.
We
first met Mahat three years ago and had a lengthy conversation. After the fake
refugee issue came to light, we spoke with him again.
Even
though this investigation revealed the group making fake refugees, he expressed
deep regret over the situation where genuine refugees are losing their
identities in the same process.
'Whoever
is fake, only their money got wasted. But those who are genuine refugees, their
identity itself is sinking, that's the pain,' he said, 'those who missed out on
registering on the refugee list for various reasons will face a greater
problem!'
'Those
genuine refugees who missed out were gradually registering themselves and
obtaining identity cards. Now the hope is dying.'
He
also pointed out another problem that all Bhutanese refugees might have to
face.
'Bhutan
accused the people living in the refugee camps of not being Bhutanese citizens.
We have always protested against it. This issue will give strength to the
accusation of the Bhutanese government,' he said.
He
is also afraid that this will weaken the repatriation movement of Bhutanese
refugees.
Since
1990, Bhutan has expelled over 120,000 Nepali-speaking people from the country.
They lived as refugees in various camps in Jhapa and Morang. Of these, 113,000
have gone to the United States, Australia, and some European countries under a
third-country resettlement program. Now, more than 6000 refugees are left here.
Some of these refugees are engaged in a movement for repatriation. They want to
return to Bhutan, not go to America or Europe. Dil Mahat is one of them. He
says this issue has greatly damaged the movement of refugees who are discussing
the option of repatriation.
In
the meantime, he is happy that the issue of Bhutanese refugees has once again
received discussion. He says that this could bring to light again the issue of
the remaining genuine refugees.
In
the final minutes of a nearly hour-long telephone conversation, Dil Mahat
brought up the case of Chandra Dhungana and said, "He is a genuine refugee
suffering in the crowd of imposters."
Chandra
Dhungana had fled Bhutan and came to Nepal as a refugee thirty years ago, in
1992, from the Lalenai village located in Chirang, Bhutan.
He
was 16 at the time.
His
father had passed away in Bhutan. He came to Nepal with his elderly mother, two
brothers aged 12 and 5, and two sisters aged 10 and 7.
The
incident of fleeing from Bhutan still haunts him.
"There
was a raging conflict in the village," Chandra collected his dim memories
and elaborated his story, "At that time, Bhutan had forced the Nepalese to
give up the Daura-Suruwal and Dhaka Topi and wear the gho. We were not allowed
to study the Nepali language. Some schoolteachers were even prosecuted for
teaching in the Nepali language."
"We
Nepali speakers were mostly Hindus," he continued, "We heard rumours that
we would not be allowed to celebrate festivals like Dashain and Tihar. We heard
that we could not even conduct our weddings and rituals according to our
customs. More terrifying than that, Bhutanese military forces started to have
evil intentions towards our daughters. It became difficult for us to protect
our dignity and lives."
This
fear led Nepali-speaking families to abandon their villages and start moving,
one after another, like threads in a broken loom, Chandra said, "We felt
it was better to stay alive by fleeing Bhutan, rather than dying there."
Chandra's
family lived in a hut belonging to their relatives on the bank of the Mai River
after they entered Nepal. After about four months, they moved to the Beldangi camp.
So
why couldn't Chandra, who came to Beldangi camp thirty years ago, make a 'Refugee
Card'?
"Because
I wasn’t fortunate. Being the eldest son in the family, naturally, the responsibility
towards my younger siblings fell on me,” he said, "I used to go out of the
camp for work. I mostly went to India. In the meantime, the 'Refugee Card' was
issued three times. Everyone in the family got it, but I kept missing it."
When
the first and second refugee certifications were taking place, he was working
as a security guard in Gujarat, India. While in India, he was diagnosed with
jaundice. Even after knowing that the verification was being done in the camp,
he could not return due to his illness.
When
he returned later, the certification process was over. He lived in Nepal for a
few years. He married a girl from outside the camp and started living outside
the camp. But his family life was not stable. They separated.
In
the meantime, his brother, who had gone to work in a coal mine in India, went
missing. After not hearing from him for a long time, Chandra went to India to
search for his brother. He explored the mines he knew about. He worked there
for a while. This time, he had brought his son Surya along, who was just three
years old at the time.
The
third phase of verification took place at this time. The mother, who was
excluded earlier, registered her name and went to America. Chandra’s name,
along with the three-year-old son who was with him, did not appear on the
refugee list this time either.
"At
least if I had left my son with my mother, his name would have been on the
list!" Chandra grumbled tiredly, "If luck was on our side, maybe
he would have been in America with his grandmother, uncles, and aunts!"
"Sometimes
I feel like my share of the unfortunate lot has been partly shared with him as
well," he said.
If
excluding his younger brother, who disappeared in India, only Chandra and his
son remain in the camp from the family. His younger brother who went to America
under the resettlement program is in Pennsylvania. His younger sister's home is
also there. Their mother lives with both, in turn.
"You
have another sister, don’t you?"
"She
got married here," a slight happiness sparked in Chandra’s voice,
"She is in Itahari. She is the only one I can call my own in Nepal now.
Sometimes she comes here with my niece and nephew, sometimes I visit them."
"Even
though my heart is a baggage of million pains, seeing her happy makes me happy.
What else does it take to be happy anyway!" he said.
While
all the members of the family reached America and Australia, the only glimpse
of real happiness in Chandra’s life, who is living a 'haphazard life' here with
his son, came when his and his son's names appeared on the refugee list for
the clearance count.
The
names did appear, but they still could not get the refugee card this time.
After
a recent revelation that counterfeit refugees were slipped into the list,
Chandra is again disheartened. He feels his fate has cheated him again.
Chandra
is currently earning a meagre living for himself and his son by doing odd jobs.
They have also managed to raise a few goats. Occasionally, relatives living
abroad lend a helping hand.
"I've
spent half of my life like this, but I fear all this chaos will ruin my son's
life," mourned Chandra, "Without the refugee card, one doesn't get
the recognition of being a refugee. We can't open a bank account. Even if I
want to take up a decent job or start a business, it's not possible without the
card."
His
son, Surya, is about to take his final exams for grade 11. He studies at Damak
Himalayan Secondary School. So far, he hasn't needed to show a refugee card at
school. Chandra is worried about whether Surya will have the opportunity to
attend university in the future.
In
a conversation spanning an hour and a half, Chandra vented his heart out,
sharing his countless sorrows from his experience. In the end, he appealed to
us, "Please make sure everyone hears the story of genuine refugees like
us. We are lost in the noise of fake refugees. I hope it opens the eyes of
those who doubt our identity!"
Usually,
in the confusion between genuine and fake refugees, it's often the genuine ones
who suffer more. The fakes have themselves to blame; they create some chaos and then disappear.
Even
here, once action is taken against the guilty, the fake refugees are likely to
fade away. Then, only the genuine ones remain. But by then, there might already
have been a crisis in their identity. When someone introduces themselves as 'I
am a Bhutanese refugee,' the tendency to laugh and create a stigma by questioning
'Genuine or fake?' may emerge.
With
the aim of ethnic cleansing, the Bhutanese government, which committed genocide
on its own Nepali-speaking citizens, pushed them across the border, and denied
that they were Bhutanese citizens despite them having lived there for
generations, could also tomorrow refer to this case to reiterate its claim.
In
such a situation, the story of Lhotsampa Bhutanese refugees, who have been
forced to live as refugees for more than thirty years due to the outbreak of
communal violence, will be overlooked.
The
international community, particularly Western countries, are amused by at the
'Gross National Happiness Index' that the Bhutanese government publicizes every
year. They barely remember the incidents of human rights violations in Bhutan
at the beginning of the 1990s. The stories of Nepali-speaking refugees expelled
from Bhutan receive less attention in the international press. The narratives
of human rights violations and refugees are being overshadowed by the tourist
descriptions of innocent Bhutan.
Even
today, Bhutan's misleading narrative to the international community about the
political prisoners they keep in various jails in inhuman conditions does not
make international news. Instead, Bhutan's economic growth rate, progress in
the realm of freedom of expression, the tales of their king and queen, and the
so-called 'Gross National Happiness Index' are promoted in an advertisement
style.
This
may erase the incidents of human rights violations and ethnic cleansing in
Bhutan, preventing the creation of the same narrative that the Bhutanese
government is trying to create.
In
this situation, the story of over a hundred thousand Lhotsampa Bhutanese
refugees expelled from their own land is fading away.
The
purpose of our story series is to not let the suffering of Bhutanese refugees
and the history of the Nepali-speaking Bhutanese community be forgotten.
So
that no Bhutanese refugee has to say when introducing themselves —
'My
name is Chandra Dhungana. And I am not a fake Bhutanese refugee.'
In
the first part of our story series tomorrow, we will discuss that historical
era, which is directly linked to Bhutanese refugees.
Chandra
Dhungana, Dil Mahat, and refuges like them, who, after being expelled from
their country, are taking refuge in different countries, had their fates seal nearly four hundred years
ago at the Gorkha Durbar, when Ram Shah was the king of Gorkha.
At
that time, the queen of Gorkha saw a dream that connected her to the Bhutanese
Dharma King Ngawang Namgyal.
What
was that dream?
How
did the relationship between Bhutan and Gorkha crop up?
And
how did the story of Nepalis entering Bhutan begin?
...
[1] In
Nepali culture, there is a practice of anointing friendship into something purer,
long-lasting, and sacral. Two individuals become mit/mitini when after their relationship
is anointed in a ceremony. For ease of understanding, let’s think of this as a form
of brotherhood blessed by deities through a ceremony.
[2] The
title was used by Rana Prime Ministers of Nepal. While a King is panch (5)
sarkar, the Rana PM was a tin (three) Sarkar.
[3] The
book is apparently written in Nepali.
