Twelve years ago, Tsering Dhondup made the treacherous journey across the mountains out of Tibet into Nepal, India and eventually to Australia. It started with a 16 day and night trek over the Himalayan mountains, a risky hike which many Tibetans before him had taken to escape the oppressive presence of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in their homeland.

Dhondup, a former political prisoner of the CCP, had been arrested for his participation in a peaceful protest in Tibet. He was imprisoned for five years and then monitored in his village for a further five after his release. The lack of “human dignity and values” spurred him to leave.  

“If you are obliged to the communist ideology then it is okay, but if you are seeking freedom or protest then you will be tortured as I have faced the consequences,” he explains through an interpreter.  

Dhondup and many others’ struggle began 75 years ago on January first, 1950, when The People’s Republic of China (PRC) first asserted national sovereignty over Tibet. Since then, there has been a string of non-violent protests resisting the CCP’s rule, dating back to 1959 with the Khampa rebellion and Lhasa uprising, demonstrations and protests in Lhasa throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s, and the 2008 uprising in Tibet. The ongoing persecution of Tibetans expressing opposition was described as an “alarming reality” by 13 independent UN Human Rights Special Procedures in a letter to the Chinese government in 2024.

It is common for many Tibetans to flee Tibet to resettle elsewhere in hopes of a life where their culture and movement for freedom is accepted. Amongst many others scattered around the world, one of these communities resides in Melbourne. The 2011 Australian census saw 995 people record their ancestry as Tibetan. In Victoria, a tight community of 174 formed between 1991 and 2015. 

The arrival of a Tibetan refugee in Australia is often met by the welcoming members of this new community, who wait at the airport, extending their hands to help newcomers.  

Tenzin Lobsang Khangsar has worked closely with a multitude of organisations campaigning for Tibet in Melbourne and currently operates with the Australia Tibet Council (ATC) in tandem with the International Tibet Network (ITN). Part of his role is aiding refugees’ resettlement in Melbourne.  

“We welcome them at the airport and then arrange their accommodations, so we advocate for them. And I have been building good relationships with real estate agents around the Footscray area, so through that connection we manage to get them private rentals,” Khangsar says.  

He also works with companies such as AMES Australia and various banks as well as institutions like Centrelink to set the foundations of a new life for refugees. In his experience, there are two prevalent issues unique to Tibetan refugees: false documentation of age and complications with the documentation of names.  

According to the 2016 Tibet’s Stateless Nationals report, identification documents provided to Tibetans in India was not always accurate. This conflicting documentation made it hard for Tibetans to resettle in different countries.  

“There were a lot of unmatched identities,” Khangsar says. “One example is when these people are on Centrelink and they are eligible to get a concession but since they are not matching the name, they often don’t get the concession. It’s very challenging and difficult.”  

The community also offers support by reconnecting and maintaining their culture through Tibetan language schools and holding talks about a document called the Green Book. It signifies the voluntary payment of tax to their government in exile and the recognition of the Central Tibetan Administration as their “legitimate representative”. It will become the basis for Tibetan citizenship in the future. 

“[It] is significant for identifying your own government and also identifying your own culture and this book identifies as ‘I am Tibetan’,” Khangsar explains.  

The community comes together for cultural gatherings that celebrate holidays and milestones – a recent, significant event was the raising of the Tibetan flag by the Maribyrnong Council on March 10, to recognise the significance of Tibetan National Uprising Day, a motion pushed by ex-councilor Simon Crawford.   

Khangsar had been working on flying the flag, banned in Tibet, for a year. For those in Australia, it signifies to their brothers and sisters still in Tibet to stay hopeful in the resistance for their freedom.  

“It means a lot because inside Tibet if someone even shows the Tibetan flag or the Dalai Lama’s picture, they will be arrested straight away and put in prison, tortured, and sometimes even shot to death,” he says.  

Those who have made it out of Tibet are careful with the contact they keep with their families back home to avoid any consequences their involvement with the movement might incite. 

Since 1990, a political prisoner database has recorded 5634 prisoners, and reasons for arrest range from posting a video complaint about construction to participating in protests. Many of these prisoners are mistreated during their sentence and in 2022 the Central Tibetan Administration reported at least 50 known torture related deaths within Tibet since the 2008 uprising.

Khangsar says that many Tibetans in Melbourne don’t have much connection with their people in Tibet because if they were found to have shared a political agenda, their loved ones in Tibet were likely to be investigated and often arrested.  

“I’ve got a sister in Tibet which I don’t talk to because I am quite politically active here and I don’t want to cause trouble to her,” he says. “I know she is doing okay through one of my sisters who doesn’t have much political engagement”.  

Tsering Dhondup participates in community gatherings when he is able, but says he sometimes struggles to follow the movement at times because he is neither financially well off nor can he speak much English.  

“For all these reasons I feel kind of distanced between the politicians and myself. There is a huge distance where I can’t approach them,” he says.  

When he speaks in his mother tongue to the interpreter, Dhondup’s words tumble out fiercely. Yet his feelings are clear, no matter the language he speaks. What he can communicate in English is delivered with a similar intensity that tells the same story. 

When the subject of preserving Dhondup’s anonymity for his safety is raised, he turns down the offer. He explains that he is one out of many storytellers to come out of Tibet. And without his identity, his story will not hold as much weight in the truth of his past and experiences.  

“I’m not certain that they [my family] won’t be punished or face the consequences of me speaking to you or having this article,” he says.   

“Despite this, I believe whatever is happening inside Tibet there is not much we could do about it and so that’s why I think it’s important to publish it.”  

Article: Saskia Domanski is a second-year Bachelor of Arts student at La Trobe University. You can follow her on Twitter at @Domanskisa99524.

Photo: Prayer flags. Tibetan writing. Leh, Ladakh, India. by Vyacheslav Argenberg found HERE and used under a Creative Commons license. This image has not been modified.