15 March 2006 from Mussoorie, India. Namaste from the Thomas Family! This month Jeff recounts our recent visit to the Tibetan Homes Foundation, in Happy Valley, a few miles from our home at Woodstock School in northern India.
In 1959, the Dalai Lama escaped from the Chinese Army’s invasion of Tibet. He walked south, over the mountains, into India. The first town he came to was Mussoorie. The Indian government later designated Dharamsala, further west, as the official residence of the Tibetan government-in-exile. Some of his followers stayed in Mussoorie, on land provided by the Indian government, near an existing civil service academy. The Tibetan settlement is called Happy Valley. Our kids know it mostly because it has the only cafeteria for miles around that sells beef dumplings!
We traveled to Happy Valley with some visitors from Louisville. We were the first official visitors to the newly-appointed General Secretary of the Tibetan Homes Foundation[1], Mr. Tashi Phuntsok. He described the delicate position of the Dalai Lama in relation to the Chinese government – a fragile negotiation between a clearly peaceful yet determined head of state, and an intransigent occupier that is amazed at this resistance. Mr. Phuntsok was careful to avoid terms like “government-in-exile.” Rather, he spoke of efforts to reassure the Chinese that the Dalai Lama was not seeking to replace them; merely to return to his homeland and carry out his essentially spiritual mission as leader of most Tibetan Buddhists. After almost fifty years, that hope burns brightly as long as the Dalai Lama is active.
Happy Valley has two schools – the Tibetan Homes School is supported by the government of India; and the Denmark-based SOS Kinderdorf fund runs a separate boarding school. Over the summer break, some students quietly walk the fifty miles back to Tibet to visit relatives – the border is officially closed, but these refugees know the back mountain trails. Each summer, dozens of children – new refugees, seeking non-Chinese schooling – literally walk out of Tibet and find their way to Happy Valley. The Tibetan Homes Foundation also has staff and volunteers at various border crossings, who offer social services, and guide refugees to Mussoorie or to Dharamsala.
On a side note: You may remember the book and film “Seven Years in Tibet,” by the Austrian explorer Heinrich Harrer, who died earlier this year. His escape trail from the British POW camp in 1943 led through our area, on his way north to Tibet. A bit of trivia: the film version was actually shot in Argentina, and portrays the POW camp with beautiful views of the Himalayan snows – but that was inaccurate, as the first view of the Himalayan snows is from our little hill town of Mussoorie!
Earlier this year, Barb’s third-grade class visited the Tibetan Homes School, and despite the language barrier, made fast friends. Please pray for these orphan children who have left their ancestral homes and family, for an uncertain future in a foreign land.
On a personal note, we ask for your prayers as Barb and Jeff lead dorm chapel services, and then a weekend retreat for third and fourth-graders, with Christopher’s help. We also ask for continued good health as Coleman performs in the leading role in the upcoming middle school play “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.”
We greatly appreciate your prayers, correspondence and support.
--Jeffrey, Barbara, Chris, and Coleman
Woodstock School, Mussoorie 248179 India
Email: jeffreythomas@woodstock.ac.in