COM
DENTIAL
STANDING CONFERENCE ON REFUGEES
ASIA COMMITTEE
APPENDIX TO MINUTES OF MEETING ON 6 DECEMBER 1977
REPORT BY SECRETARY ON VISIT IN NOVEMBER 1977 TO TIBETAN SETTLEMENTS IN NEPAL
When on holiday in Nepal in November 1977, I took the opportunity of seeing some of the settlements for Tibetans near Kathmandu and Pokhara.
I was greatly helped in this by
a)
b)
General
Mr. Kesang Jampel, Representative in Nepal of the Dalai Lama, P.O. Box No 310, Kathmandu, Nepal.
The Save the Children Fund - Mr. Michael Prosser, P. 0.Box: 992, Kathmandu, Nepal, whose assistant, Mr. Tandin Dorjee, himself a Tibetan, went with me to Pokhara and introduced me to people at the settlements in that area.
Some 10,000 refugees have crossed into Nepal from Tibet. About 8,500 are still in the country; of these about 4,000 have been settled in different places and occupations; the rest are scattered, mostly in the border areas; many of them are in a very poor condition.
Small groups of Tibetans are still coming across the border.
Kathmandu Area
A number of Tibetans (former refugees) have now settled in or near Kathmandu, mostly in hotel and restaurants and in the handicrafts business.
S
There is also a settlement at Jawalakhel, near Kathmandu, with a very flourishing carpet factory and handicrafts centre, school, medical clinic, etc. In the neighbourhood there are also small carpet work places and shops.
The Tibetans in this community seem to be quite self-supporting and in a reasonably good situation.
The main carpet factory at Jawalakhel is on the route for the tourist sightseeing coaches and apparently sales are good.
Pokhara Area
My
in an
I stayed two nights in Pokhara, about 7 hours from Kathmandu by local bus, hotel owned, run and staffed by Tibetan refugees. Other families and individuals are living in the town and run quite successful businesses.
1.
I visited two settlements in the neighbourhood.
DASHILING HANDICRAFTS CENTRE
This settlement, set up in 1964 with the help of the United Nations International Service and three volunteers from the University of Cambridge - is organised by the Nepa- lese Red Cross which took over in 1972. It now accommodates some 300 refugees including children. The settlement has a dismal, uncared-for, appearance. According to the refugees, this is because they are not running it themselves, but everything has to be organised through the Nepalese Red Cross Society.
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