A Homely Call

During our short stay in Ladakh.

A Homely Call 

Amidst whispers of the willow tree 

Here I sleep so sound and free,

Listening to the wrathful rushes, Indus’ gentle song  

The lullaby from the far distance, where I belong 

Beneath the blue sky and the twinkling stars,

Here I sleep so deep and free as if it’s all ours,

Imagining the wonders of a faraway homeland,

I can’t stop missing home, where my return was banned,

By Sonsnow

The Story of My Escape -1

It was a day etched deeply into the memories of all of us who were part of that dangerous escape. Our group had lost one of our young colleagues during our escape journey, a girl whose presence and laughter had been a source of joy for everyone. Unlike the normal night escape, the escape had been planned meticulously, and we set out early in the morning, guided by the dim light of dawn.

We continued through the wild and vast dusty plain area, a challenging terrain we had to navigate. Despite the hardships, we remained determined, covering great distances throughout the day.

We spent the quarter half of the day sleeping, replenishing our energy for the continuation of our escape journey. In the later afternoon, we resumed our escape trek, hopeful of reaching our destination soon. By the time evening approached, exhaustion began to set in, and we found a secure place to rest for the night. Our hopes soared as we stumbled upon an old and abandoned army camp, which seemed like an ideal place to spend the night. The absence of any signs of human presence gave us a sense of security.

As we settled in, a shepherd and his flock of sheep appeared out of nowhere. The shepherd reassured our elders that the camp was safe, and this brought relief and joy to all of us. We hadn’t encountered another soul for quite some time, and the presence of the shepherd seemed like a friendly and welcoming gesture.

While the guide and the elders prepared dinner, we children took the opportunity to enjoy a sound sleep, seeking respite from our arduous escape journey. However, our tranquillity was short-lived. Suddenly, the elders woke us all up in a hurry, instructing us to pack our belongings and extinguish the fires they had lit for warmth and cooking. Confused and scared, we followed our elders’ lead and quickly run up the hills.

The reason for our sudden departure became evident as police vans with blaring sirens appeared in the valley below. It seemed that the shepherd and his flock had been a ruse, and we were betrayed. If the elders had been a little slower to become suspicious, we would have been caught that very evening.

All our groups managed to narrowly escape the clutches of the authorities and reached the top of the hill. However, our relief was overshadowed by the realization that one of our colleague girls was missing. Panic and worry engulfed us as we frantically searched the area. Our elders were divided into different groups and searched everywhere, but our efforts were gone in vain and we couldn’t find her. The atmosphere grew tense as discussions and arguments ensued among the group. We were faced with a difficult decision, but we eventually resolved to move forward for the safety of the rest.

The guilt and sadness of losing our colleague weighed heavily on our hearts as we continued our journey that night. Upon our arrival in India, we received a surprising revelation – the girl we had feared lost was safely back in her hometown.

The relief and joy we felt were immense, but we couldn’t help but wonder about the twists of fate that had brought us to this point. The escape had been filled with challenges, danger, and unexpected turns, yet we had managed to make it to safety, including the colleague we believed we had lost. It was a journey we would never forget, a tale of courage, sacrifice, and the power of hope in the face of adversity.

Indeed, the story presented here is a poignant representation of the challenges and dangers faced by Tibetan refugees who attempted to escape from Chinese authorities by crossing the treacherous and towering Himalayas. For many Tibetans, escaping to India became a life-or-death journey as they sought freedom and safety from the oppressive conditions under Chinese rule in Tibet. The Himalayas, with their high altitudes, extreme weather conditions, and rugged terrains, present formidable obstacles for anyone attempting such a perilous escape.

The journey involves navigating through harsh landscapes, enduring freezing temperatures, and avoiding detection by Chinese authorities who actively try to prevent Tibetans from escaping. Despite the dangers, many Tibetans, driven by a strong desire for freedom and an aspiration to fulfill their lifelong wish of seeing His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, have attempted this arduous escape.

Stories of courage, resilience, and hope permeate the experiences of these escapees. However, not all journeys have successful outcomes. Some Tibetans have been captured by Chinese authorities or have succumbed to the harsh conditions of the journey.

Our stories serve as a stark reminder of the immense risks involved and the urgency of our quest for freedom. This is one of the several challenging situations we have faced, and I will be sharing detailed and personal accounts of the various challenging situations we faced during the escape journey.

By Sonsnow

སེམས་ཚོར་དམར་རྗེན་མ།

སེམས་ཚོར་དམར་རྗེན་མ།

ཕྱི་རྒྱལ་རང་དབང་ལུང་པ་ནས།།

རིགས་ཀྱི་བུ་ཡིས་རྒྱལ་དར་འཕྱར།།

དེ་ལ་རྒྱ་ཡིས་སྡང་ཟུག་ཀྱིས།།

རྒྱལ་དར་འཕྲོག་ཏེ་ཕྱི་རུ་དྲུད།།

ཕྱིས་སུ་རྒྱལ་དར་མེ་ལ་བསྲེགས།།

སྲེག་མཁན་རྒྱ་རིགས་སློབ་ཕྲུག་དེ།

རྒྱ་རིགས་རྣམས་ནས་དཔའ་བོར་བརྩིས།།

གནས་ཚུལ་དེ་ཚོ་མཐོང་མ་ཐག།

སེམས་ལ་སྐྱོ་བ་ཚད་མེད་སྐྱེས།།

རང་རིགས་རྣམས་ནི་དེ་འདྲ་མིན།།

སྤྱི་སྒེར་སུས་ཀྱང་སེམས་ཤུགས་ཀྱིས།།

དགྲ་བོའི་རྒྱལ་དར་བསྲེགས་པའི་ཚེ།།

དེ་ལ་ཁ་གདུང་ཚིག་ངན་འཕེན།།

དགྲ་བོ་ཇི་བཞིན་སྡང་མིག་བལྟ།།

དགྲ་ལ་དགྲ་ལན་མ་སློག་པར།།

རང་གི་རིགས་ལ་སྡང་ཟུག་ཆེ།།

དེ་ཚོ་བསམ་བཞིན་སེམས་རེ་སྐྱོ།།

སྐྱོ་སེམས་རླུང་བུར་སྐུར་བཏང་ཏེ།།

མེས་པོ་དམ་པའི་ལ་རྒྱ་དང་།།

དཔའ་བོའི་སྙིང་སྟོབས་རྒྱལ་ཞེན་སོགས།།

ཡིད་ལ་ཡང་ཡང་འཁོར་བར་བྱེད།།

རང་སེམས་རང་གིས་གསོ་བར་བྱས།།

རང་ནུས་གང་ཡོད་བཏོན་ནས་ནི།།

འཐབ་རྩོད་མུ་མཐུད་རྒྱུན་སྐྱོང་གིས།།

དགྲ་ལ་དགྲ་ལན་སློག་རྒྱུ་ནི།།

ང་ཡི་ཚེ་འདིའི་དམ་བཅའ་དང་།།

རིགས་གཅིག་སྤུན་ཟླར་ལེགས་སྐྱེས་ཡིན།།

ཕ་བཟང་བུ་ནས། 

༢༠༢༣།༠༦།༧

” A Call”

I came up with a visual poem “A Call” I wrote back in 2017
A Call
On that Sunday morning,
When the world laughs with their leisure activities
You too have received that call
From afar Distant Home,
On that morning
Just before breakfast was served
Your phone beeps
And you have received that call
From an unknown number
You have heard a Familiar voice
Quite and Quavering
You got a News
The news that nails our heart
And that call
All of a sudden, ripped us apart all at once,
Dark and Gloomy
The world began to fall and fade away
We were left dumb and numb
And you have received that call
That we Exilic brothers were born to bear
That call
which we don’t want to receive
And You have picked it,
And You bowed down to a table
Black and blind, numb and dumb
You left dead in despair
You have received that call
That,,, that,,,,, call
Which I don’t want to receive
That,,, that,,,, call
You have picked and heard 
“Your Mother Passed Away”
By: Sonsnow


CCP’s Covid Caught my Countrymen



When my countrymen cry with smiling faces,
Airing their frustrations most appealingly, 
Against the authorities that continue to commit atrocities, 
My heart hurts and pains in great depth.

When my countrymen are locked up in quarantine centers,
The poorly facilitated and tightly packed with patients, 
In the most severe and strict policies, they are forced to follow,
My heart hurts and pains in great depth.

When my countrymen continue to cry in agony 
From the rooftops and balconies, 
The only space they can breathe,
My heart hurts and pains in great depth 

When my countrymen are washed by the sanitizing sprays, 
Kicked and hit by the security guards,
Detained and dragged by the authorities, 
My heart hurts and pains in great depth.

By Sonsnow

Rinchen Dhondup along with seven Tibetans detained

Rinchen Dhondup along with seven other Tibetans were detained for sharing Covid-related photos and videos and are presently under the so-called Law counselling programme.
Amidst the rise in Covid cases in Tibet, China continue to enforce its Lockdown policies in the Tibet Autonomous Region and other parts of Tibet for the past month. Many Tibetans have been forcefully put into quarantine centres, which were poorly facilitated without proper meals and bedding facilities.

Rinchen Dhondup along with seven other Tibetans from Shantsazong, Lhasa and Chumar Lapzong were arrested for airing and sharing Covid-related information.

According to a source, they were arrested for sharing videos and photos about poorly facilitated quarantine centres where all the Tibetans with or without covid symptoms were put together without providing proper medical facilities and meals.

All of them are unschooled Tibetan nomads. They were detained in a security office at Nagchu for five days and were interrogated about to whom and how they shared the information. later, they were punished with 3000 yuans each and are presently under the so-called Law counselling programme.

With Covid cases rising in recent months, in the name of Covid, Chinese authorities tighten their control over Tibetans and many monks from other regions were evicted from the Yarchen Gar Buddhist monastery.

This Winter

This Winter

This winter, when we are all free to set our footsteps on the new streets and roam around the old city.

This winter, before the Chinese virus, captured our towns and cities and locked us apart in a social distance.

This winter, when we are all enjoying our daily routines in our own space with no excuses and complaints.

This winter, when we are all free to travel from here to there with no barriers to borders and boundaries.

This winter, before we are all locked up in our rat-sized rooms and peep through the curtains for lively activities.

By – Sonsnow

  • Wrote this two years back after the first wave of Covid-19.

ངའི་ཕ་ས་ཕ་ཡུལ་དགྲ་ཡིས་བཟུང་།

ངའི་ཕ་ས་ཕ་ཡུལ་དགྲ་ཡིས་བཟུང་།

ངའི་ཕུ་ནུ་མིང་སྲིང་བདུད་ཀྱིས་བཅོམས།

ངའི་རི་ཆུ་ནགས་གསུམ་ཀླུ་ཡིས་བཟུང་།

ངའི་ཡུལ་ལྷ་གཞི་བདག་བསྟན་སྲུང་སོགས།

གནས་འདི་རུ་ཡོད་ན་ལན་གཅིག་གཟིགས།

ཕ་བཟང་བུ་ནས།

Deities and Defenders of the faith!

My land is under enemy’s occupation,

My siblings are subdued by the Demons and Devils,

My Rivers and Ranges are seized by the Serpents,

Glance at Them once if you ever Exist!

By: Sonsnow

I Don’t Want Tibet to Die

French football fans form a Giant Tibetan Flag To Annoy Chinese Viewers

I Don’t Want Tibet to Die

I don’t want Tibet to die,

I don’t want Tibet to disappear,

I don’t want Tibet to be destroyed-

No; I don’t want Tibet to die.

I don’t want Tibet to be filled with Chinese,

I don’t want my children to be called Chinese,

I don’t want my children to become Chinese-

No; I don’t want Tibet to die.

While our self-serving leaders indulge in confusion,

And my fellow Tibetans in exile remain timid and ignorant,

I know a few of us alone cannot make Tibet free-

And yet I don’t want Tibet to die.

Because it is not fair and it is not just,

Because Tibetans have the same right to freedom,

Because I want Truth to triumph over evil-

No; I don’t want my dear Tibet to die.

By-Lhasang Tsering

  • Lhasang Tsering is a writer and a poet, an outspoken advocate of Tibetan Independence.