Lhamo stringing a mala (prayer beads)

Meet Lhamo

 I first met Lhamo in 1996 when she worked as a cook in restaurant in McLeod Ganj. She was only 22 then and had newly arrived from western Tibet. She came to Indian because she had heard about the Dalai Lama and that she could get a Tibetan education in Dharamsala, India.  After arriving in the capital of Tibet, Lhasa, she joined a group of people who had a guide to help them make the tretchiourious walk over the Himalayas into Nepal. She, like many Tibetans, does not talk about that time much but when asked she just says it was a long walk and she was tired and hungry. To say she is stoic is an understatement. Anyway on arrival in India getting a job and accommodation was most important. Luckily the Tibetan government in exile has set up refugee reception centers in Nepal, Delhi and Dharamsala where new arrivals can get a bed, food and some money for travel expenses. These days most are asked to return to Tibet after they have had an audience with His Holiness, many do but many more stay in India. So Lhamo managed to get a cooking job with accommodation, however the work hours were long which left no time of energy for studies. The transit school in Dharamsala is specifically for new arrivals like Lhamo who are older but have little education. There they can learn Tibetan language, Hindi and English along with basic math and some other skills for surviving in India. Student usually stay there for 1 year and are then asked to leave and find work in India of go back to Tibet. Lhamo never made it to the transit school. She met a guy and had a baby instead. 

Being pregnant she could not work in the Kitchen so decided to start up her own small business selling momos (Tibetan meat or veg dumplings) on the streets of McLeod Ganj. I remember being a regular customer to her and encouraged my friend to also buy momos from her. So her baby arrived but the relationship was not so good so with her meager savings in her pocket and very strong spirit, telling no-one she took the bus to Delhi one night in attempts to start a new on her own. I did bump into her in Amravati at a teaching of His Holiness a few years later. She and a few other women were selling momos from a cart. She had her baby on her hip and was still smiling. I was so glad to see her and she said she was doing well but with me now living at that time again we lost touch. So in Ladhak I was so surprised to see her again, after 13 years.The first thing she did, after a huge bear hug was show me a picture of her 2 children, aged 15 and 13 years old. Wow how time has flown. She has retired from the momo business and now has a jewelry business. In summer she works in Leh and the rest of the year in Goa. It has been such a pleasure so see her again, and I can only admire her strength, determination, hard work ethic and generous heart and open smile.