South, to Bylakuppe

Bylakuppe is an odd place. Outside the rows of houses, the hot wind pushes the dusty air past coconut palms and out into the arid plains. Inside the homes, it is cool; the rooms look, feel and even smell Tibetan. People in traditional Tibetan clothing sit on hand-knotted rugs with central Asian motifs, gulping bowls of butter tea. A family sits around making momo dumplings in rooms adorned with thangkas and prayer-wheels. On this dry, remote land, about the farthest point from the Himalaya in the sub-continent, a community of several thousand Tibetans have built a settlement that was always meant to be temporary. But refugees of Bylakuppe have managed to carry on the cultural enterprise of being Tibetans, and are even thriving.

In 1960, the Dalai Lama felt the the Tibetans who had just come out into exile needed a stable place to live. Of greatest importance was that Tibetam live as a community so that their culture and traditions would hold them together until they could return to Tibet. Sensitive to the Tibetans' plight, the government of India called upon its states to provide spare land for these landless people. Karnataka, in South India, stepped forward with an offer of 5000 acres in Bylakuppe.