Tibetans Inside and Outside

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Almost every Tibetan refugee talks about that hope of the "return" which will happen, according to the conventional wisdom, when the Dalai Lama and Beijing come to a compromise. In that event, how many refugees will actually return to the old country? Would the refugees be received open-heartedly by Tibetans who never left? The answers are by no means obvious.

There are presently about 120,000 Tibetans in exile. Most of them are in India, living in refugee camps or independently in places like Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Mussorie and Dehra Dun. There are more than 12,000 in Nepal, mostly in Kathmandu and some in refugee camps such as in Pokhara, Dhorpatan and Solu. In Bhutan, there are probably less than one thousand. In addition, there are 2000 or so Tibetans in Europe, 1500 in North America and smaller numbers scattered all over, from the Nordic countries to New Zealand.

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