AID FOR TIBETAN REFUGEES IN INDIA

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32215, 6 February 1970, Page 2

AID FOR TIBETAN REFUGEES IN INDIA

Although the resettlement of Tibetan refugees was well under way in India, the Tibetans were likely to maintain their own culture and way of life within their own communities, said Mrs Dorothy Brewster, of Christchurch.

Mrs Brewster and her husband, Mr Pat Brewster, an economist, have recently returned to Christchurch after spending six'years in India assisting the Tibetans there to build their own settlements.

A teacher, Mrs Brewster and her husband applied for overseas service to the New Zealand National Council of Churches and were sent to India. She said the council had for many years provided a service from New Zealand of volunteers wishing to work in underdeveloped countries and at least 15 MiddleEast and Asian countries had received help this way. After receiving the qualifications of volunteers, the council then decided which jobs would be the most suitable and sent the applicants accordingly. Mr and Mrs Brewster were accompanied by their four children, Tony, aged 14, Deborah, 11, Tim, eight, and Joanna, seven, who attended the International School in New Delhi. After arriving in New Delhi, Mr and Mrs Brewster had worked mostly with the National Christian Council of India which was assisting some 45,000 Tibetans to resettle in India. GOVERNMENT HELP Mrs Brewster said the Government of India had done a great deal to help the Ti-

betans and give them the opportunity to set up their settlements. Most of them had come from Tibet in 1959 with the Dalai Lama after the Chinese invasion of their own country. When the Brewsters had arrived in 1964 their work had been mainly helping to provide immediate relief such as food and housing for the refugees. Since then, however, a great deal had been achieved, Mrs Brewster said. As there had been a shortage of work in India, the Tibetans had been encouraged to set up their own communities and industries, thus providing work for themselves. INDUSTRIES Most of the Tibetans had preferred to stay in the North of India, in the region of Dharmsala, and had begun to develop their communities there. These northern settlements had not been geographically suitable for agricultural development but had concentrated on the industrial side. Industries set up included a fibreglass plant (manufacturing bathtubs, tractor canopies and fishing boats), a lime quarry, and hydrated lime plant, a woollen mill, a tea estate with a factory, and fruit orchards. Each settlement also had its own handicraft centre which employed mostly monks and women and had turned out to be an active and lucrative business with sales both locally and overseas.

The work done at these centres was traditional Tibet-an-designed rugs, carpets and other handcrafts. Mrs Brewster said the Tibetans had also been encouraged to settle further south and the Indian Government had given them large

areas of undeveloped land for agricultural use. About 15,000 had subsequently turned to agriculture. The main problems with resettlement had been the Tibetans’ obstinancy where giving up any of their former patterns of living was concerned, Mrs Brewster said. They had carried over their feudal attitudes and had insisted that either a High Lama or one of their former feudal overlords be placed in charge of their committee. These heads oi communities had often turned out to be impractical people, too bound up with the past to be of much use in building a new life. The young, however, were becoming more and more aware of the new needs of their people and one of Mrs Brewster’s jobs had been to teach young men to act as secretaries to their leaders. The Tibetans were tough, highly-intelligent people, Mrs Brewster said, and the young ones in particular had great potential if they could be given the opportunities for academic and technical education. LIKEABLE “They’re also an extremely likeable lot—a marvellous sense of humour and a very romantic people,” she said. With most of the resettlement work well on the way and with one community already self-supporting, Mrs Brewster will not return there to work, J>ut. hopes to visit her many friends there again. Next Monday she will leave for the Philippines where her husband and eldest son are already setting up house and where they will work to settle landless tribes on the island of Mindanao. The photograph shows Mrs Brewster in the modern Tibetan national dress, with her daughters, Deborah (left) and Joanna.