Joe Shearer
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<sigh>
I had hoped that nobody would have the impetuousness or impatience to seek details on this very simple matter. It could have been verified and cross-checked before bursting into print in such an abrupt manner.
The Tibetan refugees have been allowed to stay on Indian soil on the strict condition that they do not conduct themselves as a government and do not seek to represent themselves to overseas nations as a government. None of the protocol and clauses of the international conventions and treaties that decide treatment of representatives of a foreign power apply to the refugees and their self-administrative bodies. You will perhaps realise that the government and the people of India, having given these unfortunate homeless people refuge, and having supplied them with the wherewithal, food, clothing and basic shelter, for survival, were unable to do much more for them, considering the general poverty of our own country. We are not a western nation with money overflowing from our coffers to keep them in the lap of luxury; not, for instance, that dictators and uprooted governments have been maintained in Paris, or London, or Riyadh. Along with this inability to do more than what human decency demands that we should do for those appealing for help, we left the Tibetans alone to look after themselves. In order not to have to deal with each individual alone, or with each family by itself, we allowed them to band together and to deal with the administrative measures applicable to them under the laws of the land as an entity. The entity is known as the Central Tibetan Administration. This does not mean that we accept this self-governing camp of refugees as a government, or that any other government in the world has done so. Your personal equation of the Central Tibetan Administration with a hypothetical Tibetan government in exile does not necessarily grant them international, diplomatic or legal status.
A visa for India is easy to obtain. You, from an American residence, should have no particular difficulty in obtaining one. I invite you to get one, to go to Dharamshala, not far from Delhi, up in the cool mountains in the climatic conditions that suit these poor people best, and come and see for yourself what is going on, and how the whole business is organised.
Please do not feel inhibited; this is a free country, and, except for those who have openly declared their hostility and have persistently attacked us, all other foreigners are free to travel around, with the exception of the border areas on the north, with Tibet, which have been restricted for travel insofar as a special permit, which takes an application a day or two before, is required. You are therefore perfectly free to take a bus, or a train part of the way and bus the rest, or travel by taxi from Delhi, or take whatever advice Lonely Planet and a dozen others will give you and see for yourself, rather than get your knickers in a twist.
You will find that they are left to themselves; they, too, in keeping with good manners, leave local people to themselves. There is hardly any friction; none reported anyway. The Buddhist heritage of some of the Indian citizens of the area also helps to keep inter-relationships harmonious. It is like any camp of people anywhere in the world.
Is it a government in exile? No.
It is not in touch with foreign delegations in the Indian capital or the Indian state. Its representatives do not have official status; India is a very protocol-conscious country, and the position of a functionary on the Protocol List, called the Order of Precedence, is taken very seriously. No Tibetan, claiming to be a representative of this group, is given official status. As already mentioned, they do not have the right to represent themselves to the diplomats deputed to India as an independent government. No foreign diplomat is accredited to them; the space they occupy is Indian space and not the space of sovereign authorities of Tibet. They apply for visas on temporary passports, as refugees within India might.
You will perhaps discover, on the expenditure of some slight effort on your part, that, notwithstanding what their (!) website states, their legal status is of refugees without a nation, sheltered by the Indian state and the Indian people, on the express written undertaking that they will not use this refuge to agitate or politically combine on Indian soil against the interests of any friendly power. It may amuse you to learn that India considers China a friendly power for this purpose, notwithstanding the external factors and episodes which come and find attention from our members on this forum from time to time.
If you have any further clarifications, please do not hesitate to ask. However, it is not unfair to request you to do your basic homework first.
Sincerely,
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