Refugee: Youtso

Refugee

1. Where do you come from? Could you please shortly describe the place and location?

I came from Tibet. I live in Tibet Central nearby Lhasa, there is one place called Maizhokunggar. Over there, the place is the same like in Liechtenstein, the hill areas, Alps, its cold, its good. It is green, in summer time the place is the same like in Liechtenstein, we can see all the green, the flowers and in winter time we get snow.

2. Would you call that your home? Why?

Definitely, I call Tibet my house because I was born there and I grew there…I have learned everything from there, I learned from my parents, my family is there, everything is there. I call it my home.

3. When you decided to leave your country, what was your way, how did you get to Liechtenstein?

The main reason to come over here is because I had a problem in Tibet. My hometown is Maizhokunggar, and my home is nomadic and farmers, it’s mixed, and this Tibetans called “samador”, which means half nomad, half sedentary(farmers). So, I am a samador, by my husband is completely nomad. So, my husband’s family send my husband to school to learn English, and my family also send me to learn English to Lhasa, a big city. So, we both met there for the first time and we fall in love. During the 3rd year of my course, there was a big protestation going on in Tibet, because Tibet is actually not China. Tibet is our country, but China is eating our country. We don’t have any basic human rights sometimes, if we are on the streets the police come to us and ask: Oh, why are you wearing good cloth? , I don’t like you! why are you putting lipstick? I don’t like you!…….Why?!!

And if I say: I love wearing good clothes, they say: come, come to the station, and they will beat up until bruises come. They will beat even if its a girl, they don’t care, they will beat.  So, that is a problem.

What happened is that during 14th or March of 2008, big protests happened in Lhasa. People got angry and woke up and started protesting. Tibet is for Tibet. Tibet is not for China. We all must have our Dalai Lama invited in our land. China was not allowing us to invite Dalai Lama to Tibet. Dalai Lama is our god and we want Dalai Lama to be invited to Tibet, and even if they are eating our country, that’s no problem, but we should have human rights. We don’t have basic human rights.

Actually, I am not the first to protest. From my school I was the first girl to went to protest…Everyone came and back up me at that time, because in school I am kind of a leader. That noon time, I went and protest with everyone, because already protestations were starting by that time… Even Tibetans monks from the monastery were protesting, putting fire and doing things. I went there and protested also. By that time, my husband was my friend, my loved one, and he was there with few friends also, and we were shouting  in the demonstration…And I don’t know how come I was captured in a photo. If my photo was captured China wouldn’t allow me to stay happy. They will kill me or they would throw me until nothing of my body can be used. I know and I have seen with my own eyes, what could happen if you protest, but by that time I didn’t realized what I was really doing. After protesting I realized. Now, I’ve realized that it was such a big risk what I did. So, by that time… if I have to explain, this was a very big protest, the whole city woke up and the whole city was destroyed.

I ran to the back part of my school and took a taxi from the main road and I just went to my hometown, which is one and a half hour. I went with my husband only.

So there we stayed… I thought that I was coming back to Lhasa  and learn English, after learning Chinese, and do good things with my life. That night, in T.V. my picture was shown, and not only my picture but all the pictures from the protest were there. They were saying that one by one they are going to catch and they were going to put them in jail; they didn’t say they were going to kill, they only said that they were going to put them in jail. I got so scared, and my mom said that I couldn’t say there and that I had to do something because my place was just 1 and a half hour from the city. My mom told me it was very dangerous, so I ran towards my husband’s house. My husband’s house is nomad, it is on the hill, till half road we went by Toha?, And we used the farmer’s truck and then we walked through very tough hills. In the morning we reached his house which is a tent.  I am used to live in a proper house, but we were living in a tent and do farming. As my husband is nomad he is used to live in a tent called “yak”[XX].

We stayed there because the police don’t care about nomads, they usually come to cities and towns; and my home is near towns. We stayed very long there…5 years.

Suddenly my dad was caught by the Chinese police, so what happened is that the Chinese police told them that if they didn’t give me, my dad wouldn’t go out of jail.

That my brother informed me. My brother came to my husband house and told him while doing “yar sagum ba”, this when people is collecting  this caterpillar-fungus fusion (like a grass during summertime, in winter time it is a worm). We collect that, it is very costly. We go to the hills, we collect and we pray… And that time, while doing this my brother informed my husband what happened. He told us that we shouldn’t go to the town now. This became very difficult for me because I am very young, and sitting at home only drinking milk, eating cheese, eating butter, and there was no work for me because yak (Bos mutus: food) men will go and get it. I do milk, but there is no work and I am ambitious, I have my aim and my goals.  I have the feeling that I want to do something, and I will do it in the future. I am very ambitious and I was living in a tent, being a nomad, and it is good to be nomad, it’s a simple life, but I am different. From inside, outside I am nomad. Inside every time I feel like, what to do??, But suddenly my dad was very sick in jail, he was not doing well, and he told me to please do something because if they will caught all the family and put them in jail.  He told me to run, because police is under research and is not leaving me… And I ask, Why me?!, But its not, its not only me, many people are being caught and so many protesters were killed, and still there are many protesting families but they ran away from Tibet or some of them caught in jail. So, my brother told us to ran away, and we didn’t have any idea where to run away. Me and my husband got the idea to collect the yarsagumba, and sell it to a business man. Its a small business only, its not a big business, but we got some little among and kept on saving, because we as nomads don’t spend money. Everything we get is from the nature, so we asked business Tibetan man what could we do now?

…Tibet is very big, and Tibetans are very different from face and language, depending on the region. So, we asked this business man, who has a very good and kind heart… And he told me: you have to give this much money… Then he would help.  I told: who will help me? Chinese people only, they will take me and I don’t know where they were going to take me, so they told me “go to Swiss”, you won’t have any problem with breathing problems, it has good nature, same as in Tibet. Swiss is very kind and very good to Tibetans till now.. so go there and they will help you. So, they make me to pay, and my mom paid me and my husband and we ran away from there. In road we took 30 days. By car only 4 days, non-stop, and roads are not good, they are full of curves and mountains. After, they told us that they were going to drop us in Swiss, and they didn’t drop us there… They drop us in Liechtenstein. We were thinking that this was Swiss, and we asked other people and they told us that this is now Swiss, this is Liechtenstein. It seem like Swiss, I mean, now I know that Swiss is just in front.

… And that is how I reached this place, I paid the money, I travelled for 30 days, and I came here.

It is really difficult to say because every day I felt bad. Now I am better; it has been 3 months here and now I am way better because I am a person who thinks big. If you take the stress, there is no solution. We shouldn’t take so much tension, we should think of the solution, then the tension will go.

I think and I do believe in staying happy, even though I don’t have much money, that’s no problem because one life is what we have. So, we should stay happy. The problem will come because we are all humans and we born here on earth, and definitely, problems will come and go. If we stuck in one problem we won’t move in our life. I think we should move on.

Two months ago I used to cry and cry all the night. I didn’t use to have eye bags, I never had this, even if I am nomad my skin was good in Tibet because I put butter. Staying here I got my eye bags a little bit black because I am not sleeping because I am thinking too much. Now I am getting better, I should move on, learn Deutsch, do good, and in the future, I want to help other persons.

  

4. Did you have any expectations about Liechtenstein before you came here? Where they fulfilled? Is here something new or unexpected?

People here in Liechtenstein are very very kind. I love people here, they are all good, especially the old people, there are very good and very kind. Young people I understand, they are young, full of energy, they don’t care, they don’t know anything, they just make fun. But old people are very good and simple, the same like in Tibet.

G: I would like to go to Tibet…

China won’t give easily a visa. They are very clever. Chinese thinks that if a tourist comes inside, Tibet will speak and be interviewed, like now that you are interviewing me. Now some students/tourist go to Tibet and ask questions, but for example, if they know that I am being interviewed they would put me in jail. There is no problem, I am free now, I can do whatever I want, and I am very happy.

5. Could you please shortly describe where you live now?

I live in the Refugee House in Liechtenstein.

6. How do you experience Liechtenstein? What are your daily activities? Which places do you go to see? Where do you eat?

Right now I am eating government money, and people’s money, but on the inside, I feel that it’s not good to be eating other people’s money. Everyone is saying: “refugees are eating money… Refugees are eating money”, and I feel very ashamed sometimes, but what to do? I don’t have any other option. I am just hoping that soon I’ll learn Deutsch and I’ll do something. I don’t want to eat others money. Tibetans say that “if you don’t earn money from sweat, your own sweat, that will be your loan; whatever you eat after dead” and when you die, you will have to pay all the loans that you did, you didn’t earn all from your own sweat…I didn’t work, so now, I am eating money from other people’ hard work, so they say “after dead, I have to pay off the loan”, and that is all loan what I am eating right now. I have to pay the loan because I believe in that, as a Buddhist, and that is tougher to do when you die, than now.

7. What do you miss the most here?

I miss the most my family, nothing else. My family means a lot. The family is like family. No one will give you more love than your family. The family is so special.

8. What do you think is important for you to be able to identify with Liechtenstein? Could you feel at home here?

Yes, definitely. First, it was difficult because it is a new place… But now I am so adjusted, it feels good because if I see hills, and its cold, I feel that is the same as in Tibet.

9. Please tell us 6 images that represent what you do here in Liechtenstein, how you see the country, where do you spend most of the time, what is your favourite place, what is your experience here.

I don’t have a specific place, but one of my favourite places is the Rhine, I go there a lot. Also, the horses there, when I see them I get so happy because I have two horses in my husband house. So, I love the Rhine, and I love walking here, it’s so peaceful. And I love going to Schaan. A little bit going to Vaduz post. Sometimes going also to the markets, but I can’t shop right now, I just go to see.