LAMU

The nun’s dormitory room is cold and sparse.

It contains three beds, two maps of Tibet, each

Containing strategically placed silvery hearts.

As well as a selection of books and some cooking

Utensils. The nun left Tibet in 1991. Her English

Is timid, but she wanted to practice, so that she could

Visit Buddhist shrines. Lamu entered to join the

Conversation. She left Tibet with her father five

Years ago, aged sixteen. Like the nun, she walked

Across mountain passes to arrive here. Her father,

Who’s 72, had been both businessman and

Political prisoner. He’d chosen her to care for him

In exile, leaving her mother, three sisters and two

Remaining brothers behind. It’s four months since

She last spoke to her mother. In Tibet she didn’t go

To school, because the schools, run by the Chinese

Teach neither Tibetan language nor culture. Now,

She’s studying English, Tibetan and computers.

She hopes one day to return to her homeland as a

Teacher. But one day is far away. She does not

Expect to see her mother again. She talked about

How in the Summer, in her province of Kham, she

Used to work the land with her family. In the Winter,

She says, no one works. Winter is weddings and

Parties on the high Tibetan plain. She coughed as

She talked. She doesn’t like the idea of travel. India

Is safe, but the food and the weather aren’t like home.

21 and in exile, she smiles as she talks, and says she’d

Like to go home. A blackout terminates the conversation.

We stumble out through the corridors of the Tibetan

Refugee home in pitch black, the mountains that separate

Lamu from Tibet shining like beacons in the dark.

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