In the mid-20th century, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama and thousands of Tibetans made the decision to flee Tibet in order to escape persecution from the Chinese government. The government of India accepted the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan refugees. Decades later, we can find hundreds of exiled Tibetans and their descendants living in a small enclave known as Little Tibet in the Majnu-ka-Tilla district of New Delhi. Despite their seemingly quaint and peaceful community, Tibetan youths born in exile face an uncertain future.
Caught in the socio-political crossfire of state and society, Tibetan youths are struggling to establish their own identities in a country not of their forefathers. Young Tibetans grapple with low rates of employment and a pervasive sense of uncertainty regarding their future. The ambivalence over whether Tibetan exile is an “end point” or a “pause in the longer narrative” has important implications for the next generation of Tibetans who are faced with a hard decision to either attempt to return and reclaim their homeland in Tibet or to assimilate elsewhere.
