My name is Tsering Kalden and I was born in the eastern part of Tibet. Everyone has different stories, situations, and goals

I was born in a small village called Gana. All the villagers were uneducated people and there was no modern technology such as TV, gas, telephone, transportations and even toothbrushes, but they were very kind to each other. I came from that small village and I can't imagine it now, anyway!

I think my family is quite big because we had ten family members including me. I'm the third youngest one. None of my family members had ever been to school when I was in Tibet, but not only our family¬ - most them didn't!

One day at dinner time, when I was five years old, I felt that things were not as usual. At bed time my mother asked me to sleep with her that night. I was a little bit surprised, because I always slept with my elder sister at that time. Also I was not the youngest child, mother had to sleep with her two year old daughter. But anyway, as she was my mum, I never went against her, so decided to sleep with her and let her two year old daughter sleep with my elder sister. All my family was a bit surprised as that was unusual, but I felt proud because in the family my mom chose me to sleep with her; that sounded like I was the most cherished by my mum.

That was the first time I slept with my mum after my younger brother was born. I fell asleep one or two hours later than normal because I was thinking and excited about what had happened.

Mum woke me up, around eleven o'clock, and then told me what she was going to do that night. She said that she and her cousin had decided to escape for a pilgrimage and she wanted to take me with them to Lhasa, which is the capital city of Tibet. Also Potala and many holy monasteries are there. I was very happy to hear about it, so I immediately hugged her and kissed her everywhere on her face with noise of excitement. She gave me a soft slap on my shoulder and said: "don't do that. If they wake up they will know about it."

I think I should explain why mum escaped from the family. In Tibet, anyone who lives in the countryside doesn't usually go away from the countryside. My mum knew that if she asked her husband or family they wouldn't accept it. So she decided to escape as most Tibetan refugees do. I think 90% of Tibetan people exiled in India escaped from their families.

At around three o'clock, mum woke me up again. This time she let me wear my clothes and she carried me on her back, a small bundle in front of her. She talked to me on the way, but I didn't want to answer her, I was half asleep.

After two or three kilometres walk, we arrived at the stupa and she said she hoped her cousin would be there. When we got there, she was sleeping between two stupas. Mum woke her up and we departed. After a long walk, I think around five o'clock, we reached a small village. Mum said she had a friend there. I think we stayed here one or two nights. She feared our family would follow us.

We went there and mum told her friend all about what we were going to do. She was surprised that my mum dared to leave her two year old daughter. We spent a night there, they gave us some tsampa, butter and a little money as well. They knew we had escaped and we didn't have much.

We walked and walked, sometimes we tried to get a lift but that was not easy. But one good thing was we didn't need to worry about food and sleep. We could get that without any payment to others. Fortunately, we got a lift in a lorry which was going very near to Lhasa. We got to that beautiful city and we did our pilgrimage. Sometimes mum talked about going back to our hometown.

One day, we met my elder brother somewhere in Lhasa. He had been in India three or four years before. He told us some of his past story. He also said that he was quite familiar with the Tibet and Nepal border. That small

conversation changed my mum. She asked my brother to bring us to India but he said he really wanted to go to his hometown and wanted to meet father. Mum sometimes insisted a lot and sometimes gave a reason, so my brother agreed with mum.

He collected many people who wanted to go to India. He didn't take any money from them, but he told them he was not sure if we would get to Nepal safely or not.

We started our journey after about forty five people had gathered. The first five or ten days, they had a lot of songs and conversation on different kinds of topics. After that, we had to face more problems like the snow which got much thicker and the mountains were higher and higher. Most of our journey, we had to go during the night, and it was hard to get a hot meal.

We reached a nunnery one day. After passing that, my brother was not sure which way we had to go. That night we were caught by the Nepal police. Some of us were beaten by the police but I remember they gave me some noodles. Two days later we were sent back to the Tibet border by bus. It happened two times for us. Of course, the second one was much worse than the first one.

The third time we reached the nunnery we had become friends with each other and they knew about us. They suggested we hire a guide and they showed us a man. Some of our people couldn't afford to hire a guide but we had to decide to hire someone because some people went back to Tibet and some were injured. Finally we reached Nepal at last.

When we got to Nepal we went to the Tibetan Reception Centre. Then we went to South India because H.H. the Dalai Lama was teaching there. We got an audience with H.H the Dalai Lama which was amazing. My mother let me join a monastery called Sera Jhe and then mum and my brother went back to Tibet. I was five years old. They left when I was asleep. I didn't see their faces and no saying good bye! I never saw them since then. I studied there for more than seventeen years. I broke up with my monk's vows in May 2010 because I wanted to be a good father. I like babies and children because they are so cute, aren't they? Now I am studying English in E.S.Tibet. I am very lucky to be here. It has good facilities for study. I am really happy here and my studies are going well. I would like to say thanks a lot for your help and support.
Thanking you

E.S.Tibet Student
Tsering Kalden