Tibetan Refugee (2004)

There are 130,000 Tibetan refugees throughout the world, and 80,000 of them live in India, according to the Information Secretary in Dharamsala. "Dharamsala is the seat of the Tibetan government in exile," explains a subtitle, "and its spiritual center as home to the Dalai Lama. It is the destination for most refugees who escape from their country." The documentary proceeds to show us interviews with children and adults who trekked four or five weeks through the Himalayan mountains to reach Dharamsala. Almost all the refugees are children or monks. Not all the refugees survive the journey. Many survive, but not intact: some lose limbs from frostbite. Yet the refugees took the terrible risk to escape the terrible oppression in Tibet. The citizens suffer torture and humiliation; they are unable to receive an education or worship as they please. What many of the interviewees say is that visitors to Tibet should see not just the state-sanctioned tourist sites, but the villages as well. There is the true Tibet, the Tibet that exists under the heel of the Chinese government.