Getting Old in Little Lhasa

Abstract

This chapter tries to analyze the aging process of some Tibetans who came to India as young refugees but were forced to stay back and have spent the best part of their years in Dharamsala also known as Little Lhasa in Northern India. The question of coming to terms with aging and the nostalgia for a lost land in the midst of large-scale global changes informs the painful truth of aging on one hand and also the cultural resources of Tibetan Buddhism that helps them to come to terms with reality is the thread that describes their aging. The loss of this culture and the Buddhist way of life so brutally cut short in Tibet is the focus of the chapter, along with how they come to terms with these aspects. The chapter ends the description of activities in Dharamsala by arguing that aging is informed by spiritual and political climate with the old people also being active participants.