Remembering Tibetan Refugees/Festival Mask

Description

My village was not large. All the houses were spread out & were not in one particular place. I might have been 12 when my parents sent me to gather cow dung on the hills. Those of us who went in search of cow dung assembled. When our baskets were full, we came down the hill. Then we played & ate what we had & watched the sun & if it was early, we played near the hills. If it was not early, we came down to the village, kept the dung basket down & played leisurely until it was almost night. All the lands of Nyapso were under the Ling Labrang residence of a great lama. I looked after the horses. From the estate I was taken to Lhasa. I was in Lhasa until Tibet was lost. After the invasion we escaped to India. We heard that Norbulingka was lost. When all the soldiers of the Chushi Gangdrug Force were fleeing, I escaped with them. The soldiers, the Khampa, they had come to the estate at Nyapso. When we heard that Lhasa was lost & then the village called Chasam, we fled. My family was living there in the village. When I left, they were doing their usual work & living on the farmland.They had no idea whether I left or not. I do not know what happened to them. The Tibetan army was being chased by the invaders. They didn't have arms to fight with. They had fought in Tsethang & the arms were exhausted. They were fleeing through Bhutan & to India. At the border, they stopped us for a week. His Holiness the Dalai Lama had left Tibet, but at that time had not reached India. He was at Mon Tawang. We were stopped at the Bhutanese border & not let through. After His Holiness the Dalai Lama reached India, the news came over the wireless. Then they let us through, 200 people per day. They didn't send the people together. My children are girls. They have the opportunity to study due to the grace of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. They must follow His Holiness' advice which is beneficial for this life & the next & remember it always.