Interview No.: 26D

Date: 2012-05-16

Language: Tibetan

Location: Mcleod Ganj, Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh, India

Categories: Culture and History

Keywords: childhood memories, children's games, Chinese -- first appearance of, Chinese -- oppression under, Chushi Gangdrug guerrillas, education, Kham, pilgrimage, refugee in India -- life as

Summary:

Tading Choekyi Aduk remembers her early childhood in the Kham Province where she played different games with her friends and was instructed by her parents to not fight with others. She moved to Lhasa at the age of 9 and describes the 3-month journey on horseback. She is among the lucky few who had the opportunity to go to school. Her school called Narangsha had about 100 students. She explains the daily routine and subjects taught, specifically about learning to write the Tibetan alphabet on a jangshing 'wooden slate' and later practicing on paper.

Tading Choekyi Aduk gives her impression of the Chinese, whom she disliked from the beginning, She recounts celebrating a "Children's Day" organized by the Chinese where the Tibetan and Chinese schools met together and received treats, but then the Chinese privately asked the Tibetan students what their families said about the Chinese.

Tading Choekyi Aduk was taken by relatives on a pilgrimage to India for the 2500th anniversary of Lord Buddha's death in 1957 and she never returned to Tibet. Her granduncle was Gonpo Tashi Andrugtsang, founder of the Chushi Gangdrug Defend Tibet Volunteer Force, whom she met once in Darjeeling. She believes he planned her trip to India knowing that his family's safety would be jeopardized by his resistance against the Chinese. In the early 1960s Tading Choekyi Aduk father was arrested while living in Kham and died in prison from starvation.

Interview Team:

• Rebecca Novick (Interviewer)
• Ronny Novick (Videographer)
• Thupten Kelsang Dakpa (Interpreter)

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