Dilli Ram Dhimal describes the day in June 1992, Tshring Togbe, the Bhutan district magistrate, arrived in Lalai accompanied by Bhutanese soldiers. Togbe called the (Nepali-Bhutanese) villagers to assemble and then announced over a loudspeaker that they had seven days to pack up their belongings and leave the country. When a few of the peasants protested, a Bhutan army officer shouted:
“This is a hunting ground, and we can take you like monkeys.”
— The Nation, March 7, 2012
— The Nation, March 7, 2012
Hitler’s Nazi Germany and the Jews. Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge and minority Cambodians. Myanmar and the Rohingya Muslims. Karadzic’s Serbia and the Bosnian Muslims. Bhutan’s King Wangchuck and the Nepali-Bhutanese Hindus.
All ruthless authoritarian regimes which systematically targeted ethnic, racial and religious groups with the intent to forcibly remove – and even destroy – the population.
Tragically, all involved an intentional policy “to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic or religious group,” and rise to the level of ethnic cleansing and genocide atrocities, as defined in Article II of the United Nations 1948 Genocide Convention and in the 1993 UN Commission of Experts Report that ethnic cleansing can "fall within the meaning of the UN Genocide Convention."
All ruthless authoritarian regimes which systematically targeted ethnic, racial and religious groups with the intent to forcibly remove – and even destroy – the population.
Tragically, all involved an intentional policy “to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic or religious group,” and rise to the level of ethnic cleansing and genocide atrocities, as defined in Article II of the United Nations 1948 Genocide Convention and in the 1993 UN Commission of Experts Report that ethnic cleansing can "fall within the meaning of the UN Genocide Convention."
In the case of Bhutan, in the 1980s, Wangchuck wanted to rid his country of the Lhotshampa, the ethnic Nepali Bhutanese citizens living in the south, so he could “purify” Bhutan into one Buddhist-only nation, religion, language and culture. He feared the growing population of Nepali Bhutanese citizens, who were predominantly Hindu and who peacefully farmed and owned small tracts of property in the south that their forefathers had cleared from jungle more than 100 years before. He coveted their land.
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Like all dictators bent on increasing power through the terror of ethnic cleansing, Wangchuck followed a well-worn bloody playbook.
He enacted a Citizenship Act in 1985 dubbed “One Nation. One People.” which directly targeted the Nepali Bhutanese population’s religion, culture, dress, language, schools, land, livelihoods, and even the length of women’s hair. He prohibited the practice and teaching of the Hindu religion, speaking the Nepali language and the teaching of the Nepali language in Nepali-Bhutanese schools. Wangchuck decreed that any criticism of the king would mean imprisonment. In 1988, with the intention of stripping away citizenship and eliminating large numbers of Nepali Bhutanese, Wangchuck ordered a census but only in the southern region where the Nepali Bhutanese live. Residents were classified into seven categories ostensibly to determine their Bhutanese “purity level.” Wangchuck demanded that residents produce a land tax receipt specifically from the year 1958 or be designated an “illegal immigrant” to be deported, even though many were citizens and often had family heritage going back a century or more. Bhutan designated tens of thousands of Nepali Bhutanese citizens as “non-nationals” and “illegal immigrants,” and moved to begin their forcible deportation. With their land, homes, culture, religion, education, jobs, citizenship, and rights being stripped away, some Bhutanese Nepali citizens held demonstrations in southern Bhutan in 1990. Wangchuk ordered his army to violently crack down on protesters, harass families and terrorize Bhutanese Nepali villages.
Thousands of men arrested arbitrarily, tortured and held in prison. Some die. Women raped by soldiers. Homes burned. Schools and medical services shut down. The King’s army went door to door, confiscating and destroying citizenship cards. They gave families as little as 24 hours to leave Bhutan. They forced individuals, under duress, to sign “Voluntary Migration Forms” to show the world they were “gladly” leaving the country of their own will. In August of 1990, the first Nepali Bhutanese began to flee Bhutan. |
They built Bhutan. Their farms fed Bhutan.
Then Bhutan violently purged them.
Then Bhutan violently purged them.
While some accounts place the first Nepali migration to Bhutan as early as the 7th Century AD, others point to the year 1624 as the date. It was then that Bhutan’s spiritual ruler, the Lama Shabdrung Ngawang Namgyal, signed a formal document with Nepal’s King Ram Shah to recruit 50 families of skilled Nepali artisans to design and construct Buddhist Dzongs (fortified buildings housing Buddhist schools) and monasteries in Bhutan. They all received Bhutan citizenship.
In 1890, Bhutan invited Nepali citizens to immigrate to Bhutan to clear the dense, malaria-infested jungles in the south, establish fertile terraced soil and farm the lands. These lands later would provide the majority of Bhutan’s food supply. The next 40 years featured the largest migration of ethnic Nepalis to Bhutan ever.
The first Nationality Law of Bhutan was enacted in 1958. In it, Bhutan’s King Jigme Dorji Wangchuck formally granted Bhutanese citizenship to Nepali Bhutanese “permanently domiciled” (living) in Bhutan, as well as their direct descendants. From the mid-1950s, ethnic Nepali Bhutanese began to be admitted into civil service, the army and the police, and were made members of the Monarchy’s cabinet and judiciary.
But in 1977, in the first of many cascading policies aimed at discriminating against the Nepali Bhutanese and limiting their ability to become citizens or hold basic human rights, the ruling Drukpa elite and King Jigme Singye Wangchuck created a new Citizenship Act. The Drukpa monarchy ignored history and began to assert that the ethnic Nepali Bhutanese were indeed not citizens, rather “illegal immigrants” who now threatened Bhutan.
In 1890, Bhutan invited Nepali citizens to immigrate to Bhutan to clear the dense, malaria-infested jungles in the south, establish fertile terraced soil and farm the lands. These lands later would provide the majority of Bhutan’s food supply. The next 40 years featured the largest migration of ethnic Nepalis to Bhutan ever.
The first Nationality Law of Bhutan was enacted in 1958. In it, Bhutan’s King Jigme Dorji Wangchuck formally granted Bhutanese citizenship to Nepali Bhutanese “permanently domiciled” (living) in Bhutan, as well as their direct descendants. From the mid-1950s, ethnic Nepali Bhutanese began to be admitted into civil service, the army and the police, and were made members of the Monarchy’s cabinet and judiciary.
But in 1977, in the first of many cascading policies aimed at discriminating against the Nepali Bhutanese and limiting their ability to become citizens or hold basic human rights, the ruling Drukpa elite and King Jigme Singye Wangchuck created a new Citizenship Act. The Drukpa monarchy ignored history and began to assert that the ethnic Nepali Bhutanese were indeed not citizens, rather “illegal immigrants” who now threatened Bhutan.
Threats, torture and killings carried out by Bhutan's king and military forced tens of thousands of Nepali Bhutanese families to flee persecution beginning in 1990. Often given just 24 hours to leave the country and taking only what they could carry to the India border. Photos: Laxmi Prasad Luitel, 1992
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“ Every day, beating us with sticks. My body felt like it was dying. ” |
During the late 1980s, Tika Acharya worked diligently, driving a truck and selling oranges and cardamom to markets in Bhutan, India and Nepal. He grew up a son of Bhutan, with his father born there in 1940. He and his wife, Kamala, owned a house and a bit of land in the rural Dagana district in southwestern Bhutan.
But under King Wangchuck’s 1985 “One Nation. One People.” edict, Acharya saw his serene community’s culture, religion, language, possessions and hope evaporating quickly. The Bhutan monarchy’s oppressive actions grew more intimidating and violent every day. |
Unwelcomed by India, Bhutanese refugees made their way to Nepal and a makeshift camp called Maidhar on the banks of the Kankai Mai River in early 1991. With little resources, contaminated water supplies, food scarcity, no health care and overcrowded conditions, disease outbreaks killed thousands, including many children.
Photo: USCRI
Photo: USCRI
“Some Nepali Bhutanese started protesting that there were no freedoms, no rights in Bhutan. They wanted democracy,” says Acharya, who now lives with his wife in the Columbus suburb of Reynoldsburg. “They stole our lands and homes, and forced us to adopt the Drukpa (Buddhist) culture and religion and go against the teachings of our sacred religion.”
Anticipating — and perhaps even wanting — the protests, Bhutan’s army responded with brutal force. Not only on the protesters, but on anyone living in their villages.
“Late one night, 10 army soldiers came to our house and accused me of giving a donation to support the protesters, which wasn’t true,” says Acharya. “They put me in jail with 40 people in one room and no toilet.”
“One of the men in the jail asked for some water. The jailers put their urine in the prisoner’s mouth instead,” says Acharya. “They blindfolded us. There were so many men that they ran out of handcuffs, so they used coarse rope instead which cut off circulation. I saw one man die from that. They tortured and killed two of my friends.”
Anticipating — and perhaps even wanting — the protests, Bhutan’s army responded with brutal force. Not only on the protesters, but on anyone living in their villages.
“Late one night, 10 army soldiers came to our house and accused me of giving a donation to support the protesters, which wasn’t true,” says Acharya. “They put me in jail with 40 people in one room and no toilet.”
“One of the men in the jail asked for some water. The jailers put their urine in the prisoner’s mouth instead,” says Acharya. “They blindfolded us. There were so many men that they ran out of handcuffs, so they used coarse rope instead which cut off circulation. I saw one man die from that. They tortured and killed two of my friends.”
The arbitrary arrests and torture - classic trademarks of ethnic cleansing tactics - of Nepali Bhutanese men continued to spread across southern Bhutan. With Kamala now pregnant with their first child, Acharya lived in fear of the next attack on his village, where men would be picked up as they walked down the road and not seen for weeks or months. The king's soldiers arrested him on three separate occasions, holding him without cause for up to a month each time.
Finally, the 27-year-old Acharya reached his breaking point.
"Every day, beating us with sticks. My body felt like it was dying. It was too much. I had to leave."
The forced removal -- in whatever form necessary -- of this minority population was Bhutan's goal all along.
"They told me every day, 'You can leave this jail and end the beatings if you just agree to leave the country," says Acharya. "They then forced me to sign a Voluntary Migration Form saying that I was choosing to leave."
Finally, the 27-year-old Acharya reached his breaking point.
"Every day, beating us with sticks. My body felt like it was dying. It was too much. I had to leave."
The forced removal -- in whatever form necessary -- of this minority population was Bhutan's goal all along.
"They told me every day, 'You can leave this jail and end the beatings if you just agree to leave the country," says Acharya. "They then forced me to sign a Voluntary Migration Form saying that I was choosing to leave."
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As one last dehumanizing condition, the jailers ordered him to smile and "show your teeth" so his photo on the form would depict him as happy.
Given three weeks to leave his community, house, land and possessions behind, Acharya set free his beloved cows and goats, and bid his final goodbyes. He and Kamala, with their 9-month-old daughter Purna in tow, gathered what they could carry and, along with his younger brother, mother, father, and 86-year-old grandmother, set off on foot toward India. It took them three days walking and following the river which supplied them with water, while taking turns carrying his elderly grandmother in a large basket on their backs, to reach the border. Then they slept outside for two days, and planned the next leg of their journey....getting to a makeshift refugee camp they had heard about on the banks of the holy Kankai Mai River in Nepal.
They called it Maidhar.
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Camp volunteers at a rudimentary health clinic at Maidhar could provide only basic pain relievers similar to Tylenol. Families often had to wait hours in line.
Photo: USCRI |
A brother comforts his ailing younger sister at Maidhar camp.
Photo: USCRI
Photo: USCRI
"Under the 1985 Citizenship Act, tens of thousands (of Bhutan's ethnic Nepalese minority)
were declared to be illegal immigrants and forcibly evicted from Bhutan,"
according to the 1993 U.S. State Department Human Rights Report on Bhutan.
Others fled "in the face officially sanctioned pressure, including arbitrary arrests, beatings, rape, robberies and other forms of intimidation by the police and the army."
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The most vulnerable 91, lethal outbreaks and acts of courage
By early 1991, the exodus on Nepali Bhutanese into India's West Bengal state numbered a few hundred. Knowing many more refugees would soon follow, refugee leaders approached Indian government officials with a request to set up a camp. India refused.
Coldly received by India and with no options before them, the leaders identified the most endangered men and women among the refugees. This group of 91 contained frail elderly, men with fresh wounds all over their bodies from repeated torture, and women who had been raped by Bhutan's soldiers. They decided that "if they were to die, let them die on the soil of Nepal," recounts Ram Karki. Having survived torture while in high school, the then 19-year-old Karki was studying to be a teacher in Bhutan when he saw Bhutan police coming to arrest him for possessing pro-democracy pamphlets. |
Knowing he would be put in jail and beat again, Karki jumped out of his window and escaped Bhutan to India on August 19, 1990.
In February 1991, refugee leaders asked him and two others to take the 91 vulnerable Bhutanese refugees from India and find a space for them in Nepal. They rented a mini-bus and used every inch to fit everyone. Five hours later, the three guides and the 91 reached the Nepal border. Karki went 35 miles into Nepal looking for unclaimed land. On the banks of the Kankai Mai River in Jhapa district, he found an empty gaushala (cow shed) where they kept sacred cows. He purchased the shed for 300 rupees ($2 USD), travelled back to the border and helped bring the 91 men and women to the cow shed on the banks of the river. From that day on, it became known as the Mai(mother) dhar(bank) camp. "We only had that empty cow shed, with cow dung on the floor," says Karki. "At night. we would lay head to head - a tight space. Some would be crying. Others laughing, telling stories. We would go into the nearby village during the day, looking for food. Some people donated corn and some rice." |
With refugees streaming into camp every day, the population of Maidhar camp grew rapidly to top 50,000, overwhelming basic resources. Despite the harsh conditions and deaths, Maidhar kept the majority of the Bhutanese refugee community together - a significant accomplishment which led to the creation of seven United Nations refugee camps, and later, resettlement to the United States and other countries.
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"Those first days, we struggled to establish the camp," says Karki, who now lives in The Hague, Netherlands. "The people from the village wanted us to dismantle the camp and come to the village to live. We said no, we would stay together in community at Maidhar. It was do or die. Had we left, Maidhar would never have been."
Word of this Maidhar camp spread to the other Bhutanese refugees in India and to thousands of Nepali Bhutanese families facing violence and persecution across Bhutan. Within a few weeks, trucks carrying refugees began arriving, pushing the population to several thousand by summer and expanding every day. |
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The holy Kankai Mai River in Jhapa District, Nepal, and part of the bank which held the original Maidhar camp in 1991-1992. Bodies of those who died at Maidhar were cremated, as is the Hindu funeral tradition, and put into sacred waters. Photo: Julia Rendleman, 2014
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But with little resources or capability to manage the burgeoning refugee numbers - and with poor sanitation, contaminated water supplies, food shortages and no health care - conditions grew grim. Outbreaks of cholera, dysentery, typhoid, and malaria overwhelmed the community. The death toll kept rising.
"I was in charge of arranging to burn the bodies of those who had died, as is the Hindu funeral ritual," says Karki. "I would leave to go collect firewood for the cremation, come back and there would be another body. There were 20 deaths a day or more. I tried to carry a small boy to the clinic and he died on the way."
Tragedy, unity and the two Purnas
Tika and Kamala Acharya, their-9-month-old daughter Purna, his grandmother Purna, brother, mother and father travelled in a truck on bumpy Indian roads with five other families huddled together and arrived at Maidhar camp on November 26, 1991. They bought a plastic tent, and he went to work gathering small sticks in the jungle to use for the walls. The UN had started providing basic rations of food, but not shelter.
"When we arrived at Maidhar, there were several thousand refugees and it was somewhat manageable," says Acharya. "But by January 1992, there were 20-25 trucks coming every day, and the population grew to 50,000-60,000 people by March. There was no room, few toilets, very congested. We were right on top of each other. The dust and wind affected breathing and our roof would blow off during storms. It was so crowded that people had to create an overflow camp in Tamai, Nepal."
"When we arrived at Maidhar, there were several thousand refugees and it was somewhat manageable," says Acharya. "But by January 1992, there were 20-25 trucks coming every day, and the population grew to 50,000-60,000 people by March. There was no room, few toilets, very congested. We were right on top of each other. The dust and wind affected breathing and our roof would blow off during storms. It was so crowded that people had to create an overflow camp in Tamai, Nepal."
Map showing location of the Maidhar camp in Nepal, and the seven UN camps built later.
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Tika's grandmother, Purna, lived two months at Maidhar before she passed away. Years before, she loved celebrating the Hindu festivals with family in Bhutan and she and Kamala were able to enjoy a final one together that December at Maidhar.
That same month, the infant Purna became sick with dysentry, blood in her stool, diarrhea, breathing difficulties and fever, and grew thin. Her condition worsened. Fearing that he may lose his daughter to the diseases which had befallen so many children at Maidhar, Tika took action. "We had 35 kids die in one day at Maidhar," says Acharya. "There was no doctor there - we had camp volunteers who gave out Tylenol at the health clinic and you had to wait all day. I had heard that the Nepali Bhutanese doctor, Dr. Bhampa Rai, who had been the personal physician to Bhutan's King Wangchuck at one time, was helping a lot of people at a private clinic 30 minutes away by bus. Dr. Rai had to flee Bhutan as well, and became a refugee in Nepal."
"So I carried little Purna and we went to see him. I waited four hours, and he didn't charge us a fee," says Acharya. "He prescribed an antibiotic to treat her pneumonia. It saved Purna's life." |
Through all of the heartbreak, loss of life and turmoil, Tika believes that the Maidhar camp brought out the true spirit of the Nepali Bhutanese community.
"We had unity at Maidhar," says Acharya, who was a community leader at the camp. "Each one helped the other out. Everyone wanted to help, whatever the need." Kamala, who would give birth to two more daughters while in the UN camp, expresses gratitude for those days, as well. "I'm grateful to the Kankai Mai River, and I'm grateful to Nepal. They never forced us to leave." The Maidhar camp carries great significance in the Bhutanese refugee journey story. Because of the tens of thousands of refugees who came there for survival, the disease outbreaks and the tragic death toll, addressing the magnitude of the Bhutanese refugee humanitarian disaster became a priority for the UN's refugee agency UNHCR and for the government of Nepal.
In summer of 1992, the UNCHR and Nepal agreed to step up and establish seven UN refugee camps in the region to house the expanding Bhutanese refugee community. And that, in turn, finally led to the resettlement of more than 110,000 Bhutanese refugees starting in 2008. |
From 1998-2008, Bhutanese young people in the UN refugee camps told their stories through photography, as part of The Children's Forum and Photovoice project. The photos reflect community, compassion, joy and despair of life in the camps. The photographer-storytellers wrote the accompanying captions.
The Health Centre in the refugee camp can give only primary care and for the secondary treatment for her baby she has to get a referral health card so she can get to good health facilities out of the camps. These days we are not getting proper health facilities because many mothers lose their babies in childhood. So not only refugee children are dying because of lack of health facilities but also adults are dying due to poor health facilities. This is why I wanted to snap this photo. Til Maya/Children's Forum/Photovoice.
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There is a saying that thousands of ants can kill an elephant like that we can also solve our problems by sharing our ideas and discussing our struggles together. Aite Maya / Children's Forum / Photovoice.
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The view from the roof of my hut. When we first arrived the camps were very bare but now there are banana trees and much greenery. Deokmar / Children's Forum / Photovoice.
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Health is wealth. Albi/Children's Forum/Photovoice.
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Carrying rations back to the huts. Praja/ Children's Forum/Photovoice.
More on Photovoice project at bhutaneserefugees.com. |
An ill woman lies outside her hut. Many people get sick in the summer season because it is so hot in the camps. Bishnu Maya/ Children's Forum/Photovoice.
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UN camps and the long road to recovery
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After Bhutan's forced removal of nearly 20 percent of its population, deplorable conditions in overwhelmed Maidhar and thousands of deaths, the UNHCR's newly established camps in Nepal housed what would grow to 120,000 refugees. The camps provided stability and safety, a relatively adequate food supply, schools, basic health care services, and freedom to practice their religion and celebrate their cultural traditions.
For the first few years, many Bhutanese refugees felt they would be allowed to return to their homes in Bhutan, as is their right under international law. But to this day, Bhutan has not allowed one refugee to repatriate. Bhutan slow-walked talks with Nepal and the UNHCR, nor would Nepal allow the refugees to become citizens in their ethnic ancestral homeland. Word of possible resettlement to other countries — known as the third option — began percolating, but progress came slowly. Months turned to years, and years to decades. The psychological burden of so much time spent in the camp, waiting in limbo as a stateless people, began to weigh on its residents. Some mothers in the UN camps experienced depression because, as refugees, they were not permitted to work outside the camp and earn a living to supplement the basic food rations and improve nutrition, blaming themselves for their children's uncertain future, and any breakdown in the family. For awhile, because of the UN's substandard nutrition, there were outbreaks of beriberi caused by thiamine (vitamin B1) deficiencies, and even scurvy, caused by vitamin C deficiency. 
There are nine members of my family living in my hut including my parents and grandparents. We are very sad because we now do not possess any land or a house. In Bhutan we had land which was sufficient for all of us. Dil/Children's Forum/Photovoice
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Some older Bhutanese refugees feared the difficulties of possibly having to learn a new language, culture, and country if resettled to another nation. Young Bhutanese refugees worked hard at their studies in the camps' schools, only to feel chagrined about their precarious future.
My Neighbour. From looking at our faces you see no tears but our internal hearts are crying. Bishnu Maya/Children's Forum/Photovoice
As a young, earnest student in the Beldangi 1 camp's school, Mani Biswa, Bhutanese Community of Central Ohio (BCCO) case manager, felt that despair.
“One day I came home from school and said to my parents, what's the use of going to school if we don't have a future? My mom and dad said to me, “We don't have our identity, we don't have possessions, we don't have anything. But we still have our hope. Don't lose your hope. Keep going to school. Do what your teachers say to do,' ” says Biswa, who now lives in the Columbus suburb of Gahanna with his wife and four children. What happened in Bhutan and over the past 30+ years can be seen as a triple tragedy. The horror of the planned ethnic cleansing of the Nepali Bhutanese people and the subsequent thousands of people who perished. Then world powers stood idly by or in India's case, acquiesced, as the atrocities raged on, perhaps their attention diverted by other global events. Either way, no one stepped in to protect the Nepali Bhutanese and to punish Bhutan. Finally, the tragedy of Bhutan's three decades of whitewashing of this history, its propaganda machine churning out falsehoods about the persecution, and the lack of accountability to this day. |
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And every year, the Bhutanese refugee communities around the world must read and hear about Bhutan’s apocryphal “Gross National Happiness” index, an artificial “survey” conducted by the Monarchy of its residents in a country where it is illegal to criticize the King. In fact, in the independent World Happiness Report conducted by Columbia University experts and the Gallup World Poll each year, based on multiple objective economic, social, psychological and other life metrics, Bhutan does not even make the list of the top 146 countries in the world ranked by the happiness of their citizens.
"Behind its facade of otherworldly charm, Bhutan holds a secret. Twenty years ago, its monarchy, threatened by an increase in Bhutan's ethnic Nepalese population, hit on a simple solution: ethnic cleansing. The question remains how Bhutan got away with such a large-scale expulsion of its own citizens. A report by the Norwegian Refugee Council blames the world's media for helping 'perpetuate the myth of an exotic land of happiness. However, what we have before us is a silent tragedy occurring in a media-created Shangri-la.' --The Guardian, April 19, 2008 |
A Bhutanese refugee in Nepal holds his family’s official International Organization for Migration (IOM) resettlement sheet which shows their destination of Ohio. Photo: Julia Rendleman, 2014
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Coming to America
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In October 2006, the hopeful news spread through the seven camps: the United States offered to resettle 60,000 Bhutanese refugees. Soon, several other countries followed suit.
On February 28, 2008, the first Bhutanese refugee, Pingala Dhital, and her family arrived in Seattle. Four months later, the first Bhutanese refugee families landed at John Glenn International Airport in Columbus. Aspirations took root as the Bhutanese refugees began their resettlement around the world, with the vast majority coming to America. Yet the joy remains tempered as survivors start new lives while still burdened by past anguish. They may carry their physical and mental wounds forever. Some repress memories, others find remembering stories of torture, what they experienced at Maidhar or the other camps, or the loss of life too traumatic. Openly sharing the suffering is the best way for others to move forward. Working through the hardships and the normal stressors of resettlement life can feel like an elephant on the backs of former refugees. |
The psychological burdens can carry over into resettlement, as evidenced by a Bhutanese refugee suicide and suicide ideation rate that research studies put at twice the national average, and alarming levels of depression, PTSD, anxiety and substance misuse as well. Mental health issues cross all ages. Young Bhutanese Americans may struggle with living between two cultures and substance abuse, while older Bhutanese Americans may feel more closed off from society because of language and other barriers.
Friends in the classroom. Photo: Aite Maya/Children's Forum/Photovoice. The BCCO draws strength from the Bhutanese American "all for one, one for all” togetherness as it develops culturally appropriate programs to serve the community.
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"Columbus is a growing community saturated in diversity and culture. As we continue to welcome new residents to our city and assure the success of current residents, we need community partners such as the BCCO to help us reach every person in need. BCCO has been an outstanding partner and we are so very proud of our relationship."
— Emmanuel V. Remy Councilmember, City of Columbus “There's a great need in the community to address mental health issues,” says Uma Acharya, former BCCO board member. “And for young women, they have different expectations than their parents, and deal with different issues like drugs, pregnancies, and depression. We saw a need to create a safe place and support group for them. That's why we started the Women of Knowledge and Education group,” she says.
This is precisely why the first Bhutanese refugee families in Columbus formed the Bhutanese Nepali Community of Columbus (BNCC) civic organization in 2009. In March of 2012, BNCC received its 501(C)3 IRS designation and became the Bhutanese Community of Central Ohio in 2017. Mental health resilience training, parental and student empowerment programs, broad case management services for the most vulnerable families, agricultural and urban farming programs for older New Americans, job assistance, advocacy and providing a safe and welcoming sense of community at BCCO continue to be at the heart of the organization's mission. Also helping to strengthen the Bhutanese community is living in a democracy, becoming U.S. citizens and having constitutionally protected human rights for the first time. BCCO provides multiple civic and community engagement activities for Bhutanese Americans. Being welcomed in a growing city of opportunity like Columbus means a great deal as well, and it is one of the main reasons Columbus has become the global center of the Bhutanese diaspora. |
“The BCCO is not just a non-profit organization, it's a community center," says Priya Sharma. “It started as a community center and it's still a community center. It's one of the reasons BCCO is so trusted here. The BCCO also advocates for and represents the whole Bhutanese-Nepali community and that makes a lot of things accessible to the Bhutanese-Nepali community in Columbus and Ohio.”
“The Bhutanese Community of Central Ohio helps you transform your life without having to transform who you really are,” Sharma says. “You can stay connected to your culture and still be a part of the mainstream community. And at the moment when you know you're struggling and when you don't have anyone else to turn to and there's someone showing you the right direction, that's everything at that moment. And BCCO does that.” Uma Acharya, one of the three daughters of Tika and Kamala Acharya, grew up in the UN camp with sisters Purna and Tara. They now all live within five minutes of each other in two Columbus suburbs, successful young women with promising futures, a deep connection to family and community, and gratitude to have found their way home together to Columbus and the BCCO. “For tons of people, Columbus and the BCCO are the connection to home,” says Uma Acharya. “There's a real sense of community. You feel like you belong here, have a place here. The BCCO provides services and hope, and represents our community in Columbus, Franklin County, Ohio, and the nation ... they see us because of the BCCO.” “No other place can replace the BCCO.” 
Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther (right) with Bhuwan Pyakurel during a visit to the BCCO in 2015.
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From Maidhar to Main Street
Born into a time of sorrow, now a leader improving lives in Ohio
Born into a time of sorrow, now a leader improving lives in Ohio
Surya Dulal and his family fled Bhutan when he was just one year old. They made the difficult journey to Nepal in 1991 and survived the harsh conditions of the Maidhar camp on the Kankai Mai River. They then lived in the U.N. refugee camp for 18 years before resettling in their new home of Columbus in 2009.
Seeing a great need for a small retail pharmacy with patient-centered, culturally appropriate care, Dulal and a co-owner opened the Lifeline Pharmacy in Reynoldsburg, Ohio, in August 2020 in the middle of the pandemic. A respiratory therapist and pharmacy technician, Dulal has treated COVID-19 patients who were on respirators at Grant Medical Center in Columbus. Lifeline, an independent community pharmacy, now has more than 500 active patients and growing and has provided COVID-19 vaccinations to more than 2,500 people.
Seeing a great need for a small retail pharmacy with patient-centered, culturally appropriate care, Dulal and a co-owner opened the Lifeline Pharmacy in Reynoldsburg, Ohio, in August 2020 in the middle of the pandemic. A respiratory therapist and pharmacy technician, Dulal has treated COVID-19 patients who were on respirators at Grant Medical Center in Columbus. Lifeline, an independent community pharmacy, now has more than 500 active patients and growing and has provided COVID-19 vaccinations to more than 2,500 people.
L-R: Co-Owner and CEO Surya Dulal, Pharmacist Rosine Kalison and Pharmacy Technician Puja Baskota make up part of a seven-member employee team at Lifeline Pharmacy in Reynoldsburg, Ohio.
"The BCCO knows this growing refugee community better than any organization. They know the needs. They do the greatest work. They’re navigators and trusted advocates. I’m proud of the BCCO. They have impacted my family, helping my 50-year-old mom with her citizenship test. I see the BCCO’s effect on the community and the whole of Columbus."
— Surya Dulal, CRT, CPhT
Co-Owner, CEO Lifeline Pharmacy
Graduated from Ohio State University with a degree in Respiratory Therapy
Arrived in Columbus with his family in 2009, one of the first Bhutanese refugee families in Central Ohio
— Surya Dulal, CRT, CPhT
Co-Owner, CEO Lifeline Pharmacy
Graduated from Ohio State University with a degree in Respiratory Therapy
Arrived in Columbus with his family in 2009, one of the first Bhutanese refugee families in Central Ohio
