Cold Mountain Songs
For ages / I have been gone / from the home in the Cold Mountains
Song of an Old Tibetan
I sing for all things dead and alive / For all things moving and still / For all moms who cry for their far away sons,
Friends
An American buddy of mine, / Journeyed to the Land of Snow. / He drank a mouthful of melted snow
The Tibetan in Mumbai
The Tibetan in Mumbai / is not a foreigner. / He is a cook
To Boat People
Oh, you brave people / I greet you in exile!
I’m Tired
I am tired, / I am tired doing that 10th March ritual, screaming from the hills of Dharamsala.
When it Rains in Dharamsala
When it rains in Dharamsala / raindrops wear boxing gloves, / thousands of them come crashing down
Refugee
When I was / born my mother said / you are a refugee.
Exile House
Our tiled roof dripped / and the four walls threatened to fall apart / but we were to go home soon,
My Tibetanness
Thirty-nine years in exile. / Yet no nation supports us. / Not a single bloody nation!
Losar Greeting
Tashi Delek! / Though in a borrowed garden / you grow, grow well my sister.
A Nomad’s Song
“I am not a creature of enclosed spaces, / I am the invincible spirit of the Changthang.”
Majnu Ka Tilla Dreams
How easily we forget that / A passionately new dawn / Sinks into cloudy darkness,
Fresh Winds
Give us the chance to pursue / our search for our / shores and shapes.
A Form of Nonsense Dialogue
Have you filled the forms? / Yes I did … / Birth form Créche form School form Examination form.
Bread and Freedom
Review of book KORA by Tenzin Tsundue
Our final kora will be complete when we return to a ’free’ homeland after years of roaming in foreign jungles. But to fulfil this ultimate journey, we need writers, activists, statesmen, thinkers and most of all bread-and-freedom poets to paint our reality as it is — so that when the kora is complete we can plan our future ’in our own words, in our own silence, and in our own wisdom.’
Richard Gere is My Hero
Review of film Richard Gere is my Hero by Tashi Wangchuk
Review by Tashi Tenzin of the film Richard Gere is my Hero: The film’s richness in characterisation — some of the funniest characters like Love Guru, Acha BBC, Phuntsok Drunkard, and Cho Dargay can be compared to those of the best novels.
Green is In… Red is Out
Review of book Tibetan Medical Dietary Book (Vol. 1) by Dr. Yangbum Gyal
The essence of this book lies in its relevance in everyday life — making the ancient wisdom available to the modern world. Every housewife and househusband should have this book on their kitchen shelf so that they know exactly what balanced vegetable dishes to prepare for their loved ones.
Telling the Exile Tibetan Story Like It Is
Review of film Dreaming Lhasa by Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam
Review by Dechen Pemba of the film ‘Dreaming Lhasa’: For so many Tibetans born in exile, Tibet is significant as an absence, an omnipresent looming large all-encompassing void.