Dharamsala; the home of the Dalai Lama living in exile. In 2009 my travels also brought me to this North Indian mountain city. When I was there the Tibetans commemorated the Dalai Lama’s fiftieth year in exile. The young Tibetans I met had fled Tibet when they were children. Their parents sent them over so they could go to Tibetan schools in India and Nepal; a possibility not offered in a Tibet controlled by China.

Birgit Van De Wijer is a Belgian women who helps organizing projects that work with these children. She wrote a book about it. She considers this exiled Tibetan community as her real home.