She first became aware of the treatment of Bhutanese Nyingma practitioners through an e-mail she received in the mid-1990s. The virtual contact was followed-up be a face-to-face meeting when Lama Inge, herself an ordained teacher in the Nyingma tradition, made a trip to eastern Nepal to visit the exiled community. Eventually, she became an advisor/patron of Lama Jigme Jamtsho’s organization, the Shri Lhomon Ngagyur Nyingma Buddhist Association. “What they are trying to do is get attention,” she said. The group, founded in 1997, describes its goals as “aiming to protect, promote and preserve the pristine spiritual values of Nyingmapa tradition in Bhutan.”
She was appalled to discover that the exiles were part of a larger group of non-Kagyu, Nepalese-speaking people who had apparently been driven out or imprisoned by the Bhutanese government over the last decade. The persecution began as part of the “One Nation—One People” policy in Bhutan which forced non–ethnic Bhutanese to take on Bhutanese Buddhism and its associated traditions. Many people fled the country and took refuge in eastern Nepal. “These people are suffering,” Lama Inge said.
Action against Buddhists has continued, touching even some of the leaders in the Nyingma community in Bhutan. According to a report by the Shri Lhomon Ngagyur: “In October 1997, the Bhutanese Government arrested 200 monks and lay people, alleging them anti-nationals. One monk was killed. Among the prominent people arrested were Khenpo Thinley Odzer and Dungpa Tshewang Rinzin.” Khenpo Thinley Odzer was the chief abbot of Dremetse Shedar, the center for Nyingmapa studies in Bhutan.
While it is unclear why the story of these exiles and prisoners has not made it into wide circulation, Lama Inge believes that Bhutan’s status as a Buddhist country makes it hard for people to believe that persecution of one Buddhist sect by another can occur. “Everybody says, “it’s a pure Buddhist country, so they don’t do things like that.’”
Amnesty International has been monitoring the situation in Bhutan for some time, and its 2003 report, which focuses on the overall refugee community, includes the following statement: “There was no progress in the talks between the governments of Bhutan and Nepal over the future of tens of thousands of Nepali-speaking refugees from southern Bhutan living in seven refugee camps in Jhapa district, eastern Nepal. An estimated 60 political prisoners from southern and eastern Bhutan continued to serve long prison sentences.”
While Amnesty’s reports include no mention of the imprisoned Buddhists or the persecution of Nyingma practitioners, Lama Inge is making her own efforts to explain the situation in the West and help those living as refugees. She has sent some money to the exiles in Nepal, and she has also been trying to find work for the tankha painters, sculptors, and lamas who find themselves with little opportunity to use their skills not that they are cut off from their homeland. “The best thing to do would be to find some jobs for these people,” she said. First, though, she wants to make sure that their story gets out. “For nine years these people have been unknown exiles,” she said. “It would be so nice if they could go home.”
Those interested in learning more about the situation in Bhutan can contact Lama Inge Zangmo at (509) 747-1559 or by e-mail at padmaling@icehouse.net.