"I came to Dharamshala when I was nine years old. Back then, we...

"I came to Dharamshala when I was nine years old. Back then, we weren’t allowed to learn the Tibetan language in school, so my parents sent me to India. For a whole month we walked over the mountains. It was very snowy, and we only walked at night. One night I almost fell off a cliff, but one of the adults grabbed onto my hand and pulled me back up. It’s been twenty years now since I last saw my parents. Just a few months ago, I had a really bad stomach problem and had to go to the hospital. Even though I’m an adult, I’ve never missed my mother more. Being that sick made me realize that I have nobody watching over me."

(Dharamshala, India)