Tibet Oral History Project: Interview with Dhoga on 3/30/2017

The interpreter's English translation provided during this interview is potentially incomplete and/or inaccurate. If you are not fluent in Tibetan, please refer to the interview transcript for the complete and correct English translation. Read the interview transcript in English at tibetoralhistor...
** This interview about life in Tibet was conducted by the Tibet Oral History Project. This non-profit organization aims to preserve the history and culture of the Tibetan people by interviewing elderly Tibetan refugees about life in Tibet before and after the Chinese invasion. Learn more at www.TibetOralHi....
** Interview Summary: Dhoga was born in Tehor, Kham Province in 1939. His family grew crops and raised a small number of animals also. They lived in a large house with the animals on the lower floor, the family on the middle floor, and they used the upper floor for storing the barley crop after harvest. They also used the roof for threshing the grain. Dhoga’s family co-owned the water mill in his village, which was used by all the villagers to grind barley into tsampa ‘flour made from roasted barley.’ Nomads came to the village each year to barter dairy products for barley. Dhoga describes the nomads’ methods of slaughtering animals for meat. Hoping for a happier life, Dhoga chose to become a monk and joined the local monastery. Tradition dictated that each monk study for a three years in one of the great monasteries in Lhasa. When Dhoga was threatened by the Chinese to join their army, he quickly left to join Sera Monastery in Lhasa around 1957. He was unable to complete his three years of study because the Chinese seized Lhasa in 1959. Dhoga briefly joined the Chushi Gangdrug [Defend Tibet Volunteer Force] during his escape. After arriving in India, he relocated several times before joining the Indian Army, which he served for 24 years.