History of TRAS

After the failure of the Tibetan uprising in 1959 against the occupation by Chinese Communist forces, the Dalai Lama and many of his followers fled from Tibet into India, Nepal, Bhutan and Sikkim. They traveled under great hardship, across some of the world's highest and most rugged terrain. They fled with virtually no possessions except for a few of their treasured religious objects. Many died on the way, so that by the time the approximately 80,000 exiles reached safety, there were many orphans amongst their number.

It is to their credit that the already poor neighbouring countries took these refugees in. The Indian Government helped many Tibetan refugees to settle in old British hill stations that had been abandoned after independence.

One of Canada's most prolific and honoured writers, Vancouver-based George Woodcock and his wife Inge, were in India in 1962, conducting research for his book Faces of India. During this trip they met with Tibetan refugees and His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Seeing the plight of children sleeping on the cement floors of old bungalows, with one blanket for five in the freezing Himalayan winter, they realized that immediate help was needed.

They returned to Vancouver and founded the Tibetan Refugee Aid Society (TRAS) to assist displaced Tibetans in India and Nepal (including many settlements in southern India).

A successful sponsorship scheme for the children was started, homes were bought, renovated and furnished, and a small clinic was provided. As needs were identified, they were dealt with - a roof for a school, housing for old and sick refugees who could not do the backbreaking work on the military roads which India was pushing through the hills, a common job worked by the Tibetan refugees.

From the start, TRAS has also been working on long term solutions to the Tibetan refugee problem, co-operating with other relief organizations from around the world. Early settlements were founded in the Himalayan hills in northern India, where, under the leadership of older, experienced people, the refugees maintained themselves by a combination of horticulture and traditional arts and crafts. TRAS supplied many of these small communities with the economic aid they needed to carry out their plans for housing, sanitation, schooling, health, agriculture and crafts. TRAS was also instrumental in helping to organize a central agency for marketing the fine Tibetan carpets, which have become world famous for their beauty and quality.

The vast majority of Tibetan refugees still remained unsettled, however, and it was impossible to accomodate them in the already overcrowded northern parts of India. The Indian Government made available large tracts of undeveloped scrub jungle in southern India. In spite of the added problems of a climate and agricultural conditions completely foreign to these mountain people, including raids by wild elephants, the Tibetans worked hard and successfully to create viable settlements. TRAS co-operated with Indian and international agencies to support these settlements.

In 1970 the work of TRAS was considerably expanded when the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) agreed to support TRAS by giving matching funds for those raised from private sources. Schools, hospitals, housing, irrigation, TB control, agricultural training, and ratproof grain warehouses were some of the projects undertaken by TRAS, along with the continuing sponsorship programs for children and the elderly.

By the late 1970s, these settlements were on the way to self-sufficiency. One measure of success was seen in a settlement of several thousand Tibetans who initially owned one bicycle collectively. However, within a few years nearly every family had a bicycle and the State Bank of India was asking if it could open a branch on the settlement. It was time for TRAS to move on.

Since the beginning of the development of the large settlements in the south, TRAS had regularly offered services to the surrounding Indian villages. TRAS now decided to concentrate the Society's work in the trans-Himalayan region, changing its name to the Trans Himalayan Aid Society, and to offer help to some of the poorest local people as well as the Tibetan refugees. Areas in the Onkarnath region, Kulu Valley and the Kumaon hills were selected for integrated rural action projects, helping many villages plan better health, education, agriculture and reforestation. In the late 1980s, a similar project was started in the Annapurna region of Nepal. These schemes have been very successful and are blueprints for small, grass-roots development in areas where little help has been offered before.

Over the last 40 years, TRAS has given millions of dollars to projects ranging from building settlements, schools and homes for children and the elderly to vocational training, environmental, agricultural and health programs and the preservation of Tibetan arts and culture.