By HEMA EASLEY
It’s a different world at Rockland Country Day School.
Carrying a backpack, Yeishi Lhamo, 17, skips down the stairs from her classroom. A friend gives her a St. Valentine’s Day card and two red carnations.
A smile lights up her bright face. Lhamo says, “Thank you.”
Six months ago, Lhamo was a student in Tibet, one of millions of Tibetan youths growing up under authoritarian Chinese occupation that is chiseling away at their culture, religion and identity.
Sitting in a chair at school last week, Lhamo reminisced about her life in Tibet.
She said school there was a far cry from the friendly, encouraging atmosphere of Rockland Country Day School in Congers. Students arrived at 6 a.m. and in the dark swept and cleaned the school compound and classrooms before lessons began.
More than 50 students were crammed in a classroom before the stern eyes of a Chinese teacher. Classes were conducted in the official Chinese language, and speaking the native Tibetan could get students in trouble. Hitting students as punishment was acceptable.
Students dressed in drab uniforms. Jewelry and makeup were prohibited, and girls couldn’t wear their hair loose. Classes were held until 7 in the evening, with an hourlong break for lunch, when students went home to eat.
Most Tibetan students wore a picture of Tibet’s spiritual and political leader, the Dalai Lama, around their neck. But if they were caught with it on, or with any image of the Dalai Lama, they could be sent to jail, Lhamo said.
As in many other places, bullying was common. But in her school it took the form of ethnic slurs against the native Tibetans. “Stupid, ugly Tibetan girl,” Lhamo recalled Chinese students saying.
No Tibetan history was taught in school. The Dalai Lama was rarely mentioned, but if he was, it was as a liar who had cheated the Tibetan people.
All studies about the past began with the Chinese occupation of Tibet in 1949, which Chinese teachers described as the liberation of Tibet. Over the past five decades, several million Chinese have settled in Tibet, changing the demographics of the country. Today there are more Chinese there than Tibetans.
Good luck and serendipity brought Lhamo to Rockland Country Day School, where she is now an exchange student. She owes her new life to her aunt, Tashi Dolma, an acupuncturist in Valley Cottage.
About 17 years ago, Dolma, a medical doctor, fled the autocratic Chinese rule in Tibet. She walked across the icy Himalayan mountain range, taking brief naps at noon because it was the only time she wouldn’t freeze to death.
At one point she stumbled down an incline, but she was saved by another fleeing Tibetan, Tashi Rabten, now her husband. Dolma testified at a human rights commission in Geneva about Chinese occupation in Tibet and later moved to the United States.
Years later, through the good will she developed in the Rockland community, Dolma tried to bring her academically brilliant niece to the U.S.
Two years ago, she approached Rick Simpson, head of the humanities department at Rockland Country Day School. Willing to help, the school obtained Lhamo’s school records from Tibet and found her to be gifted in science and math.
Simpson traveled to Tibet and met with Lhamo and her family. Speaking on behalf of the school, Simpson offered Lhamo the highest level of financial aid the school gave and invited her to be an exchange student at Rockland Country Day School.
Dolma raised the rest of the money needed for Lhamo’s education through donations from friends and clients. With tuition arranged, Lhamo traveled to Beijing to get a student visa from the U.S. Embassy.
In September she arrived in the United States to begin her new life. She dreams of becoming a doctor and returning to Tibet to help her compatriots.
“She is a superior student in science and math. That gave us a reason to accept her,” said Jim Fyfe, director of admissions at the school. “She is here to stay for the foreseeable future.”
While Lhamo’s English is still hesitant, it hasn’t kept her from making good friends among her peers. She is popular, said Eliza Martin Simpson, one of Lhamo’s closest friends and daughter of Rick Simpson.
“Everybody loves Yeishi,” said Martin Simpson, 17. “It’s weird because her experiences are so different. But we’ve all got the same teenage angst.”
Lhamo loves being in America.
“I like it very much,” she said. “The people are very friendly. Most important, people will recognize you as Tibetan, and not Chinese.”
In less than six months Lhamo has developed into a mix of East and West. She remains respectful and thoughtful toward her elders but is loosening up with her friends.
Tall and slender, she fits into Western clothes well. She has even picked up American mannerisms, like the hand gesture for talking on the telephone.
She enjoys hanging out with friends and watching movies. Recently she went out to watch the new James Bond movie, “Casino Royale.”
“In Tibet we don’t have a chance,” said Guan Chol Dolma, Lhamo’s mother, who is in the U.S. for a visit. “Now that she is here, there are more opportunities. In Tibet, your grades may be good, but since it is up to the government, mostly Chinese people get good jobs.”
Lhamo enjoys her new life in America, but hasn’t forgotten the challenges back home, the insults, and the lack of opportunities and freedom.
Sitting and chatting with her friends earlier in the week, Lhamo and Martin Simpson discussed the merits of the Bond movie they had seen.
When asked why she liked it, Lhamo paused and then answered, “The bad guys die in the end.”
