The Lhotsampa People of Bhutan : Resilience and Survival

This book provides insight into one of the world's quietest human rights abuses. The story of the Lhotsampa people of Bhutan describes their journey of coping and resilience, incorporating qualitative research undertaken in the refugee camps in Nepal and resettlement areas in Australia and elsewhere in the world.

Through firsthand research and a historical, political, and cultural examination of the Lhotsampa people in Bhutan, this book provides insight into one of the world''s quietest human rights abuses. In the 1890s, the government of Bhutan allowed many Nepalese people into the country to clear Bhutanese jungles in the south of the country. Barely a century later, the Lhotsampa constituted 45 percent of the country''s population. They lived as an agrarian community, and their position as food suppliers for Bhutan helped them to achieve educational, economic, and political success. With this rise in prosperity, the Bhutanese Drukpa government enacted a number of policies in the 1980s and 1990s designed to expel the Lhotsampa people. For over two decades, more than 100,000 Lhotsampa lived in refugee camps in Nepal, yet the global community remained largely ignorant. The Lhotsampa demonstrated extraordinary handling of adversity; this book is a testimony to their survival and the resilience that allowed them to build new lives against heavy odds.