THE PRODUCTION OF REFUGEE PLACE IN TIME: CASE OF TIBETAN REFUGEES

Abstract

Life of a refugee is suspended between two places: the country of their origin and the country of asylum. According to UNHCR, there are 25.4 million refugees worldwide. Out of the total of 209234 refugees in India, more than half arrived from Tibet. The adaptation process of Tibetan refugees in India is a peculiar case, as they are determined to preserve their cultural identity in the host country, as well as building self-sustainable monastic settlements. The segregation and integration of adaptive practices within the built fabric can be observed in culturally diverse Tibetan settlements. Such cultural adaptations in time are reflected through its architecture and built environments. The study investigates on the development of Tibetan refugee place in time, producing hybrid settlements in the Indian context. This study is conducted through socio-spatial analysis of Tibet’s culture and architecture, and then analysing the transformation of the cultural and built environment in Tibetan refugee settlements, guided by Henry Lefebvre’s theory on Production of spaces. Case study method has been adopted in studying three major Tibetan settlements in India: Bylakuppe (Karnataka), Clement town (Dehradun) and Choglamsar (Ladakh) which differ in context and degree of integration. Ethnographic Methods were adopted through direct and indirect participant observation, semi-structured interviews and built form analysis. Some references are parallelly drawn from the cases in Europe to understand the global scenario. The study concludes by teasing out the role of cultural elements (from native and host countries) that have been effective in the spatial transformation of Tibetan settlements with time. The study concludes with a reflective understanding of Lefebvre’s theory on production of refugee place in time.