My Immigration Journey from Dorokha, Bhutan to Cincinnati, Ohio
Tara Dahal’s Journey from a Stateless Identity to becoming a U.S. Citizen.
Story by Tara Dahal
Edited by Dainelis Rodriguez, Naz Hussein, and Hayley Ross
Tara Dahal is a former refugee from Bhutan. Bhutan is a small country situated between two big countries: India and China. He was born in a small remote village called Dorokha which was two days on foot to the nearest town.
During the early 1990s, the king of Bhutan passed a royal proclamation titled, “One Nation One People ‘’. This policy was implemented to make Bhutan a less ethnically diverse country under the dominant North Bhutanese values and customs. It targeted ethnic minorities, one of them being the Lhotshampas, which means people of the South. They are the Southern Bhutanese population with a Nepali and/or Hindu cultural identity (1, 2, 3).
The policy marginalized Southern Bhutanese individuals and deprived them of their citizenship statuses. It made them liable to fines or incarceration for not following the policies imposed by Northern values and customs (2). Some of the restrictions involved removing the Nepali language from schools and taking the property of many individuals. The policy led to the displacement of 100,000 Bhutanese between 1990 to 1993. Forced to escape, Dahal spent more than two decades in a Bhutanese refugee camp in Nepal until his resettlement process in 2012. From a small village in Dorokha to a big city in Cincinnati, Dahal’s journey went from a stateless identity to becoming a United States citizen.
Photo of Tara’s birthplace, Dorokha. Photo Credit: Tara Dahal.
It was in mid-summer in 1990 and I was a high school student in Samchi High School when the royal policy engulfed the tiny Himalayan kingdom. A small group of Nepali-speaking senior students left the hostel when the brutality and discriminatory behavior of the dominant ethnic group reached the climax. On one Sunday morning, one of my very good friends Ghagendra and I made a plan to escape from the hostel. We wrote an application to the warden pretending that one of our brothers was very sick in the nearest National Institute of Education (NIE) and we wanted to see him once. The hostel warden permitted us to go and come back in two hours.
While making our way to NIE, we escaped from the hostel. We walked nearly seven hours up the hill and down the Sukreti river to reach the nearest Indian town. We threw our school uniform and Gho (the national dress of Bhutan) on the bank of the river to not get arrested by the Indian police. The same night we reached Garganda (a tea garden in India) where we met our fellow mates who had run away the week before.
I spent around four months there with a single t-shirt, a half-pant(shorts), and one meal a day. Sometimes tea gardens and open sky were our shelters. When Indian police started arresting any Bhutanese in India, I entered Nepal and took shelter in my maternal uncle’s house. I completed my high school education from one of the Nepali median secondary schools in Morang, Nepal.
My parents were tortured and badly treated by the local authorities back in Bhutan. The police frequented my home and asked about my whereabouts. My father was made to carry a load of things on his back from Samchi to Dorokha which was two days on foot at least twice a month. My other siblings were forced to leave school and had to stay at home until my parents handed me over to the government.
Ultimately, after two years, my parents fled Bhutan because the government gave the order to leave the country within 15 days. Their property and house became the governments. I joined them in one of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)-run refugee camps in Nepal in 1992. In the beginning, people settled on the bank of the river and spent many days making the open sky their roof. I taught younger students in the camp for a few years and went to Kathmandu, the capital city of Nepal, for higher education. I began teaching in a private school to make money for my college education fares and to support my family, my parents, and eight siblings, in the camp.
People spending the night under the open sky in Nepal. Photo Credit: Tara Dahal.
Life in the camp is sometimes too difficult to explain. Heavy rains, huge storms, and various pandemics hit the camp several times. The whole camp was engulfed by fire many times leaving only black concrete poles to stand by. However, there were some joyous moments. I got married to a Kathmandu origin lady. It was a congenial knot between a Nepali citizen and a stateless man; between a lady from a wealthy family and a refugee. The marriage ceremony was done with the money collected from friends and guardians.
A ray of hope shined on us in 2007 when the hearsay of the resettlement process circulated in the camp. Accordingly, the resettlement process began in 2008. A huge number of UNHCR and International Organization of Migration (IOM) vehicles started moving around the camps which brought smiles and hope to the 100,000 refugees living in the camp. After spending 22 years of an uncertain life in the camp, I got resettled in Denver, Colorado in 2012 with my wife, 4-year-old son, my mom, and eight siblings. My family lost our father due to the lack of sufficient medical treatment in the camp but we’re fortunate to be resettled in the U.S. together.
People ready to board the IOM bus for resettlement. Photo Credit: Tara Dahal.
After staying two years in Colorado, I moved to Cincinnati, Ohio. I started my job in a warehouse as a picker and processor. Later, I joined the Catholic Charities of SWO as a caseworker in the refugee resettlement program. I worked there for around four years and joined the Hamilton county department of Job and Family Services where I worked for less than a year. I was recognized with the Best Client Service award at Catholic Charities, which has encouraged me to work for more families in need.
Tara received the best client service award at catholic charities. Photo Credit: Tara Dahal.
I became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2017 which ended my stateless identity and refugee tag. This last election was my first presidential election to cast my valuable vote. I am proud to be a U.S. citizen. Currently, I work at Healthy Homecare, LLC., in the Human Resource department. I volunteer for the Bhutanese community on every social activity. I actively participated in the last election helping people with voter registration and providing orientation about the right to vote. I also volunteered to supply necessities to COVID-19 affected families and now am volunteering for vaccination in coordination with different providers and health departments.
Tara helping people with their voter registration and helping them with their covid vaccine registration in hospitals. Photo Credit: Tara Dahal
For me, life is a long journey and I am still not sure what comes next.
Sources:
Tara Dahal is one of the newest members of the New American Speaker Program. He is an active member of his community, participating and volunteering in social activities within the Bhutanese community of Cinncinatti. See some of Dahal’s most recent involvement and coverage:
Tara Dahal’s Involvement in the Community:
WCPO 9 News — Cricket Ground Inauguration
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