After the Chinese occupation of Tibet in the year 1959, His Holiness along with about 85,000 Tibetans left Tibet to seek political refuge in India. The Govt. of India received him and the Tibetan refugees warmly. After a year’s stay at Mussorie, His Holiness has moved to Dharmsala and made it as his permanent resident during the period in exile and established exile Government “Central Tibetan Administration of His Holiness the Dalai Lama”. His Holiness has worked out a long-term strategy to establish the rehabilitation centre in the shape of Settlement or Community, which allow the Tibetans to perpetrate their language, traditions and to preserve the National identity.
Since majority of the refugees had been either farmer or nomads, His Holiness and the CTA hoped and requested the Govt. of India to resettle the Tibetans in agricultural based settlement. Accordingly, the Govt. of India has very kindly supported the strategy of His Holiness and CTA and was able to establish about 54 Refugee Settlemnets in India, Nepal and Bhutan. Out of 54, 26 are agricultural based, 17 are agro-industrial and 11 are handicraft-based settlements. Phuntsokling Settlement of Chandragiri is one of the agricultural based settlements among them.
The Phuntsokling
Tibetan Refugee Settlement in Chandragiri was established in the year
1963 to rehabilitate about 2400 Tibetan Refugees.
The Govt. of Orissa has very kindly Welcomed the Tibetan Refugees in their states and allotted a land of about 2500 Acres on the long-term lease basis. So that the Tibetans could cesure food, shelter and means of livelihood to develop economically self-supporting community during the period in exile. Out of the 2500 about 608 acres were used in housing construction and about 1892 acres are being used as the agricultural land .
Presently there are about 4000 Tibetans residing in the
Phuntsoking Tibetan Refugee Settlement . The Tibetans speaks Tibetan
Language,The present scripts is developed during the reign of 33rd
Dharma King Songtsen Gompo in 7th Century.His Minister
Thu-mi-Sambhota designed the Tibetan script on the basis of “Gupta Brahmi script” then prevalent in
India.