Coal Town: Tibetans pray for relief from pandemic

Hailing from Karnataka, they have been in Dhanbad for commercial purpose

Tibetan traders pay tributes to The Dalai Lama on Friday: Gautam Dey

Praduman Choubey   |   TT  |  Dhanbad   |  10.12.21: Facing the brunt of pandemic causing loss of source of livelihood, 65 Tibetan refugees from Karnataka prayed to the Almighty on the occasion of International Human Rights day seeking relief and warding off the possible third wave of Covid due to Omicron.

They have been in Dhanbad for the past one month selling winter wears including sweaters, jacket, mufflers today held special prayer at the Lhasa Market in Kohinoor Maidan.

It was also on this day that Nobel Prize was awared to The Dalai Lama, Supreme Spiritual Leader of Tibetan People in 1989. The prayer began at around 8 am in the morning at the market. 

Talking to The Telegraph Online today, GD Tamding (65) president of New Lhasa Market Tibetan Refugee Association, Kohinoor Maidan,  who is the senior most member of the association said, “Besides offering regular prayer for universal peace and harmony, we also sought relief from the pandemic. Ours is the worst affected section due to lockdown and pandemic. We suffered huge losses." And Tamding added because of the uncertainty, they brought lesser items. 

"Our apprehension turned out to be true to a great extent as there is lesser footfall this year and sales are down by more than 25% compared to the pre pandemic period,” said Tamding.

Seconding him, Thupten Gyaltsen (44) vice president of the association said, “Our family has been visiting Dhanbad every year for more than 50 years and if fact I was born in a  hospital at Joraphatak Road of Dhanbad but we have not witnessed such a situation in our life.” And he added, "Though we have brought a wide range of products right from jackets, sweaters, cashmilon products and ladies sweaters including Hair Cardigan even the visitors are not into open buying, particularly the costlier products like jackets available in the range of Rs 800 to Rs 12000."