Tibetan Settlement, Rabgayling

A brief story of Rabgyeling Tibetan Settlement, Hunsur, Karnataka State:

Introduction

Rabgyeling Tibetan settlement was established in 1971. The Government of India and MYRADA with a purpose of rehabilitate 2320 Tibetan refugees on an area of 2000 acres of forestland. Each adult Tibetan at the start of the settlement was one acre of land.

Settlement Location

It is located at Hunsur Taluk of Karnataka State, south of India at about 60Km west of Mysore City. It lies on a flat plain at the height of 826 meters, above sea level with temperature ranges between 15 to 35 degree Centigrade. This place has an average rainfall of 30-34 inches annually.

Settlement Population

Initial population	2320
Present Population	3984

No of Villages

This settlement consists of 16 villages. And each having an average of 40 families. All the villages are situated in different location at a  distance of about 2-3Kms to each other.

Settler's Livelihood

Most of the original families have a small piece of agricultural land for their living. Due to lack of irrigation facilities, the rain fed crop agriculture is practiced, which is not sufficient to sustain the families on farming alone. Besides agricultural, the settlers are engaged in trading, restaurants, shop keeping, and seasonal sweater selling etc.

Facilities in the settlement

School	One primary school up to 10th std. Two nursery school
Health facilities	One modern allopathic hospital One Tibetan Medical and Astro institute
Monastery	The settlement has 3 monasteries
Co-operative Society	The settlement has Co-operative Society looks after the supply of seeds, fertilizers and tractarization of their fields and the farmers repay these credit facilities in kind. The co-operative Society also helps market their produce, mainly maize. Like co-operative Societies in other refugee's settlement, this co-operative is also consisted of self-team of, one co-operative secretary appointed by CTA, accountant cashier and in charges. Under the management of the Co-operative Societies there are five shops, a dairy farm and a mechanical workshop, dairy, truck section, low cost Building Center, Handicraft centers have been set up to provide employment, to preserve the Tibetan tradition carpet weaving, and to generate the income for the co-operative societies.

Administrative setup

Representative
Each settlement has a settlement officer who is the Representative of the Department of Home appointed by Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), Dharamsala. Settlement officer is the principle post of the settlement. He is charged with overall control of running of affairs in the settlement. Under the Representative there are chief executive officer Co-operative society, appointed by CTA, Manager of the workshop and other small handicraft and also village leaders.

Representative acts as the liaison between the settlement and the Department of Home (CTA) and is the main source of information for the people in the settlement. The roles of Chief Diplomat, Chief Justice and Head of the settlement are all combined in one post. Daily task for the representative range from adjudicating disputes to communicating with group leaders and outside authorities, and generally watching over the running of all aspects of the settlement.

Group Leaders
The functioning or activities of every settlement are more or less similarly to each other. There are 14.5 villages in this settlement and each of these 14.5 villages possess an elected group leaders whose job is to act as an intermediary with relevant authorities, pass on information, settle disputes and collect money. Group leaders are not elected for their policy-making idea, nor do they campaign on certain issue. These group leaders are chosen on the basis of their strength of personality and once ability to stand before the interest of their village. The duty of the leader is more or less like the representative, but on smaller and more personal scale.

Traveling Guide

Nearest Railway station	Mysore	60 Km from settlement
Nearest Air port	Bangalore	205 Km from settlement
Bus and Taxi services	Yes