By Khedroob Thondup

Exile is sustained not only by resilience but also by the compassion of nations willing to shoulder the burdens of the displaced. For Tibetans, that nation has been India. In 1959, as tens of thousands of Tibetans fled across the Himalayas after the uprising in Lhasa, the Tibetan cabinet turned to Gyalo Thondup, the brother of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, with a desperate request: to approach Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru for help. What followed was the beginning of one of the most extraordinary acts of solidarity in modern history—a commitment that began with a modest budget of US$100,000 and today stands at US$11,100,000

The First Appeal. In 1959, the Tibetan cabinet asked Gyalo Thondup to request a loan of US$1,000,000 from India. Nehru’s response was both candid and compassionate. India, he said, was a poor country, but it had the money. Rather than a one‑time loa...