High school students at Rangeley Regional Schools enjoyed a unit on Tibetan culture, culminating in a visit on May 8 by Tibetan Americans, Migmar Dorjee and Tenzin Kalsang. Students studied how China had acquired Tibet in the 1950s and learned how modern-day refugees are granted permission to resettle in the United States.

Tenzin Kalsang and Migmar Dorjee presented kata, white, silken scarves, to honor and show respect to the high school teachers present.

The true story of Migmar and Tenzin was captured in a book by Madeline Uraneck, How to Make a Life: A Tibetan Refugee Family and the Midwestern Woman They Adopted. Uraneck recorded Migmar’s story of fleeing Tibet with his family in 1959, forced to climb over the Himalayan Mountains into Bhutan and India at the age of 13. He later met his wife, Tenzin Kalsang, in a refugee settlement in southern India, Bylakuppe. Like many refugees around the world, she has never visited the country from which her parents fled; she was one of the first babies born in the new Tibetan settlement. In 1994, she was shocked when her name was drawn in an immigration lottery for admission to the US. She was one of a limited number of displaced Tibetans chosen and was disconsolate to leave her four children and husband behind, unable to reunite with them for five years. Like many refugees and immigrants, she worked multiple jobs to make ends meet, and send money home to her family. She was cleaning offices when she met author Madeline Uraneck. Their decades-long friendship started with one simple “Hello.”

“I hope you will say “hello” to interesting people who come to your community,” Uraneck told students. “You never know how far that one word will take you.” Over past years, Uraneck traveled to India, Nepal, and China, attending Tenzin and Migmar’s childrens’ weddings, meeting their relatives, and learning about Tibetan culture.

To understand challenges faced by refugees, High School students during their Advisory period and English read parts of Migmar and Tenzin’s stories, mapped their paths and challenges getting to America, created dozens of questions for Migmar and Tenzin to answer, and read other refugee stories.

“Do you regret your choice to leave your country behind?” students asked. Tenzin said she loved the opportunities of America but missed the more stress-free lifestyle she had in Bylakuppe. Migmar said he was happy to come, but still struggles with English, one of five languages he speaks.

“We are truly touched by the interest of students in Rangeley,” said Uraneck. To Make a Life is available from the Rangeley Public Library or by order through any Sherman’s Bookstore in Maine. The threesome traveled to Rangeley to see Maine’s mountains, inspired by Uraneck’s friendship with retired Rangeley teacher, Lucy Simonds.

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