Masood Butt is a Tibetan, living in India. But, unlike most other Tibetans in exile, who are Buddhists, Butt is a Muslim. However, apart from his faith, there is little else to distinguish Butt from other Tibetans. He follows Tibetan customs, speaks the language fluently and regards the Dalai Lama as his leader. Yet, Butt's community — the Tibetan Muslims — are little known in India, even though they have shared with their Buddhist brethren, the plight of leaving their homeland. And they have been living in India for the last 50 years."Like other Tibetans, our community, too has faced tough times and undergone great mental and physical strain," says Butt, who now works with the Dalai Lama's office in Dharamsala.

The story of the Tibetan Muslims is that of a unique community, that has blended different cultural strains to forge a distinct identity, that has been kept alive even in the face of adversity. What is interesting to know is that Islam arrived almost a 1000 years ago in Tibet — a region that has always been synonymous with a monolithic Buddhist culture. How the first Muslim settlers reached Tibet is an interesting tale. Sometime in the 12th century, it is believed, a group of Muslim traders from Kashmir and Ladakh came to Tibet as merchants. Many of these traders settled in Tibet and married Tibetan women, who later converted to the religion of their husbands. Author Thomas Arnold, in his book, The Preaching of Islam says that gradually, marriages and social interactions led to an increase in the Tibetan Muslim population until a sizable community came up around Lhasa, Tibet's capital.

"The Tibetan government allowed the Muslims freedom to handle their own affairs, without any interference. This enabled the community to retain their identity, while at the same time absorbing traditional Tibetan social and cultural traditions," says Butt. The Tibetan Muslims followed the occupation of their ancestors and were mainly traders, who owned successful businesses. The community also contributed to Tibetan society and culture in many ways. For instance, the first cinema hall in Tibet was started by a Tibetan Muslim businessman. Also, Nangma — a popular classical music form of Tibet, is believed to have been brought to Tibet by the Muslims. In fact, the word 'Nangma' is said to be derived from the Urdu word, 'Naghma', which means song. "These high-pitched lilting songs, developed in Tibet around the turn of the century, were a craze in Lhasa, with musical hits by Acha Izzat, Bhai Akbar-la and Oulam Mehdi on the lips of almost everyone," says Butt.

Many Tibetan scholars have commented on how religions as diverse as Islam and Buddhism could co-exist in peace in a traditional society such as that of Tibet. The credit for this, some feel, goes to religious leaders like the Dalai Lama, who took the lead in fostering this spirit of brotherhood. For instance, a history of the Tibetan Muslim community published some years ago relates how during the 17th century, the fifth Dalai Lama readily agreed to give the Muslims land within Lhasa for building a mosque.

The story goes that when a delegation of Muslims approached the fifth Dalai Lama for space for a mosque and a burial ground for their community, the Dalai Lama shot an arrow, with the promise that the place where the arrow fell would belong to the Muslim community. The place later came to be known as Gyangda Linka or the park of the distant arrow. Tibetan Muslims also enjoyed other special privileges in Tibet. For instance, they were exempted from the 'no meat rule' when such a restriction was imposed in the rest of Tibet, during the holy Buddhist months. Besides, their commercial enterprises were exempted from taxation.

All these special privileges, however were withdrawn, soon after the Chinese occupied Tibet in 1959. Most of the Tibetan Muslims, consequently, opted to leave rather than live under the Chinese occupation. Those who were able to cross over to India, settled in the border towns of Kalimpong, Darjeeling and Gangtok. Later, the community gradually started moving to Kashmir — the land from where their ancestors had gone to Tibet in the 12th century. In fact, the move to Kashmir was significant, says Butt. Even in Tibet, the Muslims were identified as Kashmiris, since Kashmir was known to Tibetans as Khache Yul and Tibetan Muslims were referred to as Khache. Thus, their status was that of a foreigner, even when they were in Tibet.

On the basis of their Kashmiri ancestry, the Tibetan Muslim families who came back to Kashmir after 1959, were given Indian citizenship. Many of these families are still living in Srinagar, while a few have migrated to Nepal and the Gulf countries. Today, there are around 250 families of Tibetan Muslims in Srinagar, mostly in the Hawal and Idgah areas. A number of these families are engaged in fine embroidery work of Kashmiri carpets, while others have set up their own businesses, says Nasir Qazi of the Tibetan Muslim Youth Federation — a body that works for the welfare of the community. The community remains a close-knit one and, for many of them, Tibet remains an emotive issue. Recently for instance, the Tibetan Muslim Youth Federation took out a peace march in Srinagar to show solidarity with the Dalai Lama's views on granting of autonomous status to Tibet.

And, in case a solution is found, would they like to go back to Tibet? "Maybe not for settling down, since most of us have been born and brought up in India," says Qazi. "But once, I would definitely like to go there — to visit the Potala palace, the landscape that we have heard so much about and to see for myself the land where our forefathers lived."

another lying propaganda piece from the anti-china camp. an obvious lies here:

"china took away the no meat policy exampt."

china is as secular as a country can get. is that guy claiming the atheist chinese government would force muslims to follow a buddist restriction? is this a joke? plus, this sounds like another attempt of false impression to the ignorant foreigners about tibet buddism -- tibetan monks r peace-loving vegetarians. on the contrary, tibetan buddism is the ONLY major buddism sect that meat eating is ALLOWED! lamas themselves eat yaks.

as of taking away their priviledges, i don't see anything wrong. u r an ordinary citizen. y should u have more rights than others? if that's ur reason to be anti-china, what does that have anything to do with ur religion? r u saying because of ur religion u should have more rights?

i suspect this is a piece produced after the news of muslim owned businesses targeted and burned in recent lhasa riot was out, to smear chinese reputation in muslim countries and paint a false picture of da-lie's slavery government.

Wow, you need to read more carefully. It doesn't say they took away the no-meat privileges, but the privileges in general given to Muslims under the Dalai Lama were taken away. That means they got taxed (the f**king bastards), businesses closed up by the state, the usual communist stuff.

These muslim was fused by the later-coming Muslim from China's northwest, and evolved into Hui, the biggest muslim ethnic group in China. these Hui people in Lhasa are also known as "Kashmiri Hui". there is also a large mosque in Lhasa, that can accommodate 1500 people. Hui people mainly live on the butchery, which Tibetan think is the most dirty trade in the world.

These hui people are also not treated well by their "Buddhist brethren" as a rosy image portrayed by this article. On March the 14th, their mosque was set on fire by Tibetan thugs. Infuriated Hui people armed with water pipes assembled and tried to retaliate thugs, but stopped by the police

I don't know if butchery is the dirtiest trade in the world, but I know there's or there was a trade to butcher human corpses in Tibet, it is called SKY BURIAL. The dead bodies are chopped into pieces and placed in deserted places to feed eagles, so the souls of the dead fly to heaven, it might be regarded as a sacred trade.

Tibetan Muslim Youth Federation??
seems something similar to the eastern turkistan group or a branch of it? i am not sure. but feel weird.
somebody only pays attention on the taxation exempted but not notice the "no meat rule" imposed on the rest of Tibet by Dalai.. ludicrous.

i know SKY BURIAL.
buddhist tibetan do think butchery is a dirty trade.