Our identity – The way I see it

By Om Dhungel

Introduction
Defining our own personal identity is a lifetime experience since it keeps evolving as we move on in life. Personally, I feel very much a global citizen, part of the global village.

In Bhutan, the majority of people of Nepalese ethnicity lived in southern Bhutan and we were identified as ‘Lhotshampas’, meaning people living in southern part of the country. We were Bhutanese of Nepalese ethnicity and spoke Nepali language since it is our mother tongue.

Despite our Nepalese ethnicity, we were refugees in Nepal. Having now resettled in Australia – being able to call it home and be citizens of this beautiful country, we are now proud Australians with our identity as Bhutanese of Nepalese ethnicity.

Who am I?
I am Om Dhungel, thanks to my wonderful parents for giving me this beautiful name. In addition to the spiritual and religious significance, my given name is short and pretty easy to pronounce, although I am often called Tom especially while I am speaking on the phone. From that flows my identity as a son, a husband to my lovely wife and a father to our beautiful daughter. Rest of the identity depends on circumstances and situation.

Defining my identity and how it has evolved over the ages
As I look back my own life, it has evolved significantly since I was born in in Lamidara village under Chirang district in southern Bhutan, lived in different parts of the country as well as overseas to pursue my schooling and higher studies. From then on, I developed my identity as an engineer and a government employee when I lived in the capital city Thimphu.

My identity changed significantly when I fled the country and became a refugee in Nepal. I could no more identify myself as a senior civil servant on the back of my profession as an engineer. I even faced difficulty in proving who I was – as Om Dhungel. Since I didn’t have my passport I needed extra documents which were often treated with suspicion. Ultimately, I had to develop a new identity through my deeds.

Now, I am a proud Australian citizen, living in Fairwater in Blacktown local government area in Western Sydney. Personally, I feel very much part of the global village.

The way we define our identity has changed through different ages. During stone age, one’s identity was defined by your strength – strong or weak; whether you were able to hunt or not. Now it is much more complicated with increased number of variables. We are part of, and socialise in different groups such as social, cultural, religious, caste and ethnicity based, intergenerational groups and local community groups. To add to this, the social media including facebook now adds a whole new dimension and our identity is defined by a combination of factors.

As we can see, defining our personal identity is a lifetime experience since it keeps evolving as we move on in life.

What defines identity?
While discussing about the identity of Bhutanese resettled in Australia or in other countries, we should perhaps look at two aspects: National identity and Cultural identity.

National identity
As a citizen of a particular country, we have a national identity. However, what defines national identity can vary. To find out the important elements of national identity, International research firm, Pew Research Centre recently carried out an international survey. Majority of respondents in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Australia and Japan said that the ability to speak one’s national language is the most important element. In Bhutan’s context, the government not only decided to impose the language and culture of the ruling group on the entire population but also implemented policies to eliminate the language and culture of southern Bhutanese. While the majority were forced to leave the country, others fled in order to protect and preserve their own culture and language.

Cultural identity
Cultural identity provides our sense of belonging and in my view the starting point to define our identity. Cultural identity provides a link through generations and helps people identify with each other. When a person identifies with their culture, they often embrace traditions that have been passed down through the years. Continuing to speak one’s language is one of the most important ways maintain and control their cultural integrity. Preserving a culture also has immense historical value helping to keep alive the traditions of the past.

What others perceive you to be
Finally, it is not only how you personally identity yourself, it is also important to take into account how others perceive you to be and how others define your identity.

Bhutanese refugees and our identity
People become refugees for various reasons including their race, religion, culture, political belief or being a minority group. When people finally find a place that they can call home, retaining that identity becomes very important while at the same time, we find that the identity evolves with the passage of time.

In Bhutan, the majority of people of Nepalese ethnicity lived in southern Bhutan and we were identified as ‘Lhotshampas’, meaning people living in southern part of the country. We were Bhutanese of Nepalese ethnicity and spoke Nepali language since it is our mother tongue.

Despite our Nepalese ethnicity, we were refugees in Nepal. Most people spent close to two decades in Nepal as refugees before being resettled in other countries such as Australia – being able to call it home and be citizens of this beautiful country. We are now proud Australians with a Bhutanese of Nepalese ethnicity background.

For those children who were born in the refugee camps in Nepal, it gets little confusing to articulate one’s identity. They were born and brought up in a refugee camp since their parents were forced to leave their home country Bhutan. In our case, it was because of our ethnic background, the Nepalese ethnicity. Despite their birthplace being Nepal and of Nepalese ethnicity, the children lived in the camps as refugees and some continue to do so even now.

After being resettled, as with their parents, they are now Australians of Nepalese ethnicity. However, articulating their background gets little complicated and they tend to leave out the Bhutanese heritage bit unless specifically asked to do so. Anecdotal evidence suggests this is an issue faced by many other communities resettling in a new country and not unique to the Bhutanese resettled in Australia. For historical record, it is important to document such evolving identities. In my view, rather than being prescriptive, it is best left to each generation how it identifies itself. Such diversity allows us to craft our own stories and share with others and that is what makes this world a diverse and beautiful place to live and enjoy. Above all, it is one race and that is human race.

The other important identity is that of a ‘refugee’. After being resettled, some people do not wish to be identified with their refugee background which tends to be associated with the hardship and ‘stigma’ of being a refugee. Some people just want to move on and do not care either way. There are others who use it as a badge of honour, of having persevered and overcome the challenges of the life of a refugee. Using refugee background as a symbol of resilience, former refugees are being able to support other people put things in perspective and often help them overcome challenges.

So in defining our identity, it is important to allow and respect people’s views and how each person wants to identify themselves in their journey to build a new life. Most importantly, with similar or different ways that we identify ourselves, it should all help add to the richness of the community.