Be a conscious traveller: Tenzin Tsundue

Tibetan activist and writer attends Yaanam Travel Lit Fest

Varkala / October 19, 2025

Varkala, Oct 19: Lamenting that tourism is nowadays sold as a package to consume, prominent Tibetan activist and award-winning writer Tenzin Tsundue today said tourists should travel consciously and be sensitive to local communities and culture.

People are being made to consume travelling as a means to pleasure, rather than with a purpose, he said on the sidelines of the ongoing Yaanam Travel Lit Fest here.

“Lives and traditional livelihoods of local communities in tourist destinations like the Himalayas and Uttarakhand are disrupted due to overflow of tourists. Big structures are being constructed in traditional farmlands without considering the ecological impacts to accommodate the over flowing number of tourists, noted Tenzin, who combines activism and academia with great passion and fearlessness.

Born to a Tibetan refugee family who laboured on India’s border roads around Manali in north India, during the chaotic era of Tibetan refugee resettlement in the early seventies, Tenzin, known for his signature red bandana, zealously espouses Tibet’s right to sovereignty.

,Tenzin’s literary work is part of the curriculum in the Kerala University, Calicut University and MG University syllabus and he often visits these universities for taking classes on creative writing.

About Tibet’s connection with Kerala, he said there was a trade route between Kerala and Tibet centuries back. “I’ve found conches used in many Tibetan rituals which must have come from the shores of Kerala. Similarly, the ‘venchamaram’ used in Thrissur Pooram and some other old temples is made from white yak’s tail which must have been come from Tibet,” he opined.

On Yaanam Festival, he said a festival exclusively for travel writing is a novel idea and helps exchange stories of travelling and experiences.

Tenzin won the first-ever Outlook-Picador Award for Non-Fiction in 2001 for his work "My Kind of Exile” based on his journey and experience through the Himalayas to enter Tibet. He has published four books which have been translated into several languages: Crossing the Border (1999), Kora (2002), Semshook (2007), and Tsen-göl (2012).

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