India, July 12 -- I n Little Lhasa, a collection of engaging essays and interviews, novelist and journalist Tsering Namgyal Khortsa takes us deep into the cultural and political world of the Tibetan-in-exile - "the Hindustani of Tibti jati", as author and political activist Jamyang Norbu put it - a world beyond dumplings and woollen jackets. Through the lens of Dharamsala, Khortsa introduces the reader to the past and present of the lived Tibetan experience in India, and to seekers from around the world who people the town, looking for solace and wisdom in the teachings of the Buddha. In contrast to the anti-immigrant sentiment that colours much of the Western world today, Dharamsala is a poster boy for "happy co-existence". Tibetans converse in fluent Hindi and the local FM station broadcasts the Dalai Lama's talks in English, Italian, French and Russian translations. Speaking of multilingualism, Khortsa quotes from a Tenzin Tsundue poem: "The Tibetan in Mumbai / abuses in Bambaiya Hindi, / with a slight Tibetan accent, / and during vocabulary emergencies / he naturally runs into Tibetan." Khortsa calls Dharamsala "the capital of Tibetan dislocation": "This is where they have seen their imaginary and real homes merge subconsciously to give birth to an entirely unique identity called 'Exiled Tibet'" - an act of "creative non-fiction", which, like the literary genre, lies at the intersection where "vivid imagination" meets "hard facts". The impulse to write the book comes from two sources: in 2001, the author's father was elected to the Tibetan parliament-in-exile, prompting a move to Dharamsala. In 2003, the author lost his mother: "Her premature death left a gaping hole in my life and a deep chasm with my own past as a Tibetan born in India." He feels the urgent need to "explore my own heritage and its complex layers of displacement and resilience." There is tremendous range and depth in this collection. In Nation of Stories, Khortsa offers an invaluable potted history of Tibetan writing in English; in Movies and Meditation, he does the same for Tibetan cinema. In Memories of Protests, he follows a protest march in Dharamsala, sparked by the execution of two prisoners-of-conscience in Tibet. We learn how the Kangra Valley, where Dharamsala is situated, has Buddhist roots dating back 1,700 years. In The Monk in Manali, Khortsa travels to Naggar in Himachal Pradesh. "Manali and its surroundings had a fair share of early settlers from Tibet who came to India in the 1900s on pilgrimage tours or to trade but chose to settle down... many of them married Indians." The centrepiece of the essay is polymath Amdo Chophel (1903-1951), the "enfant terrible of Tibetan Buddhism", who died "following a two-year imprisonment in Lhasa on trumped up charges of treason." Chophel lived in Naggar for three of his 13 years of exile in India, in the 1930s. He translated prolifically from the Sanskrit to Tibetan and English, and wrote a guidebook to Indian pilgrimage sites, "and the Tibetan answer to the Kamasutra." Also in the book we meet Ngawang Woeber, a former political prisoner in occupied Tibet. Through his eyes we learn what life is like in a Lhasa prison. Many have died in Drabchi prison from torture. Some, unable to "bear the punishments", have died by suicide; "there were others who became handicapped as a result." In the end, Khortsa succeeds in exploring his heritage and in presenting it to the rest of the world too....