NEPAL ~ A Modern Day Arranged Marriage

The Happy Letter (March 1, 2013)



Tenzin Dechen & Nawang Lhadon on their wedding day, Feb 20, 2013

Marriage Arranged via Skype:  In 1993, I met Tenzin Kelsang, a Tibetan refugee to the US who ended up in Madison, Wisconsin, and three years later, her 4 kids and husband all arrived in Madison too.  This year, daughter Lhadon turned 29 years old, and her mother Tenzin and father Migmar decided it was high time for her to be married.  Through some conversations with their neighbors who’d come to Madison from Nepal, a nephew in a Tibetan refugee camp in Nepal was identified, and Lhadon had been “Skyping” with him for seven months.

I panicked – an on-line engagement seemed too risky to me.  Lhadon is the only girl of the four kids in my adopted Tibetan family and epitomizes all the conflicts inherent in growing up as an individual belonging to a rich, ancient culture, under direct attack, and yet at the same time a 21^st century woman, desiring to be stylish and modern.  It’s been fascinating, if sometimes painful, to have watched that cultural battle wage within one young woman’s life.

I grilled her – what did she know about this guy in Nepal?