Refugees Risk Lives on Rugged Trek to Flee Tibet : Religion: Devotees of Dalai Lama continue to follow him into exile in India. Others seek jobs and education they say are denied them by Chinese.

Traders and smugglers were the original travelers on the perilous trail across the Himalayas. Now it is Tibetan refugees who travel for days, sometimes weeks, to the Nepalese border.

Refugees climb the 19,000-foot Nangpa La Pass, traversing the world’s highest mountain range, and trudge over glaciers, the ice cracking under their feet.

They scramble across a valley of loose boulders--like walking on bowling balls, a Western traveler said; ford icy, waist-high rivers, and follow yak trails on precipitous mountainsides.

Thirty-five years after an uprising against Chinese rule failed and the Dalai Lama fled to India with 100,000 devotees, his people continue following him into exile.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees says 3,500 Tibetans passed through Katmandu, capital of Nepal, in 1993 on their way to India, 1,000 more than in each of the previous two years. Hundreds leave Tibet every year by other routes.

A year ago, President Clinton set progress on “protecting Tibet’s distinctive religious and cultural heritage” as one of several conditions for renewing China’s most-favored-nation trade status. On May 26, he announced a continuation of the preferential treatment and dropped any future linkage between trade and human rights.

Evidence from newly arrived refugees indicates China has done nothing recently to either improve or worsen the lot of Tibetans.

“We don’t see anything significantly new,” said Tahir Ali, the U.N. refugee agency’s representative in Katmandu. “There is a continuation of the situation that has gone on for many years.”

“Unfortunately, there has been no improvement in conditions inside Tibet,” said a statement by Tashi Wangdi, the Dalai Lama’s minister for international relations.

Few refugees complain of torture, physical abuse or harassment, but their stories testify to systematic discrimination designed to deepen China’s hold and crush any hope of independence. An overwhelming presence of Chinese soldiers, police, and plainclothes agents discourages rebellion.

Lobsang Thokmey, a Buddhist monk from Tibet’s eastern Amdo province, had been walking 15 days when he met a reporter on the trail to Namche Bazar, a market town and stopping point for climbers on the way to Mt. Everest. A Tibetan monastery in the town offers shelter and rest to weary refugees.

Thokmey and his friend, Lobsang Tenpa, said they had not slept for four days. Their faces were burned raw by the sun’s rays reflected from mountain snow. Tenpa’s eyes were swollen nearly shut from the cold and lack of sleep.

Because the Chinese had limited the number of monks who could join his monastery and restricted the use of some sacred texts, Thokmey said through an interpreter, the center of Tibetan scholarship had shifted to India along with the Dalai Lama and the most learned monks.

He left Tibet, the monk said, so he could “study hard to become a good human being.”

Other refugees encountered along the Himalayan trail just inside Nepal spoke of being denied jobs, of paying 30% of their livestock as tax, of poor education for native Tibetans.

“You need good connections for a job or to get into school,” said Dhondup Tsering, 20, from the region near Lhasa, the capital.

China claims sovereignty over Tibet since the 13th Century, but Tibetans say they enjoyed de facto independence much of that time.

The Chinese characterize their actions in the remote land as civilizing a backward, underdeveloped region inhabited by a primitive people who lived for centuries under a theocratic, feudalistic regime of lamas, or priests.

Ethnic Han Chinese encouraged by economic incentives to move to Tibet now run the largest businesses and hold the most powerful administrative posts, refugees say. Lhasa, Tibet’s ancient capital, is becoming a modern city of steel and concrete.

So many people are leaving Tibet that the Dalai Lama says the Chinese may become more numerous than native Tibetans, threatening the culture.

The refugees move mainly at night to evade Chinese and Nepalese police. Most wear thin-soled Chinese-made sneakers, whatever the terrain, and carry only small bags containing food and a few possessions.

Earlier in May, six refugees were lost on the Nangpa Glacier for five days. All lost fingers or toes to frostbite.

Nepal allows Tibetans to pass through the country, but not to stay. Corrupt Nepalese policemen in the mountains often arrest refugees to extract bribes and turn back those who cannot pay.

Many refugees travel in groups of 25 to 30 led by Tibetan exiles who charge up to $125 each. The U.N. refugee agency calls the guides smugglers.

A hard three-day walk from Namche Bazar takes the refugees to the nearest vehicular road and a 12-hour bus ride to Katmandu, where the Dalai Lama’s office runs a transit camp. U.N. officials interview newcomers to make sure they are genuine refugees.

About half of the new exiles are monks or nuns. Others are small children being taken to India by relatives, even strangers, to attend schools operated by the Dalai Lama’s administration. Most of the children will never see their families again.

Tampa Tsering, an undersized 12-year-old wearing an oversized “Chicago Bulls” baseball cap made in China, seemed to revel in the adventure as he made his way down the mountain trail with two relatives. But when asked whether his parents had given him the cap, he burst into tears without answering.

The border traffic goes in both directions. A 23-year-old who gave his name only as Dawa said he had just spent three months in Tibet with his parents, who sent him to India nine years ago for an education.

“People are afraid to speak openly,” he said. “Young people talk in whispers. The idea of independence is only a seed.”

“There is nothing we can do,” said Yishi Dolma, a 23-year-old woman who hopes to go to school for the first time. “Tibet is already captured by China. The Chinese are very powerful.”