The newly arrived refugee in his late twenties with the maroon robes, shaven head and pink cheeks of a high-altitude Buddhist monk does not hesitate when asked to talk about life in his native Tibet.
“It is like a dog waiting for a cat,” he says of the Chinese forces who have occupied a park near the monastery where he had studied and prayed for his entire adult life. “They are ready to jump on us.”
The monk, who asks to remain anonymous to protect his family, served time in jail for his part in the 2008 Tibetan protests – crushed by China – against what locals say is the destruction of their culture, language and natural resources and their own economic marginalisation at the hands of Han Chinese migrants.