Oral history interview with Tsering D. Choephel, 2020 January 15-27

In the first interview session, conducted on January 15, 2020, Choephel discusses her family background and early life in Rachu, Tibet; she speaks about her siblings and about life on a farm. She talks about how the Chinese invasion of Tibet affected her daily life, discusses the reasons her family fled to Nepal around 1959, and shares her memories of the journey. She talks about her life and education in Nepal during the 1960s and 1970s. She talks about her arranged marriage to Tsering Choephel, a Tibetan who had immigrated to the United States and was working as a lumberjack in Maine, and describes the process of immigrating to the U.S.

In the second interview session, conducted in January 2020, Choephel discusses adjusting to life in the United States and living in Camas, Washington, beginning in 1976. She talks about her husband's work at the Crown Zellerbach paper company in Camas, and about raising a family. She speaks at length about running a food truck called Tibetan Family Momo in Dallas, Texas, and shares her reasons for selling the business and returning to Camas. She talks about her involvement with the Tibetan resettlement project in the 1990s, about inviting the Dalai Lama to visit Oregon, and about the creation of the Northwest Tibetan Cultural Association. She speaks about the continued occupation of Tibet by China, and shares her hopes for the future of the Tibetan people. She talks about going on a pilgrimage to holy places in India and Nepal in 2017. She discusses her career at Short Elliott Hendrickson, a construction engineering company in Vancouver. She speaks about being laid off during the 2008 recession, and continuing her education at Clark College.

In the third interview session, conducted on January 27, 2020, Choephel speaks further about her early life in Tibet and Nepal, and again describes her family's journey to Nepal. She talks further about her arranged marriage to Tsering Choephel, about adjusting to life in the United States, and about raising a family in Camas, Washington. She also revisits the topics of her involvement with the Tibetan resettlement project in the 1990s, and continuing her education at Clark College in Vancouver, Washington. She closes the interview by discussing the opportunities she had by coming to the United States, and talking about the importance of preserving Tibetan culture.