Lhamo Tso knew something was wrong when her husband told her last year that they and their four children had to leave Tibet . But she didn't ask and Dhondup Wangchen didn't tell. The family packed up their belongings, sneaked across the Himalayas, crossed through Nepal and slipped into India.
In October, once they had settled in the northern town of Dharamsala, headquarters of the Tibetan government in exile, Dhondup Wangchen told her he had 'some important work to do in Tibet', and that he would be back later. Again she didn't ask and he didn't tell.
When his phone calls home stopped in late March, Lhamo Tso grew worried. She had no way of reaching her husband and didn't know what to do.
'My husband had always been active for the Tibetan cause so I suspected that he was doing something and wouldn't return, but I didn't want to stop him,' Lhamo Tso, 36, said by phone from India. 'He said to me that the most important thing was to make sure the children studied hard in India and got a good education.'
Lhamo Tso has four children: the eldest, her 16-year-old son, is from her first husband. With Dhondup Wangchen she has a boy, 12-year-old Tenzin Norbu, and two girls, Dadon Wangmo, 10, and Lhamo Dolma, who is eight.
Weeks later, Gyaljong Tsetrin, a cousin of her husband, called and told her the bad news.