Each room is neatly labelled -- the numbers of people in each chamber, solitary confinement rooms, and the type of inmate.

The sight of the meticulously reconstructed map of Drampchi prison, drawn by former prisoners, drives many Tibetan refugees to tears in Dharamshala, from where their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, leads a movement against Chinese rule in their homeland.

"We used to see more violent physical torture in the 60s and 70s. Now it's primarily psychological -- the Chinese have discovered that mental harassment can be even more effective," said Kelsang Phuntsok, director of the programme.

"For monks, the torture is about breaking their purity. Guards put excrement or urine on their heads, and then they are not allowed to cleanse themselves physically or mentally," Phuntsok said.

"It's one of the most offensive things that can be done to a Tibetan monk."

While the Dalai Lama preaches peace and non-violence, the regular inflow of Tibetan refugees -- as many as 200 or 300 every month -- and the moving stories they bring, are raising pressures on the spiritual leader to get tough.

DARK CELL, NO TOILET

In the reception centre for recent refugee arrivals, a nun who reached Dharamshala in January speaks in hushed tones.

"They made me sit for days in a darkened cell with no toilet. I would be released, questioned and sent back again. I never saw the outside. Never knew if it was day or night... ," she said.

"I still don't know exactly why I was arrested at my monastery. It seemed very random," she said in a choked voice.

The Torture Survivors Programme uses a mixture of traditional Tibetan therapies and Western allopathic anti-depressants to help victims recover from their harrowing experience.

"There is a process these people go though when they first arrive in India. First they feel excitement and anxiety. And then they gradually get depressed as they realise what has happened to them," Phuntsok said.

The growing numbers of torture victims among Tibetan arrivals -- at least five percent according to the centre -- is having a profound effect on the refugee community.

It has even moved the Dalai Lama, who earlier this month issued a statement calling on Tibetans to renounce him if it meant staying out of prison.

"People should not risk their physical lives for me... After all, bodies cannot always be repaired, but the heart is something different," the 63-year-old Dalai Lama said in an interview.

NON-VIOLENT CAMPAIGN SUFFERS SETBACK

The torture reports have also raised doubts about the peaceful campaign for autonomy that the Dalai Lama wants.

As stories of torture and harassment grow, relations within the refugee community -- between those who support the Dalai Lama's "middle path" seeking autonomy under Chinese rule and Tibetans who want nothing less than independence -- are coming under strain.

In June last year the Tibetan Youth Congress was forced to call off a "Hunger Strike to Death" in New Delhi demanding independence, after Indian police intervention.

One demonstrator, Thupten Ngodup, 50, committed suicide by setting himself on fire as the police moved in.

In January, a branch of the Tibetan Youth Congress forced its way into the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi, sparking a protest from the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

"The situation in Tibet is now getting much worse. When your back is against the wall and there is nowhere to run, the natural reaction is to fight. I think we might see more of this in the future," said Choekyong Wangchuck, Joint Secretary of the Tibetan Youth Congress.

But the Dalai Lama, who meets recent arrivals and victims of torture almost daily, argues that emotion should not get in the way of reality.

"I always say 40 years or 50 years in an individual life is quite long, but we are talking about a nation. So for a nation's history it's very short," the Dalai Lama told Reuters.

He said violence by Tibetans could provoke a tough crackdown by the Chinese army.

"I think the Chinese army could be expecting this kind of thing because they can find a solution very easily when it becomes a law and order problem," he said.

The Dalai Lama's administration says more than a million Tibetans have died in Chinese crackdowns since 1950, when China annexed Tibet.

"Emotionally, it is complicated, and there is some attraction for violence for young people," the Dalai Lama said.

"I say cool down and think at a sort of practical level. But it's true they (followers) have kept a very good Tibetan spirit."

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Last updated: 4-Mar-99