You can't miss him.
With his rich maroon robe and bright orange pullover shirt, Venerable Bagdro stands out in Newcastle.
Since moving to Australia in 2019 from India, with refugee status, Bagdro has called Newcastle home, living in the former Mayfield monastery on Woodstock Street, in a single dormitory room.
His day begins at 6am with prayer and meditation, then breakfast (he's vegetarian), and four days a week studying English language at TAFE.
He's also taken workshops on becoming a commercial cleaner, and had driving lessons.
Outside of that time frame, he's enjoyed riding his $20 orange bicycle, frequently visiting Newcastle''s ocean baths for swimming, and meditation.
Any time he gets the chance, he will make speeches in his best broken English, telling his version of his story of being imprisoned and tortured in Tibet as a teenage monk for three years (1987-1989) for participating in independence protests in Tibet.
After being freed, Bagdro says, he walked for three months across the Himalayan mountains to freedom in India, moving to Dharamsala, where the Dalai Lama and Tibetan leadership in exile is based.
Ever since, he's been an advocate for a Tibet free of Chinese rule. He has toured more than 30 countries around the world, shook hands with Hollywood celebrities and religious leaders backing the cause, and written 18 books on the subject, including most notably, his own story, A Hell on Earth (A brief biography of a Tibetan political prisoner), reprinted several times since its 1998 release.
It was during a 2003 trip to Australia that Bagdro was struck by Newcastle.
"It was very beautiful," he says. "I thought, 'Maybe in the future I would like to come to this place.'"
Technically, Bagdro has been a refugee for 28 years in India.
In India, a refugee is only given an identity card. If Bagdro wanted to travel, which he did, he needed a invitation letter and other paperwork to obtain even a temporary visa. "Sometimes it is very difficult," he says.
On top of that, he says the Chinese government often pressured foreign governments to deny temporary visas to him.
He says he was once stranded in Belgium, in 2009, where he had been invited to make a speech but was denied entry after Chinese pressure.
Furthermore, he says Chinese pressure to stop him publicly making claims against China and in favour of Tibetan freedom was a constant in India. He says they would literally call and harass him.
Even now, he says his Facebook page has been hacked several times by Chinese interference.
He's very conscious that in four years, he will be able to apply for Australian citizenship, so learning the English language, Australian history and attending classes that can help him pass the Australian citizenship test are on his radar.
Besides beautiful Newcastle, Bagdro is clear about why he chose to come to Australia: :"So very very great country. Very peaceful country. Very harmonious society. ... I am very, very happy. I enjoy this country for my life."
And then there is this, too: "The Australian passport is very powerful," he says.
For an immigrant with very few financial means to his name, he's keen to do whatever it takes to not only survive, but succeed.
On Tuesday nights, he rides his bicycle through Mayfield, collecting cans for recycling. He gathers them in the monastery laundry room, until a friend comes with a truck occasionally and takes him and the cans to a collection station.
He's saving up to buy a small car, thinking he can buy one for about $3000. With a car, and training as a cleaner, Bagdro believes he can find a job.
Bagdro's Facebook page (16,000 followers) reflects a life where his pursuit of freedom for Tibet is never far from his mind, mixed with the pleasantries of adapting to life in a new country.
His recent entries vary from thanking Newcastle TAFE and Max Solution for his English language, to pushing for a boycott of the 2022 Olympics in Beijing; to wishing the Dalai Lama a happy 86th birthday, to his heart "filled with pain and agony" as the Chinese Community Party commemorated its 100th birthday; to celebrating his participating in the Newcastle Unity in Diversity Festival (where he performed his Buddhist monk throat chanting) to protesting at the Chinese embassy in Sydney over the whereabouts of a Tibetan leader imprisoned in 1995.
Still, he has not hesitated to immerse himself in the Australian lifestyle, attending football matches, rugby contests and AFL games. He's considered a spiritual advisor to the New Lambton Football Club.
He attends public gatherings of the 100 or so Tibetans who live in Newcastle to celebrate special days of significance (two other Tibetan monks also live at the former Mayfield monastery).
Venerable Bagdro is an eager consumer of media, both news and entertainment, and has a stack of DVDs, action and otherwise, which he devours to further learn English from the subtitles (he also learns English from children's books).
He's had more brushes with the world of fame than most of us. He's published several books about the Tibetan cause, including his story, and met (and been photographed) with the likes of Demi Moore, Richard Gere, Steven Segal and politician Nancy Pelosi. The band REM financed the printing of one of his books.
His Facebook page includes pictures of him with kangaroos, koalas, pigeons and Super Hubert and Santa Claus.
He says he is collecting photos frequently for his next book, which he anticipates he will publish in three years. He's got a framed image in his room of what he perceives will be the cover: My Happy Life in Australia, subtitled Thank You Australia You Saved My Life.
"Every day I do an activity," he says. "Take a picture. Three years here I will write a book - My Happy Life in Australia. Not only for me, but many immigration refugees."
All roads lead back to Tibet for Bagdro. If his country was free of Chinese rule, of course he would return.
He says, "We have never given up. Our justice. Our right. It is our country. It's never been part of China."
Over the last three decades, he has witnessed the world pay more attention to other controversial Chinese matters - the origin of COVID-19, democracy in Hong Kong, alleged mistreatment of the Uyghurs, overall crackdown on dissents within China, while the takeover of Tibet has faded from the headlines.
But, it does not slow him down. His 2018 book Tibetan Spirit Cannot Be Crushed (Proving historical facts from a series of images) reflects what he says is the Chinese harvest of Tibet's natural resources and destruction of its culture and environment. It also includes pictures and notes on 159 Tibetans who committed self-immolation in protest of Chinese rule.
The bottom line for Bagdro on returning to a free Tibet: "I never give up."
