May 1959, The first batch of 70 Tibetan refugees arrived and were installed in the camp erected for them at Misamari, it was a group of 70 people consisting of lamas and monks with their servants, from three Lhasa monasteries; Sera, Drepung, and Ganden. The ranking refugee was the incarnate lama of Sera Monastery, the 18 year old Bhaphongka Tsodrul Rimpoche Ngawang Losang Thinley Tenzin. The refugees were taken to the Foothhills Camp (17 miles from Misamari Camp) near the camp of the Assam Rifles unit, where soldiers and aid workers from Tezpur cared and fed them.The Misamari Camp contains 182 refugees, in the muggy plains of Assam along the Brahmaputra River.