Let us talk about films this month. Regrettably, in the post 1959 period there has been only a handful of Tibetans who have had an interest in this exciting field. There is Tenzing Sonam, now well known within our community for his documentaries, "The Reincarnation of Khensur Rinpoche" and "The Shadow Circus". There is Tsering Rithar, residing in Nepal, whose documentary won him the first prize in a competition held by Himal magazine some years back. If you know Dharamsala, then you know "Uncle" (Lobsang Tsultrim) who was the audio-visual person of the Tibetan Government for many years. Now, he is in a different world while Choeyang, a self-taught Tibetan, is behind the camera.

You may also know "Bapu" (Pema Dhondup) who has been courageously experimenting with the production of a video newsmagazine, Sargyur.

There in two paragraphs is the audio-visual world of the Tibetan refugees.

Occasionally, there is an effort, which produces welcome results. That is the case with Coffee Stain production's Phorpa ("The Cup") written and directed by Khyentse Norbu (better known as Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche). Actually, it may not be totally correct to project Rinpoche as a Tibetan. Like Tibetan culture, which is spread throughout the length and breadth of the Himalayan region, Rinpoche is a Tibetan, or a Bhutanese, or a Sikkimese depending on which aspect of his life one is looking at.

Set in a Tibetan monastery near Dharamsala, Phorpa is a story of clash of two cultures; traditional monastic life versus the fast pace of modern life as aptly symbolised by the World Cup football tournament.

The film brings out the pleasures and pains of monastic life through a few chosen characters. Even as the viewer understands the inner struggle of a young Tibetan placed in an alien environment, he is made aware of the current tragic situation in Tibet, through letters that arrive from across the mountains. The monastic setting as well as the fact that the majority of the characters are real-life monks give the film a strange movement between fiction and reality. Particularly during certain prayer scenes, one is not sure whether it is a feature film or a documentary.

What is so great about this film? It is not the cinematic excellence as much as it is an understanding about the background under which the film has been made. The upbringing of the director himself is a case in point. He is a lama and one would hardly expect a lama to be writing a movie script much less directing the movie itself. While Rinpoche has had an interest in filmmaking, his only major experience has been in the making of Bernardo Bertolucci's The Little Buddha, in which he was an assistant.

Another film of interest is Shaheed (Martyr), a tale of three freedom fighters in India. It has been dubbed in Tibetan from its original Hindi by the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts in Dharamsala and titled Pawo Sum (Three Martyrs). Artistes of TIPA have done a fine job not only in being able to express the feelings of the characters on the screen through their voices, but also in having perfect synchronisation. Except for the fact that the characters are non-Tibetan one would have thought the film was made in Tibetan. Going by the voices and the credit list it seems everyone at TIPA, from the director downward, had a role in lending their voice.

May be TIPA should think of coming out with more such dubbed films, particularly animated films for children. This could be useful in keeping Tibetan language alive among the younger Tibetans, particularly those living in the West. Can we expect Batman and Robin in Tibetan anytime soon?



Calling Tibet, RFA Style!
Article by Mr. Bhuchung K. Tsering (released December 1999)

In October, Radio Free Asia's Tibetan service began a call-in programme called "Telephone Talk". Aimed at its listeners in Tibet, the programme discusses issues raised by its callers. A toll free telephone number has been provided ((010) 10810 877 898 2246 for callers from the Tibet Autonomous Region and 10810 877 898 2246 for callers from outside of TAR). The programme is being moderated by Dolkar and Rigzin.

I listened to several initial programmes. Callers were few and invariably turned out to be Chinese individuals who had heard about it from RFA's Chinese service. They had no hesitation in talking freely about Tibet (the moderators who spoke Chinese gave a gist of their conversation). I didn't think that the programme would receive a call from a Tibetan inside Tibet, given the situation. However, on November 3, there was a call from a man in Lhasa. He not only called, but also talked for five minutes and 10 seconds with the two moderators until he ended the call mentioning a "police" was behind him. To my second surprise, he called in the next day, too. Could this be a sign that things are opening up in Tibet? I may be too optimistic here. The very fact that this person was the only Tibetan to call (at the time of writing) while quite a few Chinese are doing so tells us much about the difference in the comfort level of Tibetans and Chinese in Tibet and China today. A silver lining is of course the fact that Chinese are calling to talk specifically about Tibet, which shows that there is a growing increase in interest about Tibet in China. This in itself makes the programme a welcome addition.