Chronicling Tibet sans stereotypes

Snow-capped mountains, endless grasslands, smiling monks: Tibetan filmmaker Pema Tseden’s latest vision of his homeland, shot in stark black and white, relegates these to the background.

Stereotypes of the Himalayan region are deeply ingrained in China, whose six million Tibetans — less than half of one per cent of the total population — are often presented to the Han majority as exotic and rugged features of the wild west, framed more as a tourist attraction than people.

But Tseden’s films, featuring all-Tibetan casts and almost entirely in Tibetan, mostly deal with the collision between modern life and traditional culture, and its impact on the individual.

“Some people think Tibetans are very mysterious and mystical, that they live in the sky, but through my works I want to show Tibetans are ordinary people and change some people’s thinking,” Tseden said.

It is a daunting task, with Tseden fighting against a narrative often reinforced by China’s vast state media and propaganda machine as it seeks to promote “ethnic unity” and snuff out any sign of what Beijing sees as separatism.

His latest work Tharlo opens with the title character, a shepherd, reciting from memory “To Serve the People” in Mandarin Chinese, a passage from revolutionary leader Mao Zedong’s Little Red Book, and hoping he will live up to its Communist ideals.

It follows him as he travels from the pastures to the city to get a photo for his government identity card. Tharlo finds his austere existence called into question after meeting a hairdresser who promises she will run away with him, if only they had the money from selling Tharlo’s flock — not all of which he owns.

“He is confused about his own identity, he’s not really sure about it, so he needs to go looking,” Tseden said.

“In Tibetan areas, this kind of case is still very common.” The character’s dilemma reflects Tseden’s personal transformation as a son of nomads who now shows films at international festivals.