19/02/2007

Happy Chinese/Tibetan New Year!!


Walking through thin air


From Kathmandou in Nepal I have arrived in Lhasa. Before arriving to the holy city I was very worried; not knowing how the situation was, I was obliged to be very cautious. So I have decided to take a plane instead of the bus which goes through the high lands between the notorious Nepalese and the Tibetan Chinese border. (especially after the recent incident of the Chinese soldiers' killings of Tibetan refugies on the Nepalese pass happened in November 2006)

Before boarding, I suddenly realised that I still have a few pictures of the Dalai Lama and the Karmapa in my wallet. Swiftly but not without some cursing about the ridiculous situation, I have left them under the seat of the airport waiting hall...

The Dalai Lama and the Karmapa, being the spiritual leaders of the tibetan people, are themselves refugies living in India. The mere showing of their images in Tibet is considered as rebellious act against the unity of the People's Republic of China. Having the project in my mind, I could not afford to take any risk before arriving to my destinations.

From Dharamsala in India I have prepared 7 videos, featuring different Tibetan refugies talking and singing to their families through the camera. The mission is to go find their families in different places in Tibet, show them the videos and then film them and bring back to India.

The places to be visited are: Lhasa, Pelbar, Chamdo, Tengchen and Pasho.

Screen shots of videos from India


























Screen shots of video from Tibet
















His Holiness The 17th Karmapa 第十七世大寶法王


Lhasa 拉薩

The Potala Palace 布達拉宮


Prayers in Lhasa




Solar 太陽能


Poisonous mushrooms 毒菇

Around the Potala Palace in Lhasa, one of the most stunning scene is that one can find many of these artificial mushrooms all over the places. At first glance, they seem to be implanted there for decoration purpose except that these decorations are in fact functional. Under the lovely appearance of a benign mushroom, two loud speakers are installed inside in order to boardcast popular Chinese music songs, as if the Potala Palace is one gigantic karaoke park for the hitest songs in town. China has indeed moved on, instead of broadcasting Communist Party doctrins, we seem to find that the Pop culture of the capitalistic life a much more powerful weapon to convince.


在布達拉宮的旁邊, 人們可以發現周圍都是這些看似是用來裝飾的蘑菇, 每十來米就有一個。看上去是蠻可愛的, 只可惜, 他們的真正作用卻並不是裝飾這麼單純, 藏在蘑菇之內, 其實是兩隻擴音器, 用來不停並十分大聲地播放在電視上都可以聽到的中文流行曲。彷彿神聖的布達拉宮就是一座巨型的卡拉ok公園似的, 將代表西藏最高權力的聖殿給變成了一個庸俗無比的娛樂場所。

On the road!

媽...你認得我嗎?














Byru (比如) - 300 km east from Lhasa (拉薩)











Hotel room in Byru

Q: As we can see, there is a stove in the room. Do you know what do we use as material to make fire in this wonderful room?
問題:大家都可以看到, 這間優美的酒店套房是有火爐的, 想唔想知道係用乜來燒的呢? (答案在本版找)




A: Exactly. The answer is bull shit.
答案:對!就是牛屎!

Nimu (尼木) - 500 km from Lhasa(拉薩)


Guest house in Nimu 在尼木的客棧


Pelbar (邊巴) - 800 km from Lhasa (拉薩)

In Pelbar there are three lakes with three different colours; yellow, white and black...but I have arrived in the wrong season when the lakes are already frozen....
在邊巴有三個很漂亮的三色湖, 黃色、白色和黑色...只可惜, 我們選了冬天這季節來看...都結了冰, 什麼顏色都看不出來。



This one should be black...
應該是黑色的湖。


This one should be white...
應該是白色的湖。


This one should be yellow...
應該是黃色的湖。

Chamdo (昌都) - 1000 km from Lhasa (拉薩)







The Lama Temple of Chamdo昌都的大喇嘛廟











Crazy girls in Byru




Girl with a plastic model in Chamdo


My Tibetan Family