Ordinary people the stars in tales from Tibet
Print Edition
PURBU Tsering sells traditional Tibetan snacks in downtown Lhasa. A jolly old man and devout Buddhist, he lives a simple life with his wife.
Nyima, who left her life as a shepherd in her hometown to be a waitress in the Tibetan capital, can’t help feeling homesick.
La Hai, a Han migrant from China’s interior, runs a grocery store. Everyday he struggles with stress, insecurity and a sense of emptiness.
All three live on Tsekhor, a major route for pilgrims around Potala Palace in the heart of Lhasa. Their stories are being told by Tenzin Sedon, a young Tibetan documentary film maker.
“I want to show, through their backgrounds and experience in Lhasa, how different people are linked in Tibet; a land of opportunities,” said Sedon, 25.
“I try to explore and display what’s going on in Tibet from the perspective of ordinary people,” she said. “Many filmmakers and critics tend to depict Tibet as a romantic and mysterious land, but I’d rather give an objective account.
“I hope my films are like a mirror through which everyone, Tibetans and non-Tibetans, can see themselves.”
Production on “Tsekhor,” Sedon’s latest work, is almost complete and the film is due for a June release. “I’m doing some finishing touches to make the stories of the three into an integral whole.”
It is her third documentary, but the first set in Tibet. Sedon shot her first two, “A Taste of Life” and “The Horse and Horseman,” while studying media arts at Plymouth University in the UK.
She began shooting “Tsekhor” shortly after she returned to Lhasa in 2014.
“The experience is far more challenging,” she said. “This time it’s not an assignment. I have to do all the screening, editing, dubbing and promotion work myself.
“When you’re off to do something new, you may feel unsure, or even question your own ability. I just tell myself — time and again — that I must carry on and never forget why I am doing this.”
Sedon was born to a well-to-do family in Lhasa. Her father works at the local cultural heritage bureau and her mother served in the army before she retired and started her own business. “They always support me in everything I do, knowing all the while that I will go for it and enjoy the whole process.”
At 13, Sedon was among the best-performing Tibetan kids to be admitted to middle school in Shanghai, under a government-sponsored program for Tibetan children to receive better education in big cities.
She entered a Shanghai university in 2010 and studied mass communication. She spent the last two years of her university life at Plymouth, under an exchange program between Chinese and British universities.
Sedon spends most of her spare time reading, jogging and watching classic movies.
“I dream to be an independent filmmaker myself someday,” she said. “I’ll always tell good stories, no matter how hard it is, or how far I have to go.”
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