“Art, As Told By” – My Piece on Contemporary Tibetan Art for Gorilla Arthouse and LUSH

Gorilla Arthouse’s Instagram post about my piece on the LUSH website. Photo credit to Selim Korycki.

My Tibet work and my role as Editor of High Peaks Pure Earth has taken me to all sorts of places I couldn’t have imagined. Thanks to the lovely team at International Tibet Network, I’ve been connected to the rather amazing British cosmetics company LUSH and have a piece up on their website on contemporary Tibetan art!

Amazing day talking about #Tibet at #LushSummit with @aliTibetNetwork @MandieTibetNet @kunsangkelden Thank you @LushLtd for your support! pic.twitter.com/q9hsVbHQyO

— Dechen P (@_DechenP) February 9, 2017

I should go back a few months and mention that LUSH were kind enough to host myself, Kunsang Kelden and Alison Reynolds and Mandie McKeown from International Tibet Network on the Main Stage at their annual LUSH Summit which took place at Tobacco Dock in London on 8-9 February 2017. Even before that, LUSH had been supporting Tibet by donating proceeds of their Charity Pot to International Tibet Network’s work, so cool!

Tibet at #LushSummit London holy moly 😱@aliTibetNetwork @MandieTibetNet @_DechenP #TibetanResistance #FreeTibetanHeroes #TeamTibet pic.twitter.com/4eCyEN5ZaS

— Kunsang Kelden (@kunsangkelden) February 9, 2017

All four of us were blown away by the event where we were given completely free reign to speak for 45 minutes about the current situation in Tibet, art, music and freedom of expression.

Ali and Mandie did a stellar job condensing the situation in Tibet into a short amount of time and also providing an overview of campaigns leading to very concrete steps, such as taking action for detained language advocate Tashi Wangchuk. Kunsang and I focused on creative expressions inside and outside Tibet. I got to highlight the work of Woeser and Kunsang talked about her work on Lhakar Diaries too, focusing on young Tibetan artists.

Woeser, a writer and poet is openly defiant to Government, to see human rights issues given a voice. #LushSummit #freetibet pic.twitter.com/XLdjlnsn4A

— Gorilla Arthouse (@GorillaArthouse) February 9, 2017

We loved our day at the Summit and the talk has also been recorded and posted online on the LUSH Player, check out this link to watch the whole thing: http://player.lush.com/tv/summit-supporting-free-speech-tibet-banned-expression

So when I was asked by LUSH’s Gorilla Arthouse to contribute a piece about my views on art, I was thrilled. It was a great chance to think about why art is important and what creative expression says about the situation in Tibet and for Tibetans around the world today. I’m fortunate that all the real work is already done for me by artists and writers such as Woeser, Bhuchung D Sonam, Gade, Tenzing Rigdol and Tashi Norbu!

I’d like to end by thanking LUSH and Gorilla Arthouse (especially Graeme) for the opportunity to reach a new audience and for their support of our Tibet work. Check out Gorilla Arthouse on Facebook here and click through to my article here onto the LUSH website: https://www.facebook.com/GorillaArthouse/posts/1484855598214223

“White Crane, Lend Me Your Wings” – My Late Uncle Dr Pemba’s Book Launches in Delhi and Dharamsala

On 26 November 2011, my Uncle Dr. Tsewang Yishey Pemba passed away at the age of 79 in Siliguri, India. It was a great loss to our family but his distinguished life and career was honoured all over the world by those who remembered him.

Even though we still feel his loss, it is heartening to be able to announce that his novel “White Crane, Lend Me Your Wings: A Tibetan Tale of Love and War” has been published posthumously in India by Niyogi Books and will be launched at an event in Delhi this coming Friday, 17 February 2017. For the full details of the launch, see this link to the Facebook Event Page: https://www.facebook.com/events/1220255771396207/

Even though my Uncle was a distinguished surgeon and had a long medical career, he had a huge passion for literature and the arts and spent a considerable amount of his free time furiously tapping away on his typewriter. His memoirs “Young Days in Tibet” were published in 1957 and Idols on the Path, the first Tibetan-English novel, came out in 1966.

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It was always his dream to publish more of his fiction so this makes the publication of “White Crane, Lend Me Your Wings”, after more than a 50 year gap since “Idols on the Path”, all the more special and poignant. The novel is a work of historical fiction set in the Nyarong Valley of Kham, Eastern Tibet, in the first half of the twentieth century.

As the book description says:

The novel begins with a never-told-before story of a failed Christian mission in Tibet and takes one into the heartland of Eastern Tibet by capturing the zeitgeist of the fierce warrior tribes of Khampas ruled by their chieftains. This coming-of-age narrative is a riveting tale of vengeance, warfare and love unfolded through the life story of two young boys and their family and friends.

The personal drama gets embroiled in a national catastrophe as China invades Tibet forcing it out of its isolation. Ultimately, the novel delves into themes such as tradition versus modernity, individual choice and freedom, the nature of governance, the role of religion in people’s lives, the inevitability of change, and the importance of human values such as loyalty and compassion.

For those who can’t make it to the Delhi book launch, there will also be a launch event in Dharamsala on 23 February 2017.

I’d like to take the chance to thank in particular my cousin Acha Lhamo Pemba La who has been working hard to see her father’s wish realised. Special thanks must also go to Shelly Bhoil for all her help and to Trisha De Niyogi and all at Niyogi Books too. I’d also like to take a moment to remember my dear Aunt, Dr Pemba’s wife Tsering Sangmo La, who passed away on 8 September, 2016 – they had been married for over 50 years.

For more information on the novel please visit: http://niyogibooksindia.com/portfolio-items/white-crane-lend-me-your-wings-a-tibetan-tale-of-love-and-war/

If anyone would like to get the ball for the book rolling over on GoodReads, please head to: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34208098-white-crane-lend-me-your-wings

Finally, you can order the book from Amazon India – please feel free to rate and review it! Follow this link to Amazon: http://bit.ly/DrTYPemba

 

New Tibetan Music for 2017!

Happy New Year!

Here are three new songs from Tibet I’ve been listening to lately, enjoy!

Upcoming Event: “Discussing Autonomy and Human Rights in Tibet”

Photo credit: Du Bin (杜斌)

On Wednesday I’ll be joining Dibyesh Anand and Shao Jiang on a panel titled “Discussing Autonomy and Human Rights in Tibet” at Kings College, London. Corinna-Barbara Francis will be chairing the event.

This event will begin with the screening of excerpts from The Dialogue / 对话, a 2014 documentary film by Wang Wo and Zhu Rikun that records dialogues among Tibetans, Uighurs and Han Chinese living inside and outside China. Wednesday’s focus will be the online video talk between two Chinese rights lawyers Jiang Tianyong and Teng Biao, a scholar and the Dalai Lama in 2011.

I remember very well reading about the video dialogues in Woeser’s memorable blog post  “How I Met His Holiness the Dalai Lama Without a Passport”. Because the video dialogues were being coordinated from her and Wang Lixiong’s small flat in Beijing, Woeser was able to be present during the dialogues and also to have a moment herself with the Dalai Lama which she describes in her post:

I cried and I cried. When I, as Tibetans do, prostrated three times, silently reciting some prayers, holding a khata in my hands and kneeling in front of the computer with tear-dimmed eyes, I saw His Holiness reaching out both of his hands as if he was going to take the Khata, as if he was going to give me his blessings.

Woeser’s moving blog post is still one of the most read and popular posts on High Peaks Pure Earth!

The documentary and topic’s significance is sadly heightened, in the run up to Human Rights Day, by lawyer Jiang Tianyong’s recent disappearance/abduction.

I’m very much looking forward to discussing the film. The event is free and open to all but there is registration via the link below. Thank you to Dr Eva Pils and Corinna-Barbara Francis for the invitation to take part in the event!

Date & Time
Wednesday, 7 December, 2016
16:15 – 17:45 GMT

Location

SW1.18
The Dickson Poon School of Law
Somerset House East Wing
London
WC2R 2LS

Link for booking:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/discussing-autonomy-human-rights-in-tibet-tickets-29475238231

Upcoming Events: London Migration Film Festival Panel and Westminster University Roundtable

Looking forward to two events taking place soon, on Saturday, 12 November, I’ll be speaking on a panel as part of the London Migration Film Festival and on Monday, 14 November, I’ll be taking part in a roundtable discussion on protest and democracy in East Asia at the University of Westminster.

Full programme of the London Migration Film Festival

The London Migration Film Festival is a whole weekend, in my old stomping ground of Deptford, dedicated to migration, and aims to portray the diversity, nuance and subjective experience within migration. Apart from a fantastic array of films, there will also be workshops, a networking brunch and live music so please do come along if you can!

As part of the festival, there will be a chance to catch the exile Tibetan film “Pawo” at Deptford Cinema at 1pm on Saturday 12 November. Tickets are available for a very reasonable (for London!) £5 or £3.50 concession. Tickets can be bought online here: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/event/EIHHED

To read more about “Pawo”, catch Tenzin Kelden’s review which was written for this year’s Tibet Film Festival held earlier this year in Dharamsala and Zurich.

Later the same day at 6pm, also at Deptford Cinema, I’ll be speaking on a panel titled “Diaspora and Integration”, along with Dr. Nasimi, Director of the Deptford-based Afghanistan & Central Asian Association, Vinay Patel, a British script writer of Indian heritage and Claire Dwyer, Reader in Human Geography at UCL and Co-Director of Migration Research Unit.

Directly following the panel discussion, at 7pm, there’ll be a screening of the film “Black”,  a Romeo and Juliet-style love story against the backdrop of urban gang wars and immigrant communities in contemporary Brussels.

It’s free to attend the panel discussion but you’ll need to book tickets to see “Black”: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/event/EIHHEI From what I understand, if there are too many people for the panel discussion then priority will be given to those who have tickets for Black so maybe it’s worth booking 🙂

I can’t wait to get back to Deptford next weekend – please try to make time to see Pawo and to come along to the panel discussion, as well as any of the other events! Thank you so much to the amazing people at Migration Collective for inviting me to be part of the weekend.

Just a couple of days later, on 14 November at 6pm, I’ll be taking part in a Roundtable Discussion at the University of Westminster on “Protest and Democracy in East Asia”.

The roundtable will discuss democracy, social and political transformation and protests in China, Hong Kong and Tibet. The other panel members are Alex Chow, Shao Jiang and Dr Gerda Wielander – I feel the least qualified to speak but I will try my best!

There is more information about the event and also information about how to attend on the University of Westminster website here: https://www.westminster.ac.uk/events/roundtable-discussion-on-protest-and-democracy-in-east-asia

Thank you as ever to Dr Dibyesh Anand from the University of Westminster for inviting me, I look forward to meeting all the panel members and students soon!

My Interview with Voice of Tibet as part of their “Women of Tibet” Series

Over the weekend I was invited to the Voice of Tibet studio and interviewed about my work as the editor of High Peaks Pure Earth. And because of the series name, I was also asked a couple of questions about womens’ issues in Tibetan society!

It’s great to see this VOT video series and if you understand Tibetan I urge you to check out the other interviews too. My personal favourite is this interview with the remarkable woman behind Dharamsala’s tiny and delicious Woeser Bakery.

Thank you VOT for having me, Tenzin Dickyi la for patiently making sense of my blabbering, to Pedon La and her whole friendly team!

My Second Piece for Huffington Post: Shangri-La or Tibet Without Tibetans

Poster from the play taken from their Facebook page

I’m averaging one article a year for Huffington Post, I can’t believe it’s been so long since I published Kundun: The Presence of an Absence!

I published my second piece this morning, it’s my thoughts on a new play in London called “Shangri-La” and the lack of Tibetan involvement in it, check it out here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/shangri-la-or-tibet-without-tibetans_us_5791d00ae4b0a9208b5f61db