Snapshots of Tibet’s history and culture
IF COUNTRIES are narratives, Tibet’s narrative is a narrative of pain: the pain caused in the wake of invasion, infiltration, usurpation and exploitation, and the disruption of its customs and traditions. At an exhibition of photographs, “Tibet: Then and Now”, currently on at the India International Centre in New Delhi, Tibet’s plaintive cry
as a nation wrestling through the painful transformation of its history and culture ricochets through the basement gallery. The photographs, taken between 1914 and 2010, are vignettes of the Tibetan way of life that has all but disappeared or is fast disappearing.
As you walk into the gallery, a handout given to you at the reception declares: “It is not an anti-Chinese or a pro-Tibetan exhibition. This is the reality of the situation of Tibet and its people.”
If you look closely, you observe that its reality is seeped in sorrow. The photographs were taken in Amdo, Kham and U-Tsang provinces of Tibet by French explorer Alexander David Neel, former Tibetan government official Dudul N. Tsarong and Lobsang S. Taklha, the elder brother of the Dalai Lama.
In Section A (Tibet: Then), that compiles photographs taken between 1914-1957, Tibet’s past manifests itself in black and white portraits of its people: Farmers celebrate the first day of sowing crops by taking their “dzo” female yaks, decorated with colourful ornaments, to the fields; a Lhasa noble woman, donning a beautiful hat, stands with her attendants looking towards Kumbum Monastery in Amdo. Another haunting image of this period is that of the People’s Liberation Army holding a military parade, raising Chinese flags, in view of the Potala Palace, the chief residence of the Dalai Lama until the 14th Dalai Lama fled, along with 80,000 refugees, to Dharamsala after the 1959 Chinese invasion.
Section B (1979-80) is all about the Beijing visit of a five-member Tibetan delegation from Dharamsala, the seat of the Tibetan government-in-exile. Frame after agonising frame chronicles the fading away of Tibet’s traditional life and the destruction of its monasteries — Ganden, Tashi Lhunpo and Sakya, among many others — that were shelled during the “cultural revolution”.
Section C (2000-2010), which gives you glimpses of Tibet now, captures the ravages of the “modernisation” in Lhasa. They also tell several tales of exploitation of Tibet’s resources: Hillsides have been cleared in order to export timber to China and also to mine gold, uranium and zinc; a hydro-electric power at the sacred Yamdroke lake robs it of its pristine beauty even as China enjoys control of water supply; the useful rail link from Beijing to Lhasa is coupled with the threat of Tibet’s mineral resources being diverted. The exhibition has been organised by the Bureau of the Dalai Lama, in association with the India International Centre and assembled by writer and activist Namgyal Taklha (widow of Lobsang S. Taklha) and Jane Moore.
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