tibetan new year - 18th feb 2007

there will be a few celebrating tibetans around at the moment as it is new year (losar) - 18th february marked the beginning of the festival and there will be sore heads for the next month or so. it is the year 2133 by the lunar calender.

tibet has been occupied by china since 1959 and up to 2.6 million of the 6 million population may have been killed in brutal ethnic cleansing. to this day many tibetans risk death-by-nature to escape the oppression and cross the himalayas on foot, hoping to reach the nepal boarder. if they survive they then have the opportunity of staying at one of the many isolated refugee settlements in india, first set up by nehru in the indian foothills. these centers of tibetan life were intended to preserve what is a culture rich in wisdom and tradition in readiness for a return to tibet. however they become more permanent in india year on year, as hope of a change in china's politics seems remote.

amnesty international has this to say about china.

human rights watch also have an opinion..

here is what tibetans say

both india and tibetan culture will always be of interest to me.
i first went to india in 1991 when i was 18 and lived on a tibetan settlement teaching english. between then and 1997, (when i began working with music events), i visited india and the village a further 5 times and documented the changes occurring over time. the work was exhibited in 1999 at a solo show in london with support from kodak eastman, arquati and the nottingham trent university. the kodak eastman archive requested some prints for their collection and there was good press for the event in photo magazines. it is still an ambition to continue the project and publish a book.

the picture below was taken at tso pema just after losar in 1992, during a 12 yearly pilgrimage to visit guru rinpoches cave