by Tashi Wangchuk
I was on my way to Dalai Lama temple when my eye zoomed onto a paper flyer that reads, “Jamyang Norbu Talk Series.” Joy knew no bound as I always wanted to listen to this genius in flesh and blood. My so far encounter with this gentleman was through words and letters in magazines and internet. Being a filmmaker, I quickly made up my mind to capture the rare event on tape. Thanks Tenzin Tsundue la and friends from SFT (Students for a Free Tibet) for organising such a beautiful and refreshing event.
Soon I found myself taping the lecture with a digital camcorder. Unbelievably, many elders, monks and nuns attended to listen to this hardcore Independent Tibet supporter.
The day one lecture at Yongling School was particularly impressive as it was about China, Understanding China. Crowd goes frenzy when he recalls the history of Olympics and its aftermath in countries like Germany and Russia who popularised the event with much pomp and gaiety like China is doing now a days. For everyone it was a sort of prediction that China will fall soon. He further asserted that Tibetans has every reason to crave for rangzen as there are so many destabilising elements within China to bring down the system any time. “No one thought that the former Soviet Union, once a powerful nation, would collapse all of a sudden with many smaller states disintegrating from its long strong hold on them. So, it doesn’t matter how many Chinese settle in Tibet. We should keep our struggle alive.”
Day two lecture was marked by film and its implication on freedom struggle, Film and Tibetan Freedom. My self being a film buff, loved the talk particularly. I felt as if I was sitting through one of the classes that I used to attend when I was a film student in the US. I kept wondering what I had really learned in the film school? His in-depth knowledge on film was commendable. Of course, he could be a very good film professor. Alas! Many of the films that he recommended to watch are not available in India.
The day three lecture was about writings and its implication on Tibetan freedom struggle, Writings and Freedom Struggle. His style of introducing the concept of writing was impressive. So many questions were thrown at him. He spoke very highly of the art of writing simple. According to him, the most important thing about writing is that one should be fair with what one writes. In order to become a good writer, one should be a kind hearted fellow. He further asserted that Tibetans could also receive Nobel Prize for writings in near future.
The writer is a Tibetan filmmaker whose works, among others, includes Tibetan romantic comedy movies “Phun Anu Thanu” and “Richard Gere is My Hero”
