Buddhist nuns in prayer

Tibetan Reality Becomes a Movie

by screen writer and co-producer Julia Elliott

In the summer of 1995, when my uncle approached us about working with him on a film about the political situation in Tibet, Thupten Tsering and I jumped at the chance. For several years, Thupten had been using a friend's video camera to interview Tibetans who had recently escaped over the Himalayas into Nepal. He had a wealth of stories that he was eager to share with westerners and Tibetans alike. We wanted the script to reflect these remarkable--and often sad and disturbing--experiences as much as possible.

Thupten had been particularly struck by what he heard from Tibetans his age, those in their late twenties and early thirties. Their stories were grim. There were few jobs for young Tibetans in the mid-1990s, and unemployment drove many to drinking, prostitution, and a general feeling of hopelessness. From these stories, we sketched the character of Dorjee, the brother in the film. Dorjee's constant "snooker" (pool) playing, hanging out in brothels, and intense feelings of anger and frustration are based directly on what Thupten heard and saw from young Tibetans living in Tibet.

Dorjee's activist friend, Lobsang, is also drawn from young Tibetans we knew whose response to the Chinese occupation is underground resistance instead of defeat. Just as Lobsang is limited to acts of protest like putting up anti-Chinese posters and arranging for information to be smuggled out to the West, Tibetan activists are restricted in their political expression by severely repressive Chinese policies.

We tried to give an example of how watchful the Chinese police are through Dorjee and Dolkar's neighbor, the monk, who conveniently shows up outside their home at tense moments and, eventually, turns in evidence against them to the "Public Security Bureau." We got the idea for the monk from an incident that happened to Paul and Thupten on their scouting trip to Lhasa. They were shooting video at night outside of the Jokhang, Lhasa's holiest temple, when an elderly monk walked past them and pulled something from under his robes that flashed. The next day, one of Thupten's friends came to their hotel to report that a photograph of the two of them, videotaping at night outside the Jokhang temple, was posted on a board at the Public Security Bureau.

Chinese culture has taken over Tibet, particularly in the capitol, Lhasa. Nowhere is this more obvious than at the numerous discos where young Tibetans are drawn to dance and sing karaoke. We were determined that Tibet's most famous singer, Dadon, would play the role of Dolkar, the sister who is lured by the excitement of Lhasa's Chinese nightlife. When we met Dadon, however, we realized that her own life was more interesting and complex than we had known.

His Holiness, the Dalai Lama

Dadon had made it as a successful pop star in Tibet, but after several events, including witnessing the Tiananmen Square Protests, she realized she could no longer work for the Chinese media. She escaped Tibet, and has been traveling the world to promote the Tibetan cause through her beautiful singing. Dadon's story inspired us to have Dolkar rise to success as a pop star, only to give it up after witnessing the brutality of the Chinese government.

Perhaps the most moving interviews Thupten conducted were those with several Buddhist nuns. They had escaped from Tibet after years spent in prisons as punishment for protesting the Chinese occupation. Like Pema, Dorjee and Dolkar's cousin who enters the nunnery, monks and nuns in Tibet are more likely to protest the Chinese government because they do not have the day-to-day concerns and responsibilities of laypeople.

One of the things the nuns shared with Thupten were the freedom songs they composed in prison. These songs gave them courage and strength to endure their sentences--and often resulted in harsher treatment by their guards. When Pema sings to her friend, Dolma, in prison, she is singing one of those freedom songs Thupten recorded from the nuns. The angry reaction of the guards is based on stories these nuns told us of their torture. Electric shock with cattle prods, rape, and severe beatings were common forms of torture used on these nuns. The fact that the guards are largely Tibetan is also based on what former prisoners reported to Thupten.

The character of Amy, the American girl Dorjee befriends, was loosely based on my experience as a student traveling in Tibet. After completing a year studying Tibetan language, culture, and religion in Nepal, I traveled to Lhasa in 1993 with a group of friends. On one of our days touring around the city, we happened to come across a group of Tibetans marching toward the center of town, the Bharkor, chanting anti-Chinese slogans. We took pictures as the protest grew. After a short while, police descended on the crowd, shooting off tear gas and making arrests. We returned to our hotel, where we were met by policemen who detained us, confiscated our film, forced us to write an "apology statement," and deported us.

Although I did not get as closely involved with a Tibetan family as Amy does in the film, I did learn, as she does, how incredibly difficult it is to get information from Tibet out to the world. Most importantly, my experience gave me a greater understanding of how oppressive the political situation is for ordinary Tibetans.

While Thupten, Paul and I were working on the script, the Chinese government issued a ban on photographs of the Dalai Lama--something they periodically do. This event sparked a rash of protests among Buddhist monks and nuns in various places in Tibet. We knew we had to work this development into the script, and it became the catalyst that sets in motion the events that happen in the film.

It is often difficult for Westerners to understand how a photograph could have such symbolic value, but the Dalai Lama is the center of Tibetan political and spiritual life. Tibetans believe him to be the incarnation of the Buddhist god of compassion, Chenrezig. For that reason, even his photograph is believed to have spiritual powers. But apart from his religious significance, the Dalai Lama is a powerful leader. By spreading his teachings of peace throughout the world (he receivd the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989), he has brought attention to the plight of Tibetans and occasional political pressure to bear upon China. Momo, the grandmother in the film, demonstrates the Tibetans' reverence for the Dalai Lama in her refusal to put away his photograph, as does the nun Tsering, who is arrested at Pema's nunnery for possessing a photograph.

The Chinese government is extremely threatened by the allegiance the Dalai Lama still inspires among Tibetans. Criminalizing the display of his photographs may seem like a small action, but it is a powerful symbol of the complete control the Chinese government has over Tibetan political and spiritual life.

The last scene of the film follows Dorjee and Dolkar as they escape over the mountains into Nepal--and freedom. We based their journey on the stories of young Tibetans who had recently escaped. It is a journey that thousands of Tibetans undertake every year in order to be free from the daily oppression of Chinese occupation.