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Dharamshala hosts first ever-Tibetan Artists Festival, focusing on art and freedom narratives
The Tibetan Artists Festival has launched in Dharamshala, uniting over 30 artists globally to share their narratives of freedom and resilience.
The three-days Tibetan Artists Festival begun on Friday in the North Indian hill town Dharamshala. Over 30 Tibetan artists, musicians and writers from United States, Canada, Australia and from India are here to participate in the festival. The festival is also a platform for Tibetan artists to tell stories about their freedom struggle and Chinese propaganda. The organiser of the festival, Bhuchung D Sonam, who is also a writer, told ANI "It's a really important thing that we need to tell stories".
Tibetans highlight storytelling's power in preserving culture
He added, "I think stories are really important for Tibetans. We have lot of stories to tell based on our real experience". He said that the Chinese are spending huge amount of money on propaganda material whereas the Tibetan stories are based out of human experience. "So for us telling stories is really important and people who tell the best stories are the artists so I think it's really important for us to get together and kind of understand what art can do, how we can tell our stories better, how we can make ourselves hear better", he said.
Tenzin Tsundue, a Tibetan activist and writer said, "Art when it's in deep there is an understanding and an articulation and performance. It's very powerful, much more powerful than dictatorship. It is by nature, such a power that it empowers our community and freedom struggle. And this is I think what is providing the leadership to Tibetans inside Tibet today and naturally China is scared of Tibetan artists. There are a number of singers who came from Tibet, writers who came from Tibet. They naturally tell the stories of Tibet and those who are born in India we also talk about what is happening inside and how we are leading the freedom movement forward."
Tsering Yangzom Lama, a Tibetan writer from Canada told ANI, "My book 'We measure the Earth with our Bodies' is a story of a Tibetan family that decides to leave Tibet in the early days of Chinese invasion and going into exile and it is basically a story of 50 years in-exile".
Art as a bridge for Tibetan identity and connection
He added, "We are using art in a way that we have always used art which is in expression of who are we people? It's not like a tool against an enemy or a repressor, it's something that helps us to live and something that helps us to connect with ourselves and each other". Tenzin Choegyal, a Tibetan musician based in Australia expressed his thoughts through songs. Choegyal's album 'Songs from The Bardo' was nominated at the 63rd Grammy Awards in 2020.
Speaking to ANI he said, "For me, it's like homecoming because I grew up here. I lived here in Dharamshala as a child so it is my playground, it's a place where initially my passion for music was born so it's an important space for me to be here also the Dalai Lama lives here so coming here is like visiting your parents feeling of that.
The art festival is like how inclusive we can be with art. Any form of art can be a space where it can be so inclusive, not only Tibetans and not only Indian friends also the visiting foreigners who are coming from overseas and take part in it and exchange ideas and how we can be actually become a better human being".
