Bringing Tibet Home

When a Tibetan refugee dies from a terminal illness his New York artist son grants his final wish

Bringing Tibet Home A Tibetan refugee dies far from home. His last wish - to set foot on his native soil again - is unfulfilled. Years later his son, a New York-based artist, embarks on a remarkable journey. He means to cart 20,000 kilograms of Tibetan soil out of the country - and the Chinese authorities won't make it easy. Part art, part act of remembrance, Tenzing Rigdol's soil project is a powerfully touching attempt to reunite exiled Tibetans with their homeland.​

A single rope strung across foaming waters, disappearing into thick vegetation on one side; this is the secret zip wire used by smugglers to transport illegal goods across the Tibetan border into Nepal. Today, however, the unmarked bags being urgently ferried across contain a surprising treasure: soil. Apparently worthless, this soil has incomparable value to the thousands of Tibetan exiles who have spent decades waiting to return to their homeland.

Tenzing Rigdol is the artist behind this clandestine operation, inspired to undertake the daring project by the death of his father. At his bedside in his final days, Tenzing was profoundly moved by his father's stories about Tibet and his own ancestry. His dying wish - which Tenzing was unable to grant - was to visit his country for one last time. "There are so many just like my father who couldn't go back due to the political reasons...So all of a sudden one night I had this idea - if they cannot go back there, is there any other way I could somehow bring Tibet to them?"

Tenzing's work, which has been displayed in galleries across the world, has always been concerned with the land of the ancestors. In Bringing Tibet Home, he returns to the Nepal of his youth and retraces his family's tumultuous journey from border town Kathmandu, a kind of waiting room for exiles desperately hoping to return to Tibet, to Dharamsa, India, second home to the country's many political refugees. Subjected to scrutiny at the many checkpoints along the way, his trip is a reminder of the Tibetan people's continuing struggle.

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Laurel Winner - Young European Jury Award, FIPA 2014
Laurel Winner - Emerging Director Award, AAIFF 2014
Laurel Official Selection - Busan, 2013
Laurel Official Selection - Brisbane 2013
Laurel Official Selection - CAAMFEST, 2014
FULL SYNOPSIS

The Producers


Tenzin Tsetan Choklay is a Tibetan filmmaker currently working out of Brooklyn, New York City. Tenzin graduated from the prestigious Korean Academy of Film Arts in 2008. Tenzin has made a number of short films in South Korea and has worked as an Associate Producer at White Crane Films In India for the award winning film, The Sun Behind the Clouds by directors Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam.

The filmmaker and the artist were classmates at the Tibetan refugee school in India when they were toddlers. After more than two decades of separation, they finally met again in 2009 when the filmmaker moved to New York City.

Making The Film


Bringing Tibet Home is a special project for me. Although it tells the story of artist Tenzing Rigdol, in a way I am also telling my own story through his experiences. Like Tenzing Rigdol, my parents also escaped from Tibet after 1959 and since have not been able to return home. As a filmmaker I felt that through this film I could share a very special experience with other Tibetans and the larger world community.

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