Bringing Tibet Home
When a Tibetan refugee dies from a terminal illness his New York artist son grants his final wish
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. LEARN MORE.
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Winner - Young European Jury Award, FIPA 2014
Winner - Emerging Director Award, AAIFF 2014
Official Selection - Busan, 2013
Official Selection - Brisbane 2013
Official Selection - CAAMFEST, 2014
