I found it quite difficult photographing people in Tibet because I didn't have the language skills to say "hey, do you mind if I point this camera in your face until I get a satisfactory picture of you for my blog?". But people with animals are easier, because I love animals. When you've just spent ten minutes admiring someone's terrific horse they'll let you take as many pictures as you like.
EDIT: I sometimes get quite confrontational replies from Free Tibet groups on twitter saying that posting these pictures is just adding to Chinese propaganda that Tibet is a happy, peaceful country.
Tibet is, of course, under occupation. I just don't have any photos to communicate that. Why not? Because it's also a beautiful, rugged country full of beautiful Buddhists, and that's what I was there photographing. Yes, there were soldiers with guns marching all over Lhasa, and yes I was forbidden to point my camera at them. Most people in Free Tibet groups have never actually been there, but I don't really subscribe to the view that tourism in Tibet is unethical. I think if you go with a grassroots agency like Wangden's, whose priority is to pay back into local native communities, it's a huge contribution to them maintaining their own society and identity.
I did get quotes for my trip to Base Camp from some cheap Chinese agencies that were half the price, but the guides don't speak Tibetan and so I would never have had the opportunity, for example, to sit drinking tea with the nuns in Rombuk Monastery. Also, I doubt these (unpaid) guides would have sat up with me all night when I got sick like my guys did; and they certainly don't donate any of their profits to orphanages like Wangden does.
If anyone is looking for guides (and it's not legal to be in Tibet without them) then I totally recommend Snowlion Tours. I was looked after so well and invited in to so many places that I just would have missed if I hadn't have gone with them. Also, they were just great, funny, nice, warm guys. Wangden told me Sonan had said to him: "guiding this girl is easy, it's just like going on a road trip with a friend". I liked hearing this, because by the end of the trip that's how I felt about them.
I love how even the reins and saddle is decorated beautifully. Gorgeous!
ReplyDeleteOh, this is much more cheerful than your cowboy. Lovely!
ReplyDeleteI always just gestured with my camera and giggled until they relented. This worked well until one day in a tiny village on the way to Lhasa a group of about ten tiny children thought my charade meant I was offering them my camera. This resulted in me racing away down the road with an angry mob of kids chasing after me :-)
ReplyDeleteAnnie I also got some abuse on the net about my trip to Tibet and how I was supporting the occupation etc. My reply to all of them is that the Dali Lama himself has written the forward to the Lonely Plant Tibet and encourages the world to go there and see the beauty and wonder of the place for themselves. If it's good enough for the Dali Lama I really don't think they have a leg to stand on.
ReplyDeleteYes, good point. We were all searched at the military checkpoints for any evidence of this book or his picture.
ReplyDeleteI spoke to Wangden about it at some length, and he assured me that most of these groups have never been to Tibet and don't understand what life is like there. They do make some thought-provoking points ("Would you have gone off on holiday to Nazi-occupied Poland?") and I think it's good that they exist to show the other side of the coin. But I won't take down any of my pictures.
That's totally how it came across, Annie, like a roadtrip with friends.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure hiding what Tibetans are like from the world is fair to them either. I'm really glad we got to meet them too.
During world war one some entrepreneurs actually offered sightseeing tours to the trenches (Germany/France border).
ReplyDeleteHaving lived in Mexico for a while I have come to belive that responsable tourism is a valid tool in the battle against unfair governments. You see, no opressive government gives a shit about the rights of indigenous people. But the situation becomes more tricky when rich white people start walking around with cameras, notebooks and what's most important: thee ability to leave the country and tell the world what it is really like over there.
Anyhow, am sure that half of the Free Tibet groups are college kids that don't have the money to go to Tibet anyhow so I can see how the "don't go to Tibet" view suits them... ;)
I got the same grief in Kashmir.
ReplyDeleteI bought from the locals, ate in their restaurants, stayed in their guest houses.
They want tourists to go there. Without tourist dollars, they struggle to feed the family and send their children to school.
My country (Australia) generates a lot of its wealth from tourists. It's good enough for us but not for others who really need it.
Just more misguided political ideals
Tim