facts, objective truths, that may one day be forgotten in the stream of history.

I won an
award (for Butter Lamp) last year in Shenzhen at the China International New Media
Short Film Festival, which is run by the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio,
Film and Television.
Yes, it is indeed remarkable that the only photo of the disappeared child Panchen Lama
appears, in the hands of an elderly Tibetan, in this Butter Lamp film. Yes, that does make it
political.
But thats one moment in a film that, by its structure, confronts us, the viewers worldwide,
with our preconceptions about what Tibet is, and can be. And the prize it won in China tells
us much we need to know about how China is changing. To see this charmer as only
political reduces it to either/or: the disappeared Panchen appears, so thats a slap in the
face for China, a win for the Tibetan cause. To reduce everything to simplistic dualisms is
puerile, as the Buddhists have always said.
And if you think this is just a random accident, see if your nearest Chinatown bookshop still
stocks a copy of the October 2014 issue of Chinese National Geography magazine.
For less than $4, you get 400 pages of the glossiest supersaturated colour pix of central
Tibet, not only the marvellous landscapes, but also the same ordinary Tibetans who file into
shot in Butter Lamp, in everyday dress, not just decked in traditional costume like ethnic
dolls. Every romantic trope of Tibet as a magical Shangri-la, originating in the projections
of the European gaze, is lavishly reproduced in this Chinese language publication for
Chinese consumers. This is a glossy devoted entirely to the sumptuously colourful
landscapes, architecture, ordinary people and charismatic lamas of Tibet. There are
respectful photo-essays on seven living Buddhas scattered through the volume. In the
entire magazine, the only other content is the ads, full-colour double page spreads for the
latest models of Mercedes, BMW, Jeep, Cadillac etc. Audi and Landrover each has an
eight-page spread. Yaks drinking at a lake shore adorn the cover.[1]
China, especially the urban new rich, is starting to recognise Tibet in new ways. Thats what
Chinese readers now want: high-end consumption and the fantasy of a pure land where you
can get away from the ratrace. They want pure air and a quiet mind, a reminder of what life
is for, just like we do.

[1] Chinese National Geography #10, 2014 ISSN 1009-6377 http://hk.dili360.com/

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TIBETAN EARTH, TIBETAN SOILS

Posted on January 31, 2015 by rukor-admin

from a small book of essays, poetry and art on the Soil and the Earth, edited by Vandana
Shiva, celebrating the International Year of Soils, 2015
**********************

That the soils of the Tibetan Plateau exist at all is remarkable. This vast island in the sky is,
in planetary history, so new, so high and still rising skyward, so unconsolidated and prone
to quake, so raked by gales and blizzards, it is a miracle that soil exists.
Yet the soils of the Tibetan Plateau sustain huge herds of migrating gazelles and antelopes,
millions of yaks, sheep and goats cared for by nomadic pastoralists, and an entire Tibetan
civilisation. Not only does a rich soil sustain life, the hardy grasses and sedges of the vast
plateau pasture lands in turn protect the soils from the powerfully erosive forces of wind,
snowstorms and intense cold. Neither permafrost below nor the sudden hailstorms from
above disturb those soils, aerated by burrowing mammals, held together by the biomass of
living plants, most of which is underground.