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Filming Tibetan dreams
In the film, Tibetans get into fights in dance clubs in Dharamsala. Foreigners come to the Dalai Lama's home-in-exile not just for spiritual truth, but also for drugs and even sex. A foreign tourist comes on to an ex-monk when she hears he has been in prison. "It's the refugee groupie mentality," chuckles Sonam. "It does translate into sexual attraction. A lot of Tibetans, both ex-monks and lay persons, have married Western women and come to the West."
"Dharamsala is a place like Goa and Manali - a Mecca for some tourists," adds Sarin. "There are clubs, raves, a lot of drugs."
Most young Tibetans are dreaming not of Lhasa, but New York and San Francisco. That dream can often become an obsession. In the film, one of the characters talks about pretending to be a monk at the American consulate in the hope of getting a visa. That happens in real life, too. "Consular officers have become savvy," says Sarin. "They now ask people claiming to be monks to tie their robes in front of them, to see if they know what they are doing."
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