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Filming Tibetan dreams
Part of what Sarin and Sonam wanted to explore is what over four decades of exile have done to the sense of Tibetan identity. The Tibetans have managed in many ways to preserve their culture in India by staying apart from the Indians. There is some tension, though, Sarin chuckles, it is mostly "at the level of who goes out with the prettiest girl." But now, the parallel existence outside the Indian mainstream is becoming increasingly unsustainable. "As more and more young people come out of schools and colleges, there are not enough jobs for them in the Tibetan community," says Sonam.
Meanwhile, Lhasa -- or what Sonam calls "the dream center" -- recedes ever further into the mists of time. In Dreaming Lhasa, the filmmakers have three main characters whose life stories show the ever-widening distance between Lhasa and the lives of ordinary Tibetans. Karma is a young Tibetan-American filmmaker who has grown up in America and comes to Dharamsala to find her roots. There she meets Jigme, a young Tibetan rock musician who has been born and brought up in India. But neither are 'real' Tibetans like Dhondup, who arrives in Dharamsala after escaping from Tibet.
The 'real' Tibetans, the Dhondups, are being rapidly outnumbered by the Jigmes and Karmas. The refugees who came with the Dalai Lama in 1959 are slowly dying out. Sonam's father always thought his stay in exile would be temporary, but he passed away in India. Sonam, who was born in India, has been to Lhasa. "It is definitely not like the kind of romantic idea we grew up with," he says. "Lhasa is a Chinese city."
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