Recording the Past to Shape the Future
“It is vitally important, especially as a testament to those Tibetans no longer here, that we record our personal experiences of suffering. We should do this, not to fuel resentments but to help the Chinese people understand our true history and to know that we are justified in our hopes for a future Tibet.”
– Lodi Gyari
His Holiness the Dalai Lama has emphasized the importance of creating an accurate recorded history of Tibet’s past. The quote above from Lodi Gyari, Special Envoy for His Holiness the Dalai Lama, was made at the launch of the Laogai Museum’s special exhibition on Tibet. (For Voice of America’s Tibetan language coverage of this exhibit, please see their April 10th broadcast.)
Following an appeal from His Holiness, in 2003 Marcella Adamski initiated the Tibet Oral History Project, with the goal of documenting and disseminating the stories of Tibetan elders living in exile in order to preserve their history and educate future generations of Tibetans and Chinese. Working with her outreach coordinator Tenzin Yangchen and a team of videographers, interviewers, and translators, Adamski and her crew interviewed over 80 Tibetan elders.
Sixty-seven of these interviews have since been transcribed and translated, with new interviews uploaded to the Tibet Oral History Project’s website each week. Speaking honestly of their experiences, the elders provide moving accounts that vividly describe their carefree childhoods in Tibet, the arrival of Chinese forces, harrowing escapes into exile, and their efforts to maintain their culture.
In addition to these individual interviews, the TOHP has compiled a brief 6-minute film, “Tibet Remembered: Eyewitness Accounts of Tibet’s Elders,” which is also available on their website.
The Tibet Oral History Project has received a number of grants to cover their operating costs, including a 2009 Rowell Fund for Tibet award. In keeping with the Rowell Fund’s mission of empowering Tibetans to preserve their culture, TOHP was well matched for this grant.
Congratulations to the Tibet Oral History Project for their indispensable contribution to the creation and preservation of Tibetan history. By recording this history, they help secure a future for Tibet.
(Photo caption: TOHP outreach coordinator Tenzin Yangchen with her oldest interviewee Tashi in Bylakuppe, India.)
2 Responses to “Recording the Past to Shape the Future”
Leave a Reply
Visit ICT's website to find out more about Tibet and Tibetan issues.
[...] Guest blog by Marcella Adamski, Ph.D. Founder and Executive Director of the Tibet Oral History Project; see also ICT’s July 14, 2009 blog by Leslie Butterfield, Recording the Past to Shape the Future. [...]
Thanks for alerting me to the Tibet Oral History Project. Tibetans provide a profound example of hope and peace to cultures throughout the world.