By Phurbu Thinley
Phayul Correspondent
Dharamsala, September 30 – A movie, somehow based on a life’s true account, “Kadrin”, meaning- gratefulness, was screened for press at a local mini-theatre here today.
The movie shot and directed by Topgyal Tsering, the elder bother of Ngawang Sampdup on whose personal life experience the movie has been actually based, endeavours to depict the reality of the many untold hardships faced by Tibetans who brave a treacherous crossing of the Himalayas every year to head for Dharamsala via Nepal.
These illegal crossings are made by people who are unable to tolerate the Chinese occupation anymore, or by those who simply wish to be blessed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Still many young Tibetan children are sent by their parents into exile to seek better education in the network of Tibetan schools spread across India run under the guidance of Dalai Lama.
Since, the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet fled his homeland in 1959 as a direct result of illegal Chinese occupation of Tibet, and even after more than four decades of Chinese rule, hundreds of Tibetans still continue to escape Tibet.
In so doing, many of them will either never return back to their country, or will perhaps never see their dear and near ones left behind in Tibet in their life time again. The worst of them all, many die on their way, or are arrested by Nepalese border police to be deported back and handed over to the Chinese authorities. For those who are deported back, the worst is yet to face in the Chinese detention centres, prisons and labour camps established across Tibet.
Ngawang Sampdup, who is actually starring in the movie, is one among the many young Tibetans sent into the exile Tibetan community in India by his parents, against his own wish, to follow the footsteps of his elder brother for a better prospect of seeking a modern education with a blend of Tibetan cultural practices.
Today, Mr. Samdup calls his life a journey of success for having successfully made his way to India and having received the wonderful opportunity to pursue the kind of education as per the wishes of his parents left back in Tibet. For all these, he believes the movie is a tribute expressing thankfulness to the exile Tibetan leader and the exile Tibetan Government led by Him.
The movie also portrays the feeling of poignant solitude, which the Tibetan children endure while growing up in the complete absence of their parents at such a young tender age and their longing to see their parents again in life.
Ngawang fled into exile in 1985, when he was still a young kid. Since then he has never returned back to Tibet. However, his much awaited moment in his life came when he had had the chance to meet his mother briefly for the first time in 20 years time. For that also, Ngawang had to go to Kathmandu to see his mother since the Chinese authority had issued her travel permit only to visit Nepal and not India.
Although theirs is a story of success, the two brothers dedicated their movie for those Tibetans who were unable to make their way safely to Dharamsala and those who have lost their lives on the way. The first public screening of “Kadrin” will be held at the Tibet Festival in Germany later in November this year.
