By Tsering Dhundup
DHARAMSHALA, May 9: RenownedTibetan Filmmaker Pema Tseden, known for his unique and award-winning films that offer a glimpse into the lives of Tibetans and contemporary Tibet has reportedly died on Sunday at the age of 53 in Lhasa.
He was born into a nomadic family in Eastern Tibet’s Amdo region in December 1969, during the cultural revolution. He graduated from North West University for Nationalities, where he majored in Tibetan language and literature. After graduation, he worked as a primary school teacher and a civil servant.
He was the first Tibetan student to graduate from the acclaimed Beijing Film Academy and made his directing debut in 2005 with The Silent Holy Stones. The film won best director at Shanghai International Film Festival’s Asian New Talent Award and best directorial debut at China’s Golden Rooster Awards.
Other internationally acclaimed films followed, including The Search (2009), which won the Special Jury Prize at the Shanghai Festival. He next directed Old Dog (2011), which again proved to be a milestone film for him as it won the Grand Prize at Tokyo Filmex. Soon Pema Tseden became a regular fixture at these film festivals, gaining recognition for his craft.
In 2014, he won the best cinematography award at Shanghai International Film Festival for The Sacred Arrow. The former civil servant and teacher is sometimes described as a pioneer of the Tibetan New Wave. His last three feature films—Tharlo (2015), Jinpa (2018), and Balloon (2019)—were premiered at the prestigious Venice Film Festival.
In 2016, he was arrested by the Chinese police at Xining Airport in the so called Qinghai province on June 25 and was held in police custody. On the afternoon of June 27, the director was admitted to the hospital, according to a filmaker’s guild. The guild reported that Tseden was held for “disrupting social order.” Other sources suggest that his offence was to have forgotten a piece of luggage in the departure hall. However, observers say that his arrest and subsequent beating was a Chinese government ploy to threaten a Tibetan who had amassed internationally acclaim.
Prominent Tibetan filmmaker Tenzin Sonam wrote, “ Absolutely devastated to hear about the death of Pema Tseden, Tibetan writer and pioneering filmmaker who spearheaded the new Tibetan cinema inside Tibet against all odds. Our heartfelt condolences to his family”.
One Response
sad news for all tibetans. Pema Tseden could have made many many more movies if he had lived even 10 more years. he has used his skills to highlight tibetan culture and social issues in tibet by toeing a very thin line at the backdrop of draconian chinese censorship system. This kind of work need someone who is very brave and ready to go to prison if anything goes wrong. kudos to pema tseden. Chinese govt doesn’t allow tibetans to become too big or too influencial. Chinese don’t give real chance to any tibetan ethnicity, even if they obey the official lines. 10th panchen lama was poisoned when he became too popular with tibetans. bawa phuntsok wangyal was a cummunist but he was still arrested and imprisoned for 18 years. Tibetan business man who became a millionaire after returning to tibet from india and who was given award by ccp was eventually arrested on false allegations and still serving prison sentence.
never trust ccp.