Kokonor

Kino Aero               20th of April 2012        18:30

Kino Aero               20th of April 2016        18:30

Kokonor” is a documentary about the effects tourism is having on a small Tibetan community around the famous Lake Kokonor (Qinghai, P.R. of China). Lake Qinghai, an area that used to be known only as a sacred ground of Tibetan Buddhism, has now become the most famous tourist attraction in the west of China, bearing even some international recognition. By following a group of children that pose for tourists’ pictures, the filmmaker documents how the influx of money, Chinese entrepreneurs and tourists is impacting the ecosystem, the lives of the local Tibetan population, and the preservation of Tibetan culture and religious practices in this area.

Chenaktsang Dorje Tsering (Lce nag tshang Rdo rje Tshe ring) was born in Sog po (Henan) county in Qinghai province (People’s Republic of China) in 1963. He is best known under the penname Jangbu (Ljang bu). He is of Mongolian nationality but writes in Tibetan. He is one of the most prominent of contemporary Tibetan writers. He is mostly known for his innovative free verse poetry and for short stories that have been label by some as “magic realist”.

He graduated from the North-west Nationalities University in Lanzhou in 1988 and later became editor of the prestigious Tibetan journal Bod kyi rtsom rig sgyul rtsal (Tibet Literature and Art). In recent years he has been a Lecturer at the Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales in Paris, where he has taught courses in Tibetan language and literature. He has directed and produced the Channel 4 documentary Tantric Yogi (2005), and he wrote the script for internationally acclaimed Tibetan-language feature film Hi ma la ya’i rgyal sras (Prince of the Himalayas, directed by Sherwood Hu in 2006), on which he also worked as assistant director. As a board member of the Austin-based non-profit organization TALI (www.talitibet.org), Jangbu is actively engaged in a variety of activities to expand and improve education in Tibetan areas in the PRC, and to preserve Tibetan language and culture.