THE WORDS OF NGAWANG CHOEPHEL
In 1995, Ngawang Choephel, a Tibetan musician and scholar, travelled to Tibet for the purpose of researching traditional Tibetan folk song and dance. He was arrested in August 1995 by the Chinese authorities and remains in detention without formal charge or trial. He has been accused of gathering sensitive intelligence and engaging in illegal separatist activities with the funding of certain unnamed Americans and at the instigation of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile.
Upon arrival in Kathmandu, Nepal, Ngawang Choephel wrote to a close female relative in India and sent it from there before proceeding on to Tibet. The letter arrived in Dharamsala on 7 July 1995. This original signed letter, handwritten in English, was passed on to the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Dharamsala, India. So too was a signed submission by Ngawang outlining the purpose of his travel in Tibet. Both documents have been reproduced here, in their entirety and exactly as written, to illustrate the baselessness of the claims of the PRC against Ngawang Choephel.
LETTER
Dear (name withheld for security reasons),
Tashi Delek! As I always do all of a sudden I had to leave to Kathmandu. I really wished if I could have more time and come at your house. But I think I definitely will have plenty of time when I come back to Dharamsala in the end of Nov from Tibet.
We arrived Kathmandu safely though all the way its been raining. We plan to stay here for a few days and then fly to Lhasa. I left a brief message with the guy at your office about my trip and those letters for my mom. I have put the dates on sticker when you have to post each letter. The story behind this is that my mom doesn t want me to go to Tibet and so were my uncles. I had no choice except to lie to them that I m touring within India. It is very important that my mom gets the letters so that she doesn t worry all the time. Please I hope you can do this little favour for me. Besides, I have left about 7 Hi 8 tapes and two video tapes and other stuff. Please keep those 2 video tapes out of reach from anyone else. If you like to watch them please feel free to do so but never lend to anyone else. Also those Hi 8 tapes may kindly be kept out of reach from others.
My main reason to go into Tibet is to research and collect as many folk songs as I could. My friend Kathryn is a photographer and I have a camcorder. This is really very exciting and little scary too. She may stay with me for not more than 2 months but I plan to stay at least 4 months. If anything happens to me afterwards there are some people in U.S. who knows about my presence in Tibet. So may be they will help me to get out from Tibet. Anyhow I m determined to do what I m supposed to rather than any political activities and propaganda.
It would be nice if you could send me a letter to Lhasa on following address: Poste Restante, Main Post Office, Lhasa, Tibet China. Please do not write anything political. I guess they open every letters.
Once again please mail those letters to my mom on time. If anything you want from Tibet please mention in the letter. I will be in Lhasa for a month.
Hope to see you soon please say hellow to Dickey and Yankey.
Ngawang Choephel
SUBMISSION
Filming
Prepared by: Ngawang Choephel
In order to accomplish the goals of creating a film that both examines the causes of the decay of Tibetan culture and documents and preserves the remaining oral and cultural traditions. Filming will be necessary in Tibet, India and the United States. In order to prepare for footage in Tibet, an organizational solo trip will also be necessary.
In Tibet, the focus of the filming will be traditional elder singers, musicians, storytellers and dancers. The subjects of these traditional performances will reflect traditional Tibetan culture, such as wedding, harvesting, drinking, love, spirituality and praise of nature. Some of the unusual forms I hope to locate are:
1. Call and response songs (Tsiggyal) which are used in certain ceremonies between male and female group.
2. Royal dance , (Gyalshey) a typical dance and song of Shelkar and Dingri region in central Tibet. It is believed to have been performed during the opening ceremony of the first Tibetan Buddhist monastery.
Personal interviews of the elders will include the history of their knowledge of the dance, music, storytelling, such as who their teachers were, at what age they began to learn, what the significance of the performance is etc. Certain artistic forms will need to be filmed during actual traditional ceremonies in order to get authentic representation while still possible.
Also while in Tibet, footage of the chinese established Tibetan performing arts institutes, karaoke bars and Chinese influenced contemporary Tibetan performers will be taken in order to show the changes in the Tibetan cultural performance since the Chinese occupation.
Filming in India will include:
-The Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts, the only Institute of its kind worldwide, it will also assist in the film-making project by conducting research and providing access to some traditional music and dance.
-Elder Tibetan singers, dancers, and storytellers relocated in India.
-Young Tibetans singing Hindi songs, playing western music on guitar and footage of the influence of Indian culture on young Tibetans.
-Interviews with young and elder Tibetan with discussion of their relationship to modern Indian music verses traditional Tibetan music.
-Some footage of USA and Canada-based Tibetan artistes, as well as interviews American and African ethnomusicologists will also be needed to complete the film.
Technical expertise in film-making and financial resources are being sought in order to make this important documentary a reality.
I will need to put together a team for this project. For the basic framework of this team, I will need one professional sound technician, one cinematographer, and one assistant for pre-production. Production time for this project will take an estimated two years. I would like to cover as many regions of Tibet as I can, in order to document the diversity of Tibetan music. I would like to work with Middlebury College to secure the assistance that I need for this project. Any suggestions you have would be very helpful and very much appreciated.
Respectfully submitted,
[signed] N. Choephel
Ngawang Choephel
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Department of Information and International Relations
Central Tibetan Administration, Dharamsala
Please sent reply to:
diir@dsala.tibetnet.ernet.in
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