‘China is mistreating Tibetans during Games' - Dalai Lama

The Dalai Lama said on August 16 China was mistreating and torturing civilians in Tibet while the Olympic Games were going on.

"Unfortunately the Olympic spirit is not being respected at all by Chinese officials in Tibet," he said in an interview on France's TF1 television, when asked if the tradition of an Olympic truce was being respected.

"There are restrictions on the circulation of information, very strong censorship," he said.

"Civilians are often arrested, violently tortured to the point where they die. It's really very, very sad," he said.

The Dalai Lama, who was on a two-week visit to France, mostly focused on religious commitments. He has made few political comments but he criticised China's actions in Tibet at a meeting on Aug. 13 with French legislators.

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I have tried to raise some serious questions in ‘Tsampa to Pizza'

Meet Sonam Tsetan, one of the many young Tibetan filmmakers living in exile outside their country, who is trying to redefine the political turbulence in Tibet through his lens and narrative.

"We, the new generation of Tibetan filmmakers, are looking at our homeland that we left behind through the eyes of the Tibetan youths in exile," the Delhi-based filmmaker told IANS.

A television journalist by profession, Tsetan's film was screened at the India International Centre that had organized a Tibetan film festival from July5-9.

Cinema has been a powerful vehicle that has taken the Himalayan country to the world outside. Several filmmakers, including some big names from Hollywood, have taken up the strife-torn nation as their subject.

Tsetan's signature film is ‘Tsampa to Pizza' - a 45-minute telling docu-feature on the new generation of Tibetans in exile and their dilemmas that he made in November 2007. He is one- film-old and is currently working on his next project, ‘The Girl From China'.

For the uninitiated, his film needs a little contextual analysis.

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Objects from South Asia at New York Historical Society show ‘Woven Splendor'

Dozens of dazzling rugs and textiles are the centerpiece of Woven Splendor from Tim buktu to Tibet: Exotic Rugs and Textiles from New York Collectors, a New-York Historical Society exhibition examining the history of the Oriental rug in New York and the story of the Hajji Baba Club-the nation's oldest and most prestigious rug collecting club.

The exhibition opened April 11, and runs through August 17, 2008.

If South India is known for its Chola Bronzes, East India for Balucharis cand Kalighat pats, then the Higher Himalayas are famed for its tankas and carpets. Therefore it will seem as no surprise to a South Asian visitor to be greeted a leaping tiger rug from Tibet at the ‘Woven Splendor' show.

But there are other objects from South Asia that one is pleasantly surprised to discover, including objects from Baluchistan (prayer rugs and bags) and a silk double-ikat from Gujarat.

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