A
Long Look Homeward
In
1949 China invaded Tibet. The occupation was accompanied
by policies and actions intended to wipe out the
Tibetan identity and traditional way of life. More
than a million Tibetans died as a result of the
occupation, victims of fighting, hunger, executions
and labor camps. Spiritual and material treasures
were robbed, burned, destroyed and so lost forever.
Tibet’s forests were felled and her sacred
lakes polluted. Tibet became a vast military base
and a nuclear waste site. A policy of resettlement
of Chinese immigrants in Tibet is turning Tibetans
into a minority in their own land. The mere survival
of the Tibetan culture and identity is now threatened.
The
terrors of occupation forced many to flee their homeland.
Most of the refugees escaped Tibet on a perilous exodus
on foot through the Himalayan ranges and brought little
with them but their memories. The "Long Look
Homeward" exhibition is based on these memories.
Its curators are eleven representatives of the Tibetan
community in exile. They have told their own personal
stories, interwoven with the story of their nation,
and have selected visual representations of their
memories.
The
exhibition is a fabric of symbols, visuals and narratives
that weave together a collective consciousness of
memory, commemoration and hope. These stories take
you, the visitor, on a journey - depicting the darkness
of invasion, destruction and oppression, shedding
light on the magnificient past of Tibet, and expressing
hopes for its future.
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