Lobsang Wangyal

Lobsang Wangyal
བློ་བཟང་། དབང་རྒྱལ།

Lobsang Wangyal, 2006
Born 1970
Orissa, India
Residence McLeod Ganj, India
Ethnicity Tibetan
Education BA 1995, Shimla, Himachal Pradesh
Occupation Photojournalist, Events producer, Web producer
Website
lobsangwangyal.com

Lobsang Wangyal ( བློ་བཟང་། དབང་རྒྱལ། ; born 1970) is a photojournalist and events producer, based in McLeod Ganj, Dharamshala, India.[1] He has been a stringer reporter and photographer for Agence France-Presse for many years. Through his eponymous company, Lobsang Wangyal Productions, he has been producing Tibetan cultural events since 2000, the best-known of which is the yearly Miss Tibet Pageant. He also maintains a news website, Tibet Sun, beginning in 2008.[2]

He is considered an icon in Tibetan exile popular culture.[1]

Bio

Lobsang was born in 1970 in Orissa in east India, in a small Tibetan refugee village. His father, Tsering Tendhar (late), was from Kham (Tehor), in eastern Tibet and his mother, Tsering Dolkar, from southern Tibet. They were in their teens when they escaped the Chinese suppression of an uprising in their country in 1959.

He was graduated from Central School for Tibetans, Mussoorie, and attended college in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, for his BA degree, which he obtained in 1995. He has been working as a photojournalist since 1994.[3]

He was a founding member of the Association of Tibetan Journalists in 1997, and was president of the organisation for two terms, from 2004-2009.[4]

He became a producer in 2000 with the Free Spirit Festival, and produced the first Miss Tibet Pageant in 2002. He has gone on to produce more events, mostly in McLeod Ganj, and a film festival in Hawaii. His productions are mostly funded by himself through his photojournalism. He reached a high point in his career as a showman when he produced a show for Prince Charles in October 2003.[3]

Photographer and journalist

Lobsang has been working as a photojournalist since 1994.[3] Except for a crash course in journalism, he is self-taught in both this field and photography. He was taught photography by friends and visitors in McLeod Ganj, and went on to make news photography his day job, with many unattributed photos in stories for Agence France-Presse. His photos appear in the books Little Lhasa: Reflections on Exiled Tibet, by Tsering Namgyal,[1] and Tibet in Exile, published by Friedrich Naumann Stiftung in 2002, as well as "Beyond Shangri-La" in the "Five Candles Photography Exhibition" in 2000 in the Prince of Wales Museum, India.[5] Lobsang Wangyal photography is also on the web at LobsangWangyal.com Photography, in various news stories at TibetSun.com, and unattributed in AFP stories.

Producer and Director

Lobsang Wangyal began his producing career in 2000, when he started an eponymous company, Lobsang Wangyal Productions and produced the Free Spirit Festival — an event to celebrate contemporary Tibetan arts and culture.

His longest-running production started in 2002: the Miss Tibet Pageant, a platform for young Tibetan women to showcase their talents and aspirations. This event has continued yearly.

Lobsang conceived the idea of the Miss Himalaya Pageant in early 2010 and produced the inaugural event in October 2012.[6]

The Tibetan Music Awards (held every two years) and Free Spirit Film Festival followed. He started the Free Spirit Award in 2003, to honour the works of artistes and individual supporters of the Tibetan cause in particular, and world peace, social and environmental issues in general.[7]

He has also produced one-time events such as a film festival in Hawaii, US, in January 2007.[8] In October 2003 he produced a show for Prince Charles at the Tibetan camp Majnu ka Tilla in Delhi. His most ambitious production, in 2008, was the Tibetan Olympics 2008 in Dharamshala, India.[2]

His productions are now expanding world-wide, with the Sing for Tibet to be held in McLeod Ganj on 12 December 2012, and other cities in future, and Tibet Fashion Week being planned in 2012.[2]

All productions are mostly funded by himself through his own works.

Controversy/Accusations of fraud

On 5 June 2012 Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Foreign Correspondent program aired a report which had followed the contestants preparing for and undertaking the Miss Tibet 2011 contest. The report outlined the contestant's understanding of how they would be judged - a judging panel of non-Tibetans would be marking the contestants presentations. At the end of the program controversy erupted when the winner was announced.[9]

One contestant remarked that she thought Tenzin Khecheo would have won. Another stated "I think Lobsang Wangyul cheated - he's a fraud." The pageant organiser, Lobsang Wangyal, was confronted by the contestants who wanted to know how the judging had been processed. At first Lobsang Wangyal claimed the marking sheets had been stolen. "I don't have the judges' sheet. It was stolen ... on the night. ... It's not in the file. The file is empty. ... When I went onstage somebody stole it. I too was surprised." The contestants then pressed Lobsang Wangyal further, at which point he admitted the non-Tibetan judge's markings only affected 25% of the overall evaluation - that he himself controlled the remaining 75% of the marking, and as such, had effectively decided by himself which contestant had won. The confrontation then ended with the contestants walking out and stating to Lobsang Wangyal "You are a fraud." To which Lobsang Wangyal responded "Yeah ... yeah I am."

Other activities

Lobsang Wangyal appeared as the "Love Guru" in the first production of the movie "Richard Gere is My Hero" by Tashi Wangchuk, and in Dreaming Lhasa by Tenzing Sonam and Ritu Sarin.[10]

He is in addition a dancer, graphics designer, and website producer.[3]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Tsering Namgyal, Little Lhasa: Reflections on Exiled Tibet, Indus Source books, 2006. ch 5, p. 66 http://books.google.co.in/books?id=nQ2bLT9dAwMC&pg=PA66&lpg=PA66&dq=%22Lobsang+Wangyal%22&source=web&ots=M567gSkzfp&sig=cu0tSte7UthJzrJK0hiNn4GsHgQ&hl=en#v=onepage&q=%22Lobsang%20Wangyal%22&f=false
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 http://lobsangwangyal.com/productions/
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 http://www.lobsangwangyal.com/about/
  4. ↑ http://www.tibetanjournalists.org/about/background.html , http://www.tibetanjournalists.org/about/members_directory.html
  5. ↑ Coomaraswamy Hall of the Prince of Wales Museum of Western India, March 12–17, 2000, http://www.friendsoftibet.org/sofar/bombay/20000312-festival_of_tibet/candles.html
  6. ↑ Suresh Khatta (24 September 2012). "First Miss Himalaya pageant in October at McLeodganj". DailyPostIndia.com. Retrieved 2 December 2012.
  7. ↑ http://freespiritfestival.com/awards/
  8. ↑ http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3807925580361602870# - video: "The first Tibet Film Festival in Hawaii held the month of January 2007 with host Lobsang Wangyal from Dharamshala India."
  9. ↑ Gould, Mark (Producer). Foreign Correspondent "Miss Tibet", [television broadcast]. Australia, ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation).
  10. ↑ http://www.dreaminglhasa.com/crew/credit.html

External links