Airjaldi and the Tibetan Technology Center are headquartered in Dharamsala, India, up in the foothills of the Himalayas. Read all about what’s going on now. They’ve done a lot – including getting noticed by Cisco and starting a Cisco training academy.

In other news, one of the senior high school students who participated in Project Happiness in 2006-2007 just arrived at Emory University (in Atlanta) where he starts class next week. I’ve particularly been in touch with two of the guys who got into the computer and video technologies, both of whom are in college now. These kids are doing well. They really sweated it out over the examinations and college admissions, and it’s good to see how they are progressing. Although it probably seemed like a lot to him when he left India, he arrived in Atlanta with $1,000 in his pocket to start school. Once he starts buying his books for class, that won’t go far…

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Rosemary Rawcliffe

In 2005 or 2006 we ran into each other again at the Tibetan settlement in Dharamsala, India, and we were soon talking about ways we might help students learn to use video and film to preserve the stories of the older Tibetan refugees and, for that matter, their own stories!

Now, of course, Rosemary was the pro, and I knew little about film and video. (I had taught beginning video production at one point, using 2-inch Ampex video tape editing and huge video cameras, but that was ancient history, and it certainly wasn’t my profession.)

She has now completed two of the films… and the second film, Women of Tibet: A Quiet Revolution was just awarded a 2009 Emmy^® in the category Historic/Cultural – Program/Special at the 38th annual 2008-2009 Northern California Area Emmy Awards. You can read her story (and see photos) about the awards ceremony at the Women of Tibet web site.

Rosemary had built a career in film and television in Britain, but in 1989 she sold her business and took a break from the profession. As she said “you wake up one morning and you have 35 people working for you…” and your ability to choose which creative tasks you want to take on is greatly reduced.

But because of the breadth of trades she had plied while in the business, she knew everything from audio to video, and knew how to finance and build a team, and ten years later she was so moved by the plight of, and the courage of, Tibetan refugee women, that she began filming to tell their story. Two films later (with one more to go), she now has an Emmy, which is both a recognition of her own efforts and a statement of respect for the stories and the lives of the women she is chronicling. And she is thrilled to be recognized in this way by her peers. You’ll recognize what this means to her when you listen to the interview.

Audio player:

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One of Sam’s recent projects (it’s a couple of years old now) involves a group of Chinese-speaking (reading and writing as well) Tibetans who live in Dharamsala and spend their time chatting with people inside China. About what it is to be a part of the Tibetan culture and how it relates to the rest of China. It’s an actual project with financial supporters and employees, and you can contact me if you’re interested in helping support it. Sam also spends a lot of time in the Tibetan exile settlements in the rest of India, but that’s another story.

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Rather than try to excerpt here, I will simply direct you to the original article. He rode across the Himalayas in the winter of 1949: George Patterson’s final contribution to the people of Tibet. This is an extensive and interesting article. Read it!

The post George Patterson – rode across the Himalayas in 1949 appeared first on Sky's Blog.

Tibet only “opened up” to the non-Asian world in mid-twentieth century. My introduction was via Lowell Thomas Jr.’s book Out of this World (published in 1950 – I will have more to say about the book elsewhere). And I read this book when I was a teenager in middle America, some time after Tibet was occupied by the Chinese army and just before the 14th Dalai Lama went into exile in India. The Chinese government claims that Tibet has always been a part of China. Those of us who have come into contact with Tibetan people know them as hard-working and dedicated, open and welcoming, and will never forget our encounters.

Last year I met Jane Bay. Jane has worked within the film industry for some time, and Jane came to know Tibet thru some interesting events – but most directly because she sponsored and adopted a Tibetan refugee daughter. Initially her daughter, Namgyal, lived at the Tibetan Children’s Village in Dharamsala, India, but due to circumstances and political pressure she moved back to Tibet. And Jane lost touch with her. This story is told in Jane’s first book, Precious Jewels of Tibet.

But that wasn’t the only loss in their relationship. Jane regained contact with Namgyal, in Tibet, where her daughter was studying traditional Tibetan medicine. And they began to plan a life-long relationship in which Namgyal would be able to move back and forth between Tibet and the US, observing the traditional and the modern in all its variation.

But it was not to be. In 2003, Namgyal suddenly died. Arising out of Jane’s shock and grief, and based on exchanges of email that she had with friends, she wrote a book Love & Loss: A Story About Life, Death, and Rebirth. In this book she chronicles the email exchanges she had following the death of her adopted Tibetan daughter in 2003. Far from being impersonal, the email exchange turned deeply touching and intimate. Technology ended up being the enabler that allowed Jane to move thru a time of crisis. And to share that story with others.

[Updated Feb 2017 and Mar 2018 to use HTML5 audio tag]

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You can see what I’ve written about in this blog related to the DITG.

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Here’s an interesting story about His Holiness the Dalai Lama first coming to Dharamsala, India. By one who knows it first-hand. Tenzin N. Tethong is President of The Dalai Lama Foundation. Sky (me) and Ward Mailliard had a discussion with Tenzin while the Project Happiness students awaited lunch.

The interview lasts approximately 7 minutes. Play it with QuickTime or VLC Media Player.

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We had several private meetings with individuals and groups, and tours of the Upper Tibetan Children’s Village, the Norbulingka Institute and the Men-Tsee-Khang Central Association of Traditional Tibetan Medicine, followed by joint meetings with TCRC and additional NGOs on March 7th thru 9th.

Dorji Tsering, who is head of the TCRC coordinated our visit. The three days of meetings were attended by about 25 participants each day. The secretary of the DIIR, Thubten Samphel, joined us on the first day. On this day we tried to focus on listening to statements of local IT issues and needs, without posing solutions. However, it was clear to us from the first day we arrived that “bandwidth” was a major factor limiting the growth of ICT within the local Tibetan exile community! On the second day we got into more solutions and specifics, and also had a meeting with Kalon Lobsang Nyandak whose new responsibilities include the DIIR. (Click the photo to the left to see a 4.2mb Quicktime movie!) We also parlayed with the local group to discuss how to organize for future work. On the third day we divided the group according to interests and talked and demo’d. In terms of demos, the group was most intrigued by Erik’s and Locke’s security demos.

Two groups were formed to take continuing action. The first is the local Dharamsala group consisting of representatives of all organizations and whose actions will be coordinated by TCRC. The second is the “Experts” working group, to be coordinated by Thubten Samdup.

The bandwidth issues – without adequate bandwidth, the TCRC and other CTA entities cannot participate in the modern information society. A Google search can take an hour. Getting your email can take two hours. Large downloads of video and audio are impossible. (The photo to the right shows a Wi-Fi high-gain antenna being used to provide initial Wi-Fi coverage for this part of Dharamsala.) Thus, these activities are prohibited or limited to specific individuals. When someone whose computer is not allowed Internet access needs to Google an answer to a question, they try to find an unused computer that does have access, or they ask some for the use of their computer, and then begin the tedious process. The Google search takes a fraction of a second, but the downloading of the results page can take minutes. Entities which do require broadband may get Isdn (64k) lines of their own – Voice of Tibet (mp3 “radio”) is an example. This omnipresent bandwidth problem means that local workers have little, if any, access to outside resources that are routinely available online in much of the Western world. Among the resources they lack are collaboration with outside experts. There are several possible ways the bandwidth problem may be solved, including private solutions and also the promised arrival of DSL in this part of India in the near future.

Short term solutions – by pairing up our “outside” resources with Dharamsala’s internal resources, we will gain further precision in identifying problems, and will suggest ways of solving problems or will point to resources and find ways of getting them to the local groups. We expect to invite additional individuals or groups to visit Dharamsala to instruct and train locals on specific technologies or procedures. The goal is to build self-reliance in the local community.

This model should be applicable to other communities that are off-network. We intend to document what we’re doing and to offer models that can be used by others in similar situations.

[Updated categories, and links to photos 2007-08-14]

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