NPR: The Gaddi People of Dharamsala

Part one of the four-part radio series on NPR Day to Day airs today: "The Gaddi People of Dharamsala." Archived audio, multimedia slideshow, and songs from Gaddi musicians are all here at npr.org: Link, and here's a direct link to the photos (Flash, includes music of Gaddi composer and musician Sunil Rana).

The nomadic Hindu tribe has dwelled in the shadows of the Himalayas in Northern India for countless generations. Before Tibetan refugees and Western tourists arrived, they were the dominant ethnic group -- but as development looms, their culture is changing.

Top image: (c) 2006, Xeni Jardin. En route to a ceremony honoring the local goddess of slate, a Gaddi woman in ceremonial dress paints holy symbols on rocks that line the path to Kanyara shrine.

Bottom: recording Gaddi musicians Sunil Rana (right, in blue shirt) and Hans Chohan (left, in white shirt), at Sunil's family home in the village of Satobri, near Dharamshala in Northern India.

Technorati Tags: Dharamshala, Gaddi, India, radio, television

NPR: "Hacking the Himalayas" radio series begins

The four-part NPR Day to Day series "Hacking the Himalayas" begins today, airing nationwide and online. Here's the online "hub," with photos, sound, and lots of multimedia extras: Link.

Image (c) Xeni Jardin / 2006: Gaddi women singing prayers as they climb a rocky path to the shrine in Kanyara village, Himachal Pradesh, India.

Technorati Tags: Dharamshala, Gaddi, India, television

Tigga, please: wannabe gangsta-ism among Tibetan refugee teens

One of the photographs I *wish* I'd shot in Dharamsala's "Little Lhasa" but didn't was a cafe popular with young Tibetan schoolkids, called "G-UNIT." Huh? Hip-hop in the Himalayas? When I saw that sign hanging on a windy, rocky, mountain road, I just about fell out of the rickshaw. I knew there had to be a story behind it.

Tenzin Wangyal, a contributor to the Tibetan community news site Phayul.net who grew up in Dharamsala, has posted a terrific essay on this odd culture clash.

It reads like something out of the Onion:

Why do young Tibetans dress up in hip-hop attire, and try to talk and act like gangsta rappers? Are these young Tibetans keepin’ it real or are they just wannabes? (...) Though I am not an expert and certainly don't have any insider information, let me throw in my “50 Cent”.

This seems to be the preferred dress code for most young Tibetans living in the US, Canada, even Europe and increasingly in India and Nepal: a loose baggy jeans hanging precariously below the waistline; an oversize t-shirt; a baseball cap worn backward or sideways; and, a pair of boots or sneakers at least 2 sizes bigger. Add the defiant swagger, some hand-signs and some expressions like Nawmsayin’? (Translation: you know what I'm saying?), and lo and behold, we have ourselves a Tibetan wannabe nigga, in short a tigga. No one should take offense at this epithet because I have seen the same young Tibetans refer to themselves by that name and regularly greet each other with a “Wassup, nigga?”

Before putting the fashion choice of our tigga brethren under the microscope, I will acknowledge that our youngsters are probably drawn to hip-hop fashion for the same reasons that millions of other young people throughout the world emulate this nonconformist, casual and rebellious counter-culture.

Link to the full text of Tenzin's essay.

Technorati Tags: Dharamshala, Tibet

Tibetan government in exile launches online TV site

On August 3, the Central Tibetan Administration -- that's the official name for the Tibetan government in exile -- launched a new internet video site called Tibet Online. They're offering several Tibetan-language streams, including TibetTV News (screengrab at left).

I'm pretty sure they're producing all of this in Dharamshala, India, known to many as "Little Tibet." This is the small town at the foot of the Himalayas where the Dalai Lama and the CTA are based.

Teachings and public announcements from the Dalai Lama will also be broadcast at Tibet Online. The site offers video in multiple, DRM-free, no-charge formats. Early reports indicate the streams are accessible from various points inside Tibet, but that seems likely short-lived due to internet censorship practices of Chinese authorities. Link to the internet TV site, and here is an announcement by the prime minister, or Kalon Tripa, of the CTA. (Thanks, oxblood ruffin, and Om, who blogged about it here.)

I recently spent a month in "Little Tibet" and Tibet, PRC, working on a series of stories about how the internet is changing life for Tibetans. Radio stories will air on the NPR News program "Day to Day" this week, related reports will be released at Wired News, and I'll be joining CNN International host Kristie LuStout to share video from the trip there.

Technorati Tags: Dharamshala, India, video, television, Tibet

About this blog

In 2006, I traveled to India, China, and Tibet to explore how technology is changing the lives of Tibetans -- both inside and outside of their homeland. I traveled with my father, Dr. M. Quetzalkanbalam, who is researching indigenous culture in different parts of the world. He'd been planning a trip to Tibet this year for some time, so when I heard about a group of hackers and engineers building a wireless mesh network in Dharamshala, India, the home-in-exile of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government -- everything clicked. We decided to go together. Along the way, both of us learned and witnessed more than we could ever have imagined before we left.

On this blog, I'll be posting links to each of the radio, print, video, and online reports I'm filing from the trip. I'll continue following these stories here after the reports from my trip have all aired. But I'll also post the scribbled footnotes that didn't make it in. You'll see video, snapshots, hear audio snippets, video, and branches of these stories you just can't cram into 7 on-air minutes. The little daily details that comprise life on the road -- including HOWTO production info, and reviews of the production hardware and software I tested out on the road from Apple, Canon, and other tech gear providers.

Image: (c) 2006, Xeni Jardin. Long Life Buddha, presented with a feast of peaches, inside Tsepak Lakhang temple in Lhasa, Tibet. This photo and all others along the trip were shot with a Canon 5D, and a 24-70 2.8L USM, and the 70-300 4.5-5.6 DO IS USM lenses. Images were later processed with Apple's terrific photo content management app, Aperture. More on that later!

Technorati Tags: India, Tibet