Lobsang Wangyal
Lobsang Wangyal བློ་བཟང་། དབང་རྒྱལ། | |
|---|---|
 Lobsang Wangyal, 2006 | |
| Born | 1970 |
| Education | B.A. 1995, Shimla, Himachal Pradesh |
| Occupation(s) | Writer, Photo journalist, Events producer, Web producer |
| Website | lobsangwangyal |
Lobsang Wangyal ( བློ་བཟང་། དབང་རྒྱལ། ; born 1970) is a photojournalist and event 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 occupation of their country in 1959.
He was graduated from Central School for Tibetans, Mussoorie, and attended college in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, for his B.A. 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 and the Tibetan Photo Project, in various news stories at TibetSun.com and Tibet.net, 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.
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.[6]
He has also produced one-time events such as a film festival in Hawaii, US, in January 2007.[7] 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 upcoming Sing for Tibet event to be held in New York and Brussels on 10 October 2010, and Tibet Fashion Week in 2011.[2]
All productions are mostly funded by himself through his own works.
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.[8]
He is in addition a dancer, graphics designer, and website producer.[3]
References
- ^ a b c 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
- ^ a b c http://lobsangwangyal.com/productions/
- ^ a b c d http://www.lobsangwangyal.com/about/
- ^ http://www.tibetanjournalists.org/about/background.html , http://www.tibetanjournalists.org/about/members_directory.html
- ^ 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
- ^ http://freespiritfestival.com/awards/
- ^ 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."
- ^ http://www.dreaminglhasa.com/crew/credit.html
External links
- lobsangwangyal.com, his personal website