American’s gift of love revives memory of ancient Tibet kingdom

KATHMANDU - An amazing gift of love by an American artist will revive the memory of an ancient Tibetan kingdom more than 50 years after the annexation of Tibet by China and a drive by Beijing to clamp down on Tibet’s unique Buddhist art, culture and tradition.

A nearly five-year labour of love by Jane Lillian Vance, who teaches “the creative process” at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Virginia, climaxes in Nepal with a documentary recording the culture of Mustang, which was once part of an ancient and culturally rich Tibetan kingdom.

Now the northernmost district in Nepal, Mustang still retains its uniqueness due to geo-political changes that saw it become part of Nepal and escape Chinese onslaughts.

The documentary, “A gift for the village”, tells of the unusual and moving association between Vance and Tsampa Ngawang, a Tibetan lama as well as an amchi, a practitioner of the now-disappearing science of Tibetan medicine based on Himalayan herbs.

Vance, who met Ngawang during her visit to Nepal in 2001, was asked by him to do his portrait.

It was no ordinary portrait but a traditional painting that would become part of Mustang’s cultural history.

It was done in the thangka style, the highly stylised Tibetan spiritual painting that mostly depicts gods and goddesses, the Buddha and religious leaders.

Vance says she became the first western painter - and a woman - to be allowed the privilege of painting a traditional portrait of a Tibetan amchi.

In 2007, three years after she finished the intricate, seven-foot portrait done on special cloth, she travelled to Mustang to deliver her gift, which, according to Tibetan traditions, became a gift for the entire village as well.

The journey was captured on camera and became the foundation of the documentary, which premiered in Kathmandu Monday.

It will be followed by two more screenings in the capital after which Vance plans to show it in different cities in Nepal and the US.

She will then set out on a 155-mile trek over 16,000 feet mountains to reach the village in Upper Mustang where the documentary will be screened in monasteries. The journey alone will take 12 days.

“A gift for the village” will have a special place in the heart of the Tibetan community as it has been blessed by the Dalai Lama.

Vance hopes it will be also viewed by the king of Mustang, Jigme Parwar Bista.

Though Nepal abolished monarchy in 2008 and subsequently withdrew the royal titles given to the former rulers of principalities, the former Mustang king is still revered by his people as their ruler.

Tom Landon, who co-produced the documentary with Vance’s friend Jenna Swann, told the Buddhist Channel why they chose to make it: “To tell the story of the connection between the Blue Ridge (in the US) and the Himalayas and, really, just to tell a good story that will make people curious about these wonderful people and the lives they lead.”

The documentary, which the makers hope will act as a bridge between the west and the east, is also associated with the exorcising of two tragedies.

The team is carrying to Jomsom a load of precious supplies: reading glasses, collapsible water carriers, solar and crank flashlights, retractable kitchen knives, sewing kits, birthing kits, and more.

These have been gifted by a Virginia family whose daughter Morgan Harrington, a student of Vance at the university, went missing in October 2009 while attending a concert.

The documentary also remembers the 33 people who were killed in the worst-ever school shooting incident in the US.

On April 16, 2007, a Virginia Tech student killed 32 people and then shot himself.

A sequence from “A gift for the village” shows a moving memorial held in Jomsom to commemorate the dead and wounded from that tragic day.

(Sudeshna Sarkar can be contacted at sudeshna.s@ians.in)