Documenting the unseen Tibet

Norah, who had quit her job as a public defender to make films, says that she loves narrating stories of people. “I was tired of fighting. Besides, I wanted to explore a wider world. I love documentaries as it can be used as a medium to make a difference. Also, it is a way to learn about different cultures and travel around the world exploring places, which I couldn’t have done otherwise,” says the filmmaker from the United States. It took a few years for Norah to complete the documentary, which portrays an unseen side of Tibetan culture. The film is about a young Tibetan-American girl, Tenzin Khecheo, and a journey that becomes a cultural awakening for her through an unlikely experience of a Tibetan beauty pageant.

Why did Norah choose a beauty pageant as the theme? “It is because the moment I learned that there was such a thing, I was fascinated. At first glance, it felt to me as a contradiction. The story of the Tibetan struggle, his Holiness the Dalai Lama, and spirituality of Tibetans have been more or less told in the popular media. But, what has not been told is the story of the contemporary Tibetan community in exile. I didn’t understand how these two co-existed. The more I researched, it became more interesting to me, especially the way it serves as a political platform,” explains Norah.

Norah started researching on it by reading articles on the Internet and other media. Later, she met the founder of Miss Tibet, who is in Dharamsala, the seat of the exiled Tibetan community. In 2006, Norah started filming. In the next year, she did a follow-up, and after that she took a small hiatus to complete another job. But, that only helped her. Realising her interest, a person from the Tibetan community in Minnesota, where Norah lives, introduced her to Tenzin who has actually participated in the pageant. Tenzin lives with her mother and siblings in the US and is studying in university to become a nurse.

“He said I needed to meet her. He called her, and later I met her. To my fortune, she was gracious enough to allow me to film her. We became very close through the process of filmmaking. Thus, her journey became the crux of the documentary, with some background shots I have taken from the pageant in the previous years,” says Norah. The documentary shows grooming sessions and different rounds in the pageant, including the controversial bikini round. And it has a surprising climax for the viewer.