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By Liu Jun (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-09-23 10:05

Gyangze, a fascinating but little known land in Tibet, offers a good setting for the documentary A Year in Tibet. Photos courtesy of Sun Shuyun

Lhakpa, a young man who supports his family by pulling a rickshaw, unloading trucks, painting houses and cleaning cesspools, was a tough nut to crack, found Sun Shuyun, an independent film maker. He was one of eight Tibetans Sun followed for a whole year for her documentary, A Year in Tibet.

"I'm not proud of being poor. Why should I allow you to laugh at me?" retorted Lhakpa when Sun first approached him in Gyangze, the third-largest town of the Tibet autonomous region, in the summer of 2006.

"Lhakpa occupies the bottommost rungs of society. Outsiders can hardly understand his struggles, bitterness and hopes. He has the strongest build of all our characters, but the most fragile heart," says Sun.

Even when he finally joined Sun's project, Lhakpa walked out constantly at imagined slights.

"I had to summon up 300 percent of my energy to think about how not to offend him. But he gave us the best story of all," Sun recalls.

Ozer, Lhakpa's 5-year-old nephew, fell into a coma caused by a congenital heart problem and doctors said he would need an operation that would cost an astronomical 120,000 yuan ($17,600).

Tibetans perform a traditional dance while wearing masks.

Lhakpa and his brothers frantically searched for Tibetan mastiff puppies as they can bring huge profits. But they got cheated and lost 700 yuan. At a construction site 700 km away from home, Lhakpa and his brothers were bullied and not paid their wages.

At the end of the shooting however, when Sun gathered everyone for a banquet, Lhakpa announced that he was soon to become a father.

"His daughter is the most beautiful baby I've seen. How life flows," Sun says.

The lives of Lhakpa and other Tibetans had audiences glued to their TV sets when Sun's 5-episode documentary was aired on BBC last March, just a week before the March 14 incident in Lhasa that drew the world's attention.

Tseten,a village shaman, cures a toothache.

Sun is gratified that the film and her book of the same title had been well received with most people, including critics.

"Throughout A Year in Tibet are experiences [like the sky burial] that intrigue Shuyun an enlightening look at one of the least known people on the planet," wrote the Observer.

BBC Worldwide has distributed the documentary in more than 50 countries and regions. Before her documentary and the book were launched in China this July, some netizens had already downloaded her documentary and even provided Chinese subtitles.

Jan Morris, a woman in her 50s who lives in Oxford, called Sun to donate money for Lhakpa's nephew to undergo the heart operation and get an education.

Three brothers sit with their shared wife, Yangdron.

"As a writer, I hope my works can dispel misunderstandings. Little did I expect that we could help save a life," says an emotional Sun.

Born in the 1960s in Harbin, Heilongjiang province, Sun has been living in Britain for 20 years. But Tibet has always drawn her. In Oxford, she learned Tibetan from her mentor Michael Aris, who was married to Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

The rapid changes in Tibet prompted Sun to record the disappearing traditions. Also, she wanted to know what common Tibetans really cared about.

While obtaining a film permit and finding suitable characters were daunting in themselves, gaining the trust of the locals was even more difficult. But respect and persistence finally helped the frail but strong-willed lady overcome all obstacles.

Without government funding, Sun and her Tibetan-dominated 10-member crew secured $800,000 through the British film production company, Seven Stones Media.

They found a traditional courtyard and the owner, the local neighborhood committee, surprisingly rented them the rooms. When the locals stopped by, fascinated by the cameras on site, they would talk about their troubles, and these became valuable clues.

Jianzang, a shrewd hotel owner, was equally hard to win over just like Lhakpa. His hotel is recommended by The Lonely Planet as "the best budget hotel in Gyangze" and provided Sun with lots of exciting information.

One amazing scene in the film shows Jianzang winning a lawsuit defending his Chinese friend. When he went on a pilgrimage to Nepal, Jianzang searched for the best chef to improve his service and demanded the date of manufacture of everything he wanted to buy.

"Jianzang is smart. His story shows that Tibetans are also benefiting from the opportunities created by economic development, although he wasn't very eager at first about our project," Sun says.

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