Asia Weekly

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Into thin air

When Lhamo Tso's filmmaker husband told her that their family would have to leave Tibet, she never once questioned his thinking, says Dinah Gardner. And she never questioned him when he said he was going back to Tibet - alone. But she did wonder if her husband, Dhondup Wangchen, would ever return. He was secretly involved in a film project documenting Tibetan attitudes about China's hosting of the Olympics. Dhondup interviewed anti-Chinese Tibetans on the mainland and sent footage to Switzerland to be edited. But weeks after the uprisings in March, he was detained and sent to Xining, the capital of Qinghai province. After escaping under the cover of darkness, Dhondup told his cousin, a fellow filmmaker, about the torture he had endured. His hands were "buzzing and numb" after being tied to a chair for four straight days. Now, the filmmaker's whereabouts are again unknown. Chinese officials deny arresting him, but his wife and friends believe he's in prison. Dhondup's footage was made into a 25-minute film that was screened for the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Dinah Gardner • South China Morning Post

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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