Tibetans condemn Kathmandu film festival for supporting China’s ‘cultural erasure’

Nepalese artists, Tibetan film makers and Tibet supporters came together to protest the decision by the Kathmandu International Mountain Film Festival’s decision last month to programme a series of Chinese propaganda films under the branding of ‘Xizang panorama’, using China’s colonial name for Tibet. Free Tibet’s research partner Tibet Watch joined well known film makers including Tenzing Sonam, Ritu Sarin, Shenpenn Khymsar and Ngawang Choephel, and former political prisoners Dhondup Wangchen and Golog Jigme in saying that the choice demonstrates how easily respected cultural institutions can become participants in China’s efforts of cultural erasure.

Full editorial follows:

As Tibetan film makers and creatives, we are deeply troubled by the Kathmandu International Mountain Film Festival’s (KIMFF) decision to program a ‘Xizang Panorama’ section screening Chinese propaganda films. This choice represents more than a curatorial misstep — it signals how easily respected cultural institutions can become participants in China’s efforts of cultural erasure.

For over a decade, KIMFF has distinguished itself as a vital platform for mountain voices. The festival’s commitment to exploring “issues ranging from the political determination of mountain communities, to the emergence of identity politics” has made it a beacon for authentic storytelling from some of the world’s most contested landscapes. This year’s theme, “Fractured Voices, Framing Narratives,” promised continued dedication to amplifying those perspectives.

Instead, the festival handed narrative control to the very forces seeking to silence those voices.

The term “Xizang” is not merely a geographic designation—it represents China’s calculated campaign to replace “Tibet” in international discourse, seeking to erase a distinct and vibrant artistic, literary and spiritual identity. Xi Jinping has launched a new phase of coercive assimilation in Tibet representing an escalated level of threat to Tibet’s linguistic, cultural and religious identity that far surpasses previous political campaigns and policy measures.

We have personal experience of this most difficult and dangerous period of Tibet’s two-millennia history. In 2008, two of us made a documentary called Leaving Fear Behind featuring ordinary Tibetans speaking openly about their lives under Chinese occupation. The film was authentic and truthful. Nomads wept as they spoke about how their land had been taken away. Elderly Tibetans spoke about the pain of the absence of their religious leader, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, from his homeland.

We hid our cameras and smuggled out footage. But we paid a high price with our lives. Dhondup Wangchen was arrested, tortured, and spent six years in prison. Golog Jigme was arrested, tortured, and forced to flee for his life. We both carry the scars — on our bodies, in our minds, and in our families.

The films being shown in this program are not harmless stories. They are propaganda. They tell the world that Tibet is free and happy under Chinese rule, while in reality, our people live in a dystopian police state, our language is being eradicated, and our children are being separated from their families and forced to study ‘Xi Jinping thought’ in boarding schools. Our fellow artists, writers and musicians can be tortured and imprisoned simply for their words.

Films like ‘Life of Buda’ frame China’s 1950 military intervention as ‘peaceful liberation’, a characterization that stands in stark opposition to the real history of China’s invasion of an independent country.

This is particularly painful given Nepal’s centuries-old cultural and historic ties with Tibet—bonds that run deeper than political expedience.

The ancient trade routes that wound through high mountain passes carried more than goods—they transported ideas, artistic traditions, and religious practices that would fundamentally shape both civilizations. Nepalese artisans crafted the golden roofs of Tibetan monasteries, while Tibetan spiritual traditions took root in Nepal’s mountain valleys, creating architectural and cultural landscapes that remain virtually indistinguishable across political borders.

As the birthplace of the Buddha, Nepal holds a special responsibility as a guardian of a spiritual heritage that transcends national boundaries. For centuries, Nepalese and Tibetan monasteries maintained active exchanges, with scholars and pilgrims moving freely across the Himalayas in pursuit of knowledge. The great monasteries of Boudhanath and Swayambhunath became centers not just of Nepalese Buddhism, but of a shared Himalayan tradition that acknowledged no political borders.

These connections were never merely ceremonial. Tibetan Buddhism profoundly shaped Nepalese high-altitude communities. The distinctive white-washed monasteries perched on Himalayan ridges, the prayer flags fluttering across mountain passes, the intricate thangka paintings found in both Nepalese and Tibetan gompa—these represent a shared cultural DNA that developed over centuries.

Today, under pressure from China’s expanding influence, the space for authentic Tibetan cultural representation has contracted.

When KIMFF programs Chinese state-sponsored narratives about Tibet, it participates—however unwittingly—in this cultural diminishment. The festival transforms from a platform challenging dominant narratives into an amplifier of state propaganda, legitimizing efforts to rewrite Tibetan history through a Chinese lens.

This represents a fundamental betrayal of the festival’s stated mission. KIMFF can scarcely claim to showcase “fractured voices” or reclaim fragile narratives while accepting uncritically the framing imposed by Communist Party power.

KIMFF has a strong record in programming films from contested regions, involving consulting with affected communities, engaging diverse scholarly perspectives, and ensuring that curatorial choices align with stated commitments to cultural authenticity. Nepal should be proud of its heritage as the birthplace of the Buddha at Lumbini, and also as a vital global centre for Buddhist teachings – Tibetan religious masters attract people from all over the world to their monasteries in the Kathmandu valley.

We urge KIMFF, and anyone who loves film, truth and justice, to reconsider the so-called “Xizang Panorama”, and to deepen instead its commitment to authentic Tibetan voices and filmmakers and to commit to upholding authentic Tibetan voices and films.

Signed:
Dhondup Wangchen, filmmaker and former political prisoner
Golog Jigme, filmmaker and former political prisoner
Tenzing Sonam and Ritu Sarin, filmmakers and founders of the Dharamsala Film Festival
Tibet Film Festival
Filming for Tibet
Tenzin Tsetan Choklay, Tenzin Kalden, Sonam Tseten, Drung Films
Shenpenn Khymsar, Film Director
Ngawang Choephel, Guge Productions
Tsering Tashi Gyalthang
Tsering Wangmo
Tenzin Tsewang
Jamyang Phuntsok
Tenzin Choedon
Tenzin Choekyi, Tibet Watch