How a new play gives a fresh perspective to the Tibet-China conflict

UK-based theatre director Debbie Hannan presented Pah-La at the Royal Court in London in 2019 and drew international attention to it. Two other theatre directors — Lhakpa Tsering from Dharamshala-based Tibet Theatre group and Harry Fuhrmann from Germany — have now adapted the play in Tibetan and, with a Tibetan cast, and are taking the story of the community’s struggle across the country. The name of the new production is Pah-Lak for greater allegiance to the Tibetan pronunciation. It has been made with cooperation with the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts (TIPA) in Mcleodganj. Pah-Lak opened at TIPA in October and, after shows in several cities, will play in Mumbai’s Prithvi Theatre on November 9.

A scene from the play Pah-La

“I found the script unique because it is not a Tibet-versus China propaganda play that provokes youngsters of one country against another. The message is of peace as we try to bring true stories about the Tibetan struggle to the people through theatre. There are wars being fought around the world. As a small country struggling with a big one, we know that the solution lies in compassion because war leads to more destruction and violence,” says Lhakpa, who was born in a village in Tibet near the Arunachal Pradesh border and came to India to escape his abusive stepfather in the early 1990s.

Lhakpa grew up in the Tibetan Children’s Village in Dharamshala, and studied political science. In 2006, when former Chinese premier Hu Jintao was visiting India, Lhakpa turned the focus on Tibet by setting himself on fire in Mumbai. He spent eight months in hospital. “The story of Deshar is linked to the lives of millions of Tibetans like me,” he says. As part of Tibet Theatre, Lhakpa has been trying to preserve Tibetan culture by creating plays on their life and society.

Lhakpa Tsering

It was Fuhrmann, a regular visitor to Dharamshala, where he has worked with TIPA and conducted workshops, who handled the major details of making the play, such as auditioning and training actors. Before this, he had made Deportation Cast in Germany, about a refugee family that is being sent back to Kosovo after living more than 10 years in Germany. With Pah-Lak, Fuhrmann was motivated to make people think about “the costs of living in a capitalist world that is neither democratic nor humane”.

Fuhrmann first met Tibetans in India in 2005-2006 when he and a group of 15 other artists had let out their apartments in Europe and were on the road in India and Nepal, performing on the streets and in villages and towns on the Himalayas. “After an acrobatic workshop with Tibetan children, I asked what they wanted to do as adults. Each one said that they wanted to give back to the community. Their replies touched my heart because I don’t know if a lot of European children would say this,” says Fuhrmann, who is in his fifties.

Harry Fuhrmann

Pah-Lak also became an opportunity for the directors to inform a new generation of Tibetans and Indians about Tibet. “Many Tibetan children have little idea of their past and their rich culture,” says Fuhrmann. “Even among Indians, most people don’t know about Tibet although we have been here for 63 years as refugees. They will always say we are Nepali. Sometimes, we are Chinese,” adds Lhakpa.

The set features a large Tibetan gate, symbolic of a piece of the Tibetan culture that is being destroyed inside Tibet. There are few props but the play incorporates a lot of Tibetan music with traditional instruments. The attempt has been to make a strong, contemporary story about an old civilisation. “It was my dream to do a powerful play about Tibet that would travel the world. Sometimes, dreams take a long time to come true. But, if you don’t stop dreaming, they come true at some point,” says Fuhrmann.