Emphasis on Tibet - Access Asia Festival

Last Friday, I went to the Opening of the Access Asia Festival held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. This year, the organizers have decided to put the emphasis on Tibet and Tibetan culture.

For starters, there was a vernissage. Photographs of a Tibetan settlement in southern India entitled \"In the Shadow of Tibet: A Culture in Exile\" by Kiran Ambwani, a freelance photographer based in Montreal, were exhibited at La Maison de la culture du Plateau-Mont-Royal.

The 5-à-7 was followed by a special musical performance by the Tibetan singer, Kalsang Dolma. She sang three songs which had the effect to transport the auditors across the far-flung beautiful land of Tibet and its mystical spell. Afterward, I had the opportunity to interview this artist and she has a lot to reveal about her roots and its culture.

Kalsang Dolma told us that there is approximately 150 Tibans currently residing in Montreal. Ms. Dolma was born in a Tibetan community in Hansur, southern India and immigrated to Canada at the age of 11. She sat foot for the first time in Tibet at the age of 28, during which she was part of the documentary \"What Remains of Us\". Throughout the interview, I felt that she deeply loves Tibet, that where resides her roots and is deeply attached to it, although she has never lived there. Her father, who had fled Tibet, had never let her forget about her roots.

Biography
http://www3.nfb.ca/webextension/cequilrestedenous/bio.php