Opera as Lifeforce - Norbu Tsering, tibetan operamaster in exile

SYNOPS - OPERA AS LIFE FORCE
- Norbu Tsering, Tibetan opera master in exile

Opera is the heart of Tibetan culture
H.H. Dalai Lama

Opera as life force is a story about an unknown opera culture, the Tibetan one, and about art's ability to heal and develop in exile. 62 minutes.
In 1959, Tibet was occupied. H.H Dalai Lama was forced to flee incognito with government and family members across the inaccessible Himalayan mountain range. Thousands of
people followed, also many opera artists. What happened?
I hear there is a Tibetan exile opera high up in the Himalayan mountain range, in India. I decide to go there to meet the opera-theatre collective with over 160 members. It is both a
school and an opera. Meet the aging opera master Norbu Tsering and the young artist Sonam Phuntsok, and many, many other artists. The latter have never been to Tibet.

Incredibly, after only six months in exile, the Dalai Lama had begun to rebuild the Tibetan Opera, the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts, also known as TIPA. Why? "Culture develops
empathy and strengthens self-esteem," he replies. The Dalai Lama becomes the opera's patron.
But it is through the aging opera master Norbu Tsering that we get to follow developments in exile - as well as a series of conversations with H.H. Dalai Lama, we are approaching both an unknown but also universal landscape, interspersed with archival footage from inside Tibet

When I arrive, the time has come, according to Tibetan tradition, to choose a replacement. The choice has fallen on the young, talented artist Sonam Phuntsok, who hesitates. Unsure if
he will be able to cope with the great responsibility, and so he carries other dreams, too.
H.H. The Dalai Lama opens up that new subjects should also be included in the 600-year-old
Tibetan opera canon. It is important to both preserve and renew.
Gunilla Palo Nordlund
Director Biography - Gunilla Palo Nordlund

CV Gunilla Nordlund, born 1950-09-24
Director, educator, filmmaker, artistic director, please see more
on my website: www. gunillapalonordlund.se

Worked with Tibetan artists since 1995 in different various rounds (as performance, concerts, films, lectures) in Sweden, Norway, India and Tibet.

Opera as lifeforce has been screening at:

European, Cultural Midnight Festival, Korpilombolo 2025
Tibet House, Stockholm, 2025
Faluns Existeniella Film festival, 2025
Göteborgs Buddhist Center, 2025
Balinali, The International Film Festival in Bali, 2025
Zita, cinema in Stockholm, 2025 during the celebrating H. H. the Dalai Lama 90 years birthday ans The Year of Compassion
DIFF, Dharamsala International Film festival, screen at Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts (TIPA) 2025