My name is Tsemdo, a Tibetan photographer based in Xining City, Amdo (Qinghai). I grew up in a farming village in Amdo. The village where I was born and brought up is consisted of nearly 100 families and approximately 450 residents. Although it is a farming village, agriculture is not the exclusive livelihoods to many families. Many families also owned sheep and my family was one of those who had a flock of sheep. Thus I grew up herding and working with my family on the farmlands.
Life has changed dramatically since then. Now only a few families in my village still keep sheep. And in the recent years some families stopped farming and have other means of livelihoods. This is a common phenomenon across the Tibetan plateau that the traditional way of living is dramatically changing due to globalization and sociopolitical environment that Tibetans live in. Being part of this change, I feel the urgency to document the process of changing and address issues and challenges faced by Tibetans while they are heading towards a future that is unclear.
My primary focus of documentation and storytelling is those who live in communities where indigenous people’s stories and voices are ignored, undervalued, and never known to the general public.
Over the past few yeas, I have been involving in a Tibetan participatory photography project called Plateau Photographers. I am now running the project and training young Tibetan college students in photography, and use photography as a way to document cultural elements on the Tibetan Plateau and tell people’s stories.
Contact me by sending an email to [email protected]
Life has changed dramatically since then. Now only a few families in my village still keep sheep. And in the recent years some families stopped farming and have other means of livelihoods. This is a common phenomenon across the Tibetan plateau that the traditional way of living is dramatically changing due to globalization and sociopolitical environment that Tibetans live in. Being part of this change, I feel the urgency to document the process of changing and address issues and challenges faced by Tibetans while they are heading towards a future that is unclear.
My primary focus of documentation and storytelling is those who live in communities where indigenous people’s stories and voices are ignored, undervalued, and never known to the general public.
Over the past few yeas, I have been involving in a Tibetan participatory photography project called Plateau Photographers. I am now running the project and training young Tibetan college students in photography, and use photography as a way to document cultural elements on the Tibetan Plateau and tell people’s stories.
Contact me by sending an email to [email protected]