Fieldwork With The Tibetan Community
SubjectPortrait of
Kunga Choekyi
(Tibetan)
PhotographerPhotographed by
Rebecca Joseph
Date1992
MediumPhotography
ClassificationsGraphics
Credit LineConnecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections
CopyrightCopyright Held By Rebecca Joseph
Object number2015.196.233.1-.6
DescriptionPhotographs taken by CCHAP Director Rebecca Joseph (1991-1993) during fieldwork with the Tibetan community.
2015.196.233.1: Photograph showing Kalsang Choedak (K.C.) using a machine to make chizi, Tibetan noodles. This photograph, taken by the first CCHAP Director Rebecca Joseph at KC's home, is included in the catalogue for "Auspicious Signs: Tibetan Arts In New England."
2015.196.233.2: Photograph showing Kalsang Choedak (K.C.) transferring noodles from pan to table
2015.196.233.3: Photograph showing Kalsang Choedak (K.C.) using machine to make chizi
2015.196.233.4: Photo showing a jar with fermenting rice for the Tibetan drink chang.
2015.196.233.5: Photo showing Kalsang Choedak (K.C.) feeding dough into machine to make noodles
2015.196.233.6: Photo showing Kalsang Choedak (K.C.) holding chizi in his hand
NotesSubject Note: Many Tibetans in Connecticut continue their food traditions, such as making flat egg noodles, chizi, and chang, an alcoholic drink made from fermented rice (as here) or barley or millet, for the Losar New Year celebration. Kalsang Choedak and his family were among the three families that lived in Torrington in the early to late 1990s and early 2000s, working at a factory in town. CCHAP conducted fieldwork with this community in Torrington, later involving them in the ""Auspicious Signs: Tibetan Arts in New England" exhibit project.2015.196.233.1: Photograph showing Kalsang Choedak (K.C.) using a machine to make chizi, Tibetan noodles. This photograph, taken by the first CCHAP Director Rebecca Joseph at KC's home, is included in the catalogue for "Auspicious Signs: Tibetan Arts In New England."
2015.196.233.2: Photograph showing Kalsang Choedak (K.C.) transferring noodles from pan to table
2015.196.233.3: Photograph showing Kalsang Choedak (K.C.) using machine to make chizi
2015.196.233.4: Photo showing a jar with fermenting rice for the Tibetan drink chang.
2015.196.233.5: Photo showing Kalsang Choedak (K.C.) feeding dough into machine to make noodles
2015.196.233.6: Photo showing Kalsang Choedak (K.C.) holding chizi in his hand
Subject Note: Torrington was home to three Tibetan families in the 1990s and early 2000s, where they worked at the Brunswick Golf Company factory (now closed). Artist Kalsang Jorden lived on Chestnut St. in the upstairs flat, and the family of Kalsang Choedak lived downstairs. Tsering Yangzom lived in an apartment on Hotchkiss Place before her family came over from India under family re-unification, then they bought a house on Evans St. where her husband Damdul Lama still lives in 2023. Damdul has donated one of Tsering Yangzom’s belts and a bag they made from one of her weavings to the CCHAP collection.
Subject Note: Since the Tibetan Resettlement Project brought 21 Tibetans from India to live in Connecticut in 1992, the state has become home to one of the fastest growing Tibetan communities in the U.S. Several Connecticut Tibetans are traditional artists of great skill who are deeply committed to expressing and passing on Tibetan culture. The story of the Tibetan community in Connecticut shows resilience and commitment to making a home in a new world. These first arrivals were sponsored to live in Old Saybrook, and they quickly found housing, jobs, and a welcome there. Many of them still had spouses, parents, and children back in India and Nepal so they applied for family reunification visas which often took years. The community has thrived and grown rapidly, choosing to remain in this part of the state. Recently the availability of jobs especially in the Asian gaming sections of Connecticut’s two casinos has encouraged many new Tibetan arrivals to settle in Norwich, bringing the community’s population up to about 500. Tibetans gather regularly for community social and ceremonial celebrations in Norwich and Old Saybrook, and they work tirelessly to educate others about the difficult situation faced by Tibetans in Tibet as they fight to protect their centuries-old culture that is threatened by a dominant political and social Chinese presence.
The Tibetan Association of Connecticut was formed in the early 1990s by the first Tibetans to settle in Connecticut, and it is active in bringing the state’s Tibetans together for social, cultural, educational, and spiritual events. “We have a thriving Tibetan community in State of Connecticut and this organization allows us to share common experiences of modern life in addition to keeping alive a strong sense of ancestral pride. TACT is dedicated to preserve, promote and flourish Tibetan culture for upcoming generations.”
Many of the community’s excellent traditional artists continue a wide variety of art forms as a way to sustain their language and culture and pass their heritage on to their children. Music and dance, featuring flute player Lakedhen Shingsur and dancers both young and old, are part of every Tibetan gathering especially Losar (New Year) and the Dalai Lama's birthday celebration in July. Dadon, a leading singer and composer of popular music in Tibet, was very active in performing in Connecticut and for several large Tibet benefit concerts in New York City. Yeshi Dorjee, a Buddhist monk, lives in Old Saybrook where he offers spiritual support for the community’s ceremonies and teachings. A multi-talented artist, Yeshi creates sand mandalas, butter sculptures, religious paintings, book illustrations, and is a storyteller. Jampa Tsondue paints thangkas, religious images of deities and Buddhist teachings, and has taught his daughter this process. Carpet weavers Tentso Sichoe and Kunga Choekyi participated in CCHAP’s Apprenticeship Program to share and teach their specialized craft and produce new carpets on a loom donated by weaver Tsultim Lama. Tibetan families use these folk arts every day in their homes, especially in the rooms devoted to their Buddhist spiritual practice. Many of these artists as well as other Tibetans from New York and New England participate in TibetFest, an annual gathering in Litchfield County that began in 2005.
Subject Note: "Auspicious Signs: Tibetan Arts in New England" was an exhibit project developed by the Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program (CCHAP) at the Institute for Community Research in Hartford in 1996. The exhibit opening and a festival of Tibetan arts and music served as the major public events of an eighteen-month research and programming project conducted by CCHAP in partnership with the Tibetans. The project celebrated the Tibetan community's preservation and practice of their traditions in America.
Since the Tibetan Resettlement Project brought twenty-one Tibetans to live in Connecticut, the state has become home to one of the fastest growing Tibetan communities in the United States. Several Connecticut Tibetans are traditional artists of great skill who are deeply committed to expressing and passing on Tibetan culture. Members of the Tibetan community are also dedicated to educating others about the difficult history and circumstances of the Chinese occupation of Tibet.
The collaborative project team consisted of three Tibetan project assistants, exhibit designer Sarah Buie, the Tibetan Cultural Center of Connecticut, artist Sonam Lama who was at the time Vice President of the Massachusetts Tibetan Association, and curator/folklorist Lynne Williamson, then director of CCHAP. The interdisciplinary nature of the team served to broaden the project's outreach to regional Tibetan communities as well as to incorporate a rich variety of expertise and perspectives.
The project team produced an exhibit displaying Tibetan religious art as well as everyday traditional arts, a day-long festival featuring artists, performers, demonstrations, and discussions, and an illustrated catalogue. Artists Jampa Tsondue, Ngawang Choedar, and Tsering Yangzom were featured in a video documenting their artistic process.
Funders included the Lila Wallace Readers Digest Community Folklife Program administered by the Fund for Folk Culture and underwritten by the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund; the National Endowment for the Arts Folk and Traditional Arts Program, the Connecticut Commission on the Arts, the Connecticut Humanities Council and the Institute for Community Research.
To mark the exhibit opening, the Tibetan community held a festival attended by over three hundred people, including Tibetans from all over the region. Four music and dance groups performed outside, while in the exhibit gallery three Tibetan artists demonstrated weaving, woodcarving, and thangka painting. The event also featured a bazaar, a common Tibetan cultural activity. Many Tibetans are keen traders, maintaining links to Dharamsala, India, and Nepal through import of goods to the U.S. and sale through small shops here. Six Tibetan vendors from all over the region set up tables during the festival with a great variety of Tibetan books and crafts. Lakedhen and five other community members had risen at dawn to prepare food, which they sold during the day. Several speakers described the background of the project, the story of the Connecticut community, the current political situation in Tibet, and the history and character of Tibetan culture. Cholsum dance group from New York City and musicians Lakedhen and Thupten performed and accompanied the dancers. Singer DaDon and her group played for over an hour.
Additional materials exist in the CCHAP archive for this community.
Cataloging Note: This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services MA-245929-OMS-20.
Status
Not on view
