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Tibetan Community Celebration - Dalai Lama’s Birthday, 2016

PerformerPerformed by Penpa Tsering Tibetan, born 1963

Date2016 July 6

Mediumborn digital video

DimensionsDuration: 3 Minutes, 34 Seconds

ClassificationsGraphics

Credit LineConnecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections

DescriptionVideo showing a Tibetan community celebration in Norwich, Connecticut to commemorate the birthday of the Dalai Lama.

The attendees are singing a Tibetan patriotic song with Penpa Tsering.

Object number2015.196.286.5

CopyrightIn Copyright

NotesSubject 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.

Subject Note: At the 2015 and 2016 Dalai Lama’s Birthday Gathering, teaching artist Penpa Tsering and his apprentices performed to showcase their learning over two years in CCHAP's Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program. Additional videos and also images from the apprenticeship can be seen in 2015.196.253, 254, 255, 256, 277, 278, 279, and 280. In the video clips here, activities during parts of the celebration by members of the Tibetan community can be seen, including people placing katas (ceremonial cloths denoting honor) at the shrine with a picture of His Holiness the Dalai Lama; chanting; the attendees singing a Tibetan patriotic song with Penpa Tsering; some of the apprentices – including Ngawang Choegyal - singing a song they had learned; and performances by the children’s and women’s dance groups from the Tibetan community in Norwich.

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.

Subject Terms