[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 71 (Friday, June 9, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E929]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   PHOTOGRAPHS OF SONAM ZOKSANG SEEK TO PRESERVE TIBETAN CULTURE AND 
                                IDENTITY

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. TOM LANTOS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, June 8, 2000

  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, just a few days ago in the Cannon Rotunda, 
we had the pleasure of viewing a magnificent exhibit of the photographs 
of Sonam Zoksang, a Tibetan photographer who has sought to use his 
photographic art and his considerable skill to preserve Tibetan culture 
and identity.
  Sonam Zoksang was born in the small Tibetan village of Kyirong, but 
his parents fled to India just a month after he was born. He made the 
first visit to the country of his birth in 1993 when he was 33 years 
old. As a result of that visit, he made it his goal to capture the 
devastation that his people have experienced on film for all the world 
to see. Since that first visit to Tibet in 1993, he has been compelled 
to return each year.
  Mr. Speaker, over the last seven years, Mr. Zoksang has seen the 
situation in Tibet worsen dramatically. The Chinese government has 
given incentives to non-Tibetan Han Chinese to encourage them to move 
into Tibet, and increasingly this has made Tibetans a minority in their 
own land. The growth in Chinese immigrants has increased Sonam's 
greatest concern for the future of Tibet--the children. He states that 
in ``addition to all the problems they have in common with Tibetans in 
general, there is little or no educational opportunity for them in 
Tibet. Every year hundreds of Tibetan children risk their lives to 
escape to India, crossing the Himalayas on foot in the frigid winter to 
taste the air of freedom.''
  In explaining his photographs, Sonam Zoksang said: ``I feel very 
strongly that many young Tibetans have no hope, no dreams, and no 
future to live for. No Tibetans seem to be truly happy with their 
situation, and moreover, they feel threatened with their very 
extinction.'' In an effort to preserve the culture of the Tibetan 
people, Sonam Zoksang has risked his life to document the changes 
taking place inside Tibet. The Chinese would refuse him a visa to enter 
the Country, so he has had to risk his life and his freedom in order to 
record through his photographs the traditional culture and the rapid 
and systematic way in which it is being destroyed.
  Mr. Speaker, I invite my colleagues to join me in paying tribute to 
Sonam Zoksang for his outstanding photographs and the great 
contribution which his work has made to preserve Tibetan culture and to 
strengthen the identity of the Tibetan people.

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