Taiwan Week: TSUNMA TSUNMA: MY SUMMER WITH THE FEMALE MONASTICS OF THE HIMALAYA

TSUNMA TSUNMA: MY SUMMER WITH THE FEMALE MONASTICS OF THE HIMALAYA

Taiwan | 2018 | 1h 10m

Mandarin, Tibetan (with English subtitles)

‍

U.S. Premiere

Synopsis:

Tsunma, an honorific term connoting “noble, delicate, and pure”, refers to the Tibetan Buddhist Nuns of the Himalayan Region who have been largely dismissed or forgotten by the traditions they follow and the societies they’ve served. Taiwanese photographer Lin Li-Fang undertook a solo journey up 4,270 meters into the Himalayan Plateau and lived for an entire summer with some of these nuns and recorded life in the unforgiving environment dubbed “The Roof of the World”. There, Li-Fang captured a life devoted to hope and faith and a people possessing a unique kind of tolerance, humility, and perseverance. This is a story of the Nuns of the Himalayas, of seeing one’s life through theirs, that is, a life lived in faith and with the spark of a summer eternal.

About the director:

Lin graduated from CTI College in Photography in France in 1993, and also the National Taiwan University of Arts Graduate School of Applied Media Arts in 2002. In 1999 she began documenting the life and work of Tibetan Buddhist Monks in India. She was awarded Taiwan's Golden Tripod Award and the Johnny Walker’s Keep Walking Prize.

‍