By Elke Porter | WBN News Vancouver | October 30, 2025
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Vancouver, BC – The Museum of Anthropology at UBC opens a powerful window into Tibetan culture and identity this November with Entangled Territories: Tibet Through Images, a world premiere exhibition running from November 20, 2025, to March 29, 2026. This bilingual showcase offers something rarely seen in Canadian museums: Tibet’s story told through the eyes of those who carry its legacy forward—the Tibetan diaspora.
Canada hosts one of the world’s largest Tibetan communities outside Asia, with Vancouver’s Tibetan population dating back to 1971. Yet for these Tibetan-Canadians, their ancestral homeland remains politically contested, under Chinese occupation since 1951. Entangled Territories explores this complex reality, examining how young Tibetan-Canadians navigate a dual existence—preserving cultural traditions through language, dance, and spiritual practices while reshaping their identity more than seven decades removed from Tibet itself.
The exhibition masterfully weaves historical and contemporary perspectives. From MOA’s archives come remarkable materials from the Eric Parker Collection, featuring photographs and correspondence from the British military officer who trained Tibet’s modern army from 1918 to 1921. Parker’s letters include exchanges with the 13th Dalai Lama, offering glimpses of pre-occupation Tibet. Complementing these are exquisite textiles from the Yuthok Collection—robes and blankets from descendants of the 10th Dalai Lama’s family, donated to preserve awareness of Tibetan heritage.
Contemporary Tibetan-Canadian artists bring urgent, personal dimensions to this historical foundation. Toronto-based Lodoe Laura, of Tibetan and British-Canadian heritage, presents deeply moving work including 169—hand-printed portraits of individuals who self-immolated protesting conditions in occupied Tibet, created using charcoal ink from Tibetan Buddhist ritual incense. Her photographic series Pala and Pala and Me capture intimate moments with her father in Nepal, including views into Tibet from across the border.
Vancouver filmmaker Kunsang Kyirong contributes two films that interrogate how Tibet has been imagined and represented. Letters from Tibet juxtaposes Parker’s archival photographs with scenes from the 1937 Hollywood film Lost Horizon, which romanticized Tibet as a mystical utopia. Her animation Yarlung draws on her childhood experiences visiting Tibetan refugee settlements in India.
The exhibition launches with a free opening celebration on November 20 from 6-9 PM, featuring traditional dance by students from the Lodoe Kunphel Tibetan Language School. In bringing together historical artifacts and contemporary artistic voices, Entangled Territories offers visitors a nuanced understanding of what it means to be Tibetan today—simultaneously rooted in ancient culture and reshaped by displacement, memory, and resilience. https://moa.ubc.ca/exhibition/entangled-territories/
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