Film Screening and Discussion: “Shielding the Mountains”

Why have Tibetans become environmentalists? How do Tibetan conceptions of nature differ from Western ones? What is the relationship between culture and nature? This 20-minute film, produced by Emily Yeh in 2010, explores these questions through a narrative that features Rinchen Samdrup, the leader of a Tibetan community environmental association in a remote area of Chamdo in the eastern Tibet Autonomous Region, and Tashi Dorje, a leading Tibetan environmentalist in China who first became interested in conservation after the death of a good friend at the hands of Tibetan antelope poachers. The film sheds light on the coalitions of Chinese and Tibetan environmentalists that make Rinchen’s work possible, and the religious, cultural, and personal motivations for Tibetan environmentalism.