Fate of the Lhapa
Fate of The Lhapa
Fate of the Lhapa is a feature-length documentary about the last three Tibetan shamans (lhapas) living in a Tibetan refugee camp in Nepal. These shamans are really concerned about their endangered traditions.They fear there might be no descendants to carry on their healing practices and traditional treatments.The lhapas requested their stories to be filmed. They wish to keep a historical record of the knowledge, rituals and the traditional treatments that consist of their traditions and culture . They also mentioned their nomadic traditions, shamanic calling,the ways they deal with diseases, and their fight from Tibet during the Chinese occupation in the late 1950s.This is a touching portrayal of life in exile in a refugee camp in Nepal.
Directors
Sarah Sifers
Sarah C. Sifers, Ph.D. is a licensed psychotherapist and world-renowned scholar who has conducted ethnographic fieldwork with shamans in Siberia, Brazil, Nepal and the Navajo Reservation in Arizona. During the past ten years, she has spent extensive time in Nepal researching and documenting the work of Tibetan and Nepali shamans. Sarah continues to travel to Nepal each fall where she spends two months doing humanitarian work with the Tibetans living in exile in refugee camps. She has written articles for academic journals about her experiences in Nepal. Fate of the Lhapa is her first documentary.