Paper short abstract:

This practice-based PhD essay film involves in-depth, interdisciplinary and 15-month fieldwork in community Yumbulakhang on the Tibetan Plateau of PRC, applying Jean Rouch's cine-ethnography method towards ‘local point of view’ and ‘being there’.

Paper long abstract:

This PhD essay film draws from my 15-month fieldwork of ethnographic filmmaking in community Yumbulakhang, on the Tibetan Plateau of PRC. The project combines cinematic filmmaking with an anthropological methodology of Jean Rouch's cine-ethnography towards an understanding of the 'local point of view' in Yumbulakhang, with a crucial ethnographic emphasis on 'being there'. The local Tibetan Buddhist doctrine of "Each Moment is the Universe" is introduced in the process of filmmaking to analyse, interpret and re-present the 'local point of view' and to comprehend contemporary Tibet, informed by through its own perspective. The latest digital 4K film technology and a "one-man-crew" filmmaking methodology have been implemented to produce more than 400hrs of raw film footage and 1000 photos during the fieldwork in which an edited 3-hour version of ethnographic film are rendered.