Loosening the gordian knot

The Chinese Embassy in Dhaka might have bit off more than it could chew with its attempt at censoring the Dhaka Art Summit 2016. Their request – to remove art works related to the Tibetan self-immolation protests created by Tenzing Sonam and Ritu Sarin – backfired when the organisers chose to cover them up but leave them on the wall. The display of five art works covered by white sheets of paper, made a far more powerful statement about human-rights violations, and about the Chinese suppressing critical commentary on Tibet, than the works themselves could have done.

This is yet another instance of China's censorship extending beyond its boundaries, relying on the strength of its economic relationship to see its wishes carried out. Some eighty or more Tibetans in China self-immolated in 2012; the numbers are difficult to report with accuracy due to the clamp down on the free flow of information from the region. Instead of attempting to contextualise, through any work of their own, how an individual can be led to such an extreme act of sacrifice and protest, Sonam, of Tibetan origin, and Sarin, an Indian filmmaker, chose instead to display the letters themselves as the most honest representation of these immolations. These were the letters of Tsultrim Gyatso, Nyingkar Tashi, Nangdrol, Sonam Topgyal and Rikyo.