Introducing us to a group of beautiful, simple nomads, who live somewhere high on the steppes of Tibet, where the stark landscape is brown, the wind blows, and snow-clad mountains provide the backdrop, German filmmaker Ulrike Koch's The Saltmen of Tibet features almost no narration--the subjects speak in Tibetan (and briefly in a secret "salt language") with English subtitles. Still, by the end of this slow-moving--but perfectly paced--celebration of a three-month trek to harvest salt from a shallow lake, the viewer will fall in love with this tribe, and hate the trucks that threaten to destroy their way of life by motoring the salt away so easily. Each of the four trekkers seen here has a role: Margen, the Old Mother; Pargen, the Old Father; Zopon, the Lord of the Animals; and Bopsa, the Novice--all men (regardless of the "mother" signifier), since the goddess who rules the sacred lake cannot bear competition from other females. With their high cheekbones setting off their dark, creased faces, the men herd 160 yaks over the spartan landscape to scrape small mounds of salt, which they will trade for barley in a subsistence economy that is as old as mankind. Along the way, they pray to local gods and goddesses as well as to Buddha, make burnt offerings, and genuinely agonize over the death of a yak. The salt treks may be endangered, but this exquisitely-filmed documentary at least preserves a vanishing way of life on celluloid. Highly recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (M. Pendergrast)
The Saltmen of Tibet
(1998) 109 min. In Tibetan w/English subtitles. VHS or DVD: $29.99. Zeitgeist Video (avail. from most distributors). Color cover. Volume 17, Issue 6
The Saltmen of Tibet
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