Tibetan musician Loten Namling was delighted to travel to Morocco on Friday June 3 for rehearsals for the Fez Festival of World Sacred Music, which opens Thursday June 9 for four days. Alas, his name has been removed from the list of artists invited to this internationally renowned event. “The organizers told me that they had been under very strong pressure from the Chinese government not to invite me again. This festival was so important to me! I was very happy to take part in it,” explains the artist to Monde.
Political refugee, activist, Loten Namling has lived for many years in Bern, Switzerland. This Tibetan singer and lute player (the dranyen) received an invitation by post in early May from Alain Weber, director of the festival’s opening show. Armed with this letter, he had started the necessary steps to obtain a visa, before, two weeks later, the team told him that he was no longer invited. The Chinese embassy in Morocco would have intervened with the ministry of foreign affairs of the kingdom so that the musician does not obtain a visa. The Chinese diplomatic service did not respond to requests from the Monde.
In July 2021, the musician embarked on a bus tour of Europe with an artistic performance called A song from Tibet for you. At the end of January, a few days before the opening of the Beijing Winter Olympics, he had linked Bern to Lausanne (where the headquarters of the International Olympic Committee is located), wearing skis with the logo ” Freedom “ and dragging a Chinese flag behind him to alert public opinion to the fate reserved for Tibetans. What irritate the Chinese power. And make people forget that in 1996, the filmmaker Martin Scorsese was able to bring half a thousand Tibetan actors to Morocco to shoot Kundun, a film about the Dalai Lama, in Ouarzazate. “The whole world is starting to give in to the pressures and whims of the Chinese,” regrets Thupten Gyatso, deputy of the Tibetan Parliament in exile in France.
“I sing to talk about Tibet and for freedom, comments Mr. Namling. As an artist, it’s a great lost opportunity not to be able to perform on this stage. But as an activist, I’m very proud to see that a pawn like me can annoy the Chinese authorities. »
“Late Changes”
Placed under the high patronage of King Mohammed VI, the Festival of Fez must welcome many official personalities. This 26e edition, organized around the theme of architecture and the sacred, is very open to the world. On the protest site is another Tibetan singer, Lobsang Chonzor, “who will sing the poetry of Milarepa”poet and ascetic of the year 1000. “The creation of the opening night will take you on a journey from Fez to Jerusalem via Tibet, the Taj Mahal, Notre-Dame cathedral to end in Casablanca with the Hassan II mosque”, rejoices, in his welcome speech, the president, Abderrafia Zouitene. Asked about Mr. Namling, Mr. Zouitene told the Monde that he was not involved in programming.
You have 13.99% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.