“Boeche” by Lodoe Laura

In 2011, I spent three months in northern India, interviewing people for a book project on the modern Tibetan identity in exile. While speaking with one of the subjects of this project, I was asked if I was Tibetan. I replied, “I am half Tibetan and half Canadian.” Shocked with my response, this man replied that I was not half Tibetan, nor was I half Canadian, but instead fully Tibetan and fully Canadian. In his view, I was not half of each, but rather, both. This thought stuck with me. For my entire life, when asked my ethnicity, I had always replied that I was “half Tibetan”. This meditation that I had with my identity as someone of mixed race made me reevaluate the way I self-identify. I wanted to find out how other Tibetans of mixed race interacted with their own identity.

This series, shot on a 4×5 camera, explores the duality and singularity one may experience as a person of mixed race. The traditional Tibetan chupa, contrasted with the apparent North American background, is intended to create tension, and highlight the biplicity of the mixed race.

(Click on the pictures to enlarge)

Lodoe Laura’s main website can be found here.