Images from the Road
Re-Collections from the HimalayasA photo essay by Joshua Povec '98
By McLean Bulmer '98
Though the path of Joshua Povec ’98 might not be the typical Colorado College experience, his achievements illustrate just some of the opportunities students find here.
Povec constructed an interdisciplinary panel of academic advisors and created a personalized major in documentary arts that took him to Nepal on a semester program. There, he learned the language and completed an independent study.
Intrigued by this opportunity, he raised $5,000 from campus grants and awards to finance a return trip a year later to record the stories of three families living in Nepal.
"Re-Collections from the Himalayas," a multi-media documentary opened in the Armstrong Great Hall on campus last May. Povec’s exhibit transported the audience inside three homes in Nepal: the Ranas’, the Sherpas’, and the Lodos’.
For more than 100 years, the Rana family ruled the Hindu Kingdom of Nepal. When the dynasty collapsed in 1953, the Ranas were forced to confront life after royalty. The story Povec recorded of Mrs. Rana provides insights into the family’s identity in the recent flood of change.
Yangy Sherpa lives six days' walk from the nearest road in a secluded river valley high in the Himalayas. Her family belongs to a tribe of Buddhist herders and farmers whose means of survival echoes that of generations past.
Tenzin Lodo and his two children recently escaped from Chinese-occupied Tibet. Their story illustrates contemporary Tibetan persecution, their long journey over the Himalayan massif, and their hopes for their future in India.
I’ve landed in the Third World chaos of Kathmandu on a school day. For the next three months, this kingdom will be my classroom. Only this time, there isn’t a semester program determining my syllabus. This time I’ve come here alone with my Nepali language skills, my camera, my video camera, and my pen to record lives and stories from a world very foreign from my own. I am an alien here hoping to gather insights. What I accomplish in the next three months will stand as the pinnacle of my documentary arts degree. There is far too much riding on the assumption that I can pull this off for my doubts and fears to take over. Here, blind faith is essential for survival. Enough of talking the talk, here goes the walk.
--excerpt from Povec’s field journal, Nov. 29, 1997Povec’s thesis project, "Re-collections from the Himalayas," was funded in part by the CC Literature Award, the Leisure Program, the CCCA, the president’s discretionary fund, and the Asian studies department. He can be reached at povec@mint.net
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