In recent film, The Seven Years in Tibet (1997), Ngapo Ngawang Jigme was portrayed as a traitor who helped the People's Liberal Army's 1950 march into Tibet. It shows Mr. Jigme collaborating with the advancing Chinese, and even blowing up an ammunition dump to render armed resistance futile.

However, according to Mr. Jigme, who is now 88, said the film's portrayal of his actions was grossly inaccurate :

• Mr. Jigmo knew nothing about Commuicism and had no contact with the Chinese communists beforehand.
• The film showed Mr. Jigme sent Harrer a Tibetan robe as a gift. Mr. Jigme said that he first met Harrer in 1948 and they have played mahjong for a few times. Harrer never showed any special abilities and Mr. Jigme would never consider sending him a robe even in his dreams.

Actually, most of the incidents depicted in the film are 'fantasy' and absolutely absurd :

• In the film, it mentioned that the Chinese army killed 1 million Tibetans. But actually, the whole Tibetan nation, young and old and women were less than one million.
• In the film, it is said that tje Panchen Lama gave Mao Zedong a 70,000-word report warning that the Tibetan race was threathened by genocide because of starvation. But actually, Mr. Jigme was shown the letter before it was submitted. The Panchen Lama's investigation of the famine involved tours of Manchuria and Guangdong, but not Tibet.

The above are just a few examples of the lies told by this 'fantasy film', Seven Years In Tibet.

Source : South China Morning Post, 30th March, 1998, Page One