Sonthar Gyal (born 1974) is a Tibetan film director in

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. His films include '' The Sun Beaten Path'' (2011) and ''

River A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside Subterranean river, caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of ...

'' (2015).

Biography

Sonthar Gyal was born in

Tongde County Tongde County ( zh, s=同德县 , ) is a county of Qinghai province, China. It is under the administration of Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. Administrative divisions Tongde County is made up of 2 Town (China), towns and 3 Townships of the ...

Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, formerly known as Tsolho Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture ( zh, c=海南藏族自治州; ), is an autonomous prefecture of Northeastern Qinghai Province in Western China. The prefecture has an area of and its ...

Qinghai Qinghai is an inland Provinces of China, province in Northwestern China. It is the largest provinces of China, province of China (excluding autonomous regions) by area and has the third smallest population. Its capital and largest city is Xin ...

. His father was a primary school teacher who was the first person to graduate from college in the region. Sonthar Gyal studied at the Tsolho Nationalities Teacher Training College in Hainan (Tsolho) Prefecture and taught in the nomadic community for four years. Afterwards he received a scholarship to study fine arts at the

Qinghai Normal University Qinghai Normal University () is a university in Xining, Qinghai, China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of cou ...

Xining Xining is the Capital (political), capital and most populous city of Qinghai province in western China and the largest city on the Tibetan Plateau. As of the 2020 census, it had 2,467,965 inhabitants (2,208,708 as of 2010), of whom 1,954,795 l ...

. After graduating in 2003 with a B.A. in Fine Arts, he worked as an art teacher and a curator at the Tongde Cultural Museum. Although he grew up on the grassland with very few opportunities to watch films (and the ones he watched were in Chinese) he became so fascinated by films that he began to collect scraps of films after each open-air showing. Later, encouraged by his friend

Pema Tseden Pema Tseden (), also called Wanma Caidan (; December 1969 – 8 May 2023) was a Chinese Tibetan film director and screenwriter. He was a professor at the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou and a member of the Film Directors Guild of China, China ...

who also hails from Hainan Prefecture, Sonthar Gyal followed him to the prestigious

Beijing Film Academy Beijing Film Academy (BFA; zh, first=s, s=北京电影学院, labels=no) is a municipal public college in Beijing, China. It is affiliated with the City of Beijing and co-funded by the Beijing Municipal People's Government, the National Radio ...

, where he studied cinematography for 2 years with the support of Trace Foundation. Upon graduation, he worked as a cinematographer and artistic director for a series of films and documentaries, many directed by Pema Tseden. He made his directorial debut in 2011 with '' The Sun Beaten Path''.

Filmography

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* * * Tibetan film directors Living people 1974 births People from Hainan Prefecture Beijing Film Academy alumni Chinese cinematographers Film directors from Qinghai {{China-film-director-stub