Khashem Gyal

Khashem Gyal, an award-winning writer, director, cinematographer, and producer from the Amdo region of Tibet, currently serves as an Asia in Action Fellow at Columbia University's Weatherhead East Asian Institute and teaches in Columbia's School of the Arts graduate film program. He is the recipient of the Colors of Asia Award and a nominee for the Adeste Gold Medal, which honors global changemakers under 40 who inspire others to “touch the stars.”

His filmography includes Valley of the Heroes, Daughters’ Courage, Daughter of the Light, A Day in the Life of a Tibetan Pastoralist, Awang Jigmey: Walking Among the Peaks, The Guardians of the Three Rivers, and A Green Trip. His work has earned numerous national and international awards, establishing him as a unique voice in Tibetan cinema.

Khashem’s debut feature, Daughter of the Light, was the first Tibetan international co-production film and received the Colors of Asia Award. The film went on to win the ATP Grand Prize for Excellence in Japan, the Audience Award at Korea’s EIDF Film Festival, and the One Hundred Flowers Award at China’s Golden Rooster Film Festival. It was also nominated for the NETPAC Award at the Ulju Mountain Film Festival, Best Film at the China Documentary Film Academy, and both Best Chinese Story and Best First Feature Documentary at GZDOC.

In 2024, Daughter of the Light was released in theaters across China, becoming the first Tibetan documentary film in Chinese cinema history to receive a nationwide theatrical release. It ranked as one of the most-watched documentary films in China that year, marking a significant milestone for Tibetan filmmaking.

Khashem is also deeply committed to using film as a tool for preserving intangible cultural heritage and promoting environmental awareness. His film Huangnan Unveiled: A Tapestry of Living Heritage was recognized as one of the top 20 heritage short films in China that year.

Over the years, Khashem has documented Tibetan indigenous knowledge in the context of global warming and climate change. His collaborations include The Guardians of the Three Rivers, a seven-part series co-produced with CCTV, and A Green Trip, a 10-episode documentary by Shanghai Media Group exploring the relationship between humanity and nature. Khashem directed two episodes of A Green Trip, which received over one million ratings in China. In these works, he highlights the role of indigenous knowledge and communities in land stewardship — perspectives often underrepresented in mainstream environmental narratives.

He is also in post-production on Yeshe, a short film that follows a Tibetan girl as she journeys from the source of the Yangtze River in Tibet to Thailand and Vietnam. Along the way, she confronts a personal crisis of identity and environmental loss, turning her river-bound journey into a self-reflection and human connection—from origin to end.

Currently, he is working on a new documentary film exploring the life and legacy of the late Pema Tseden, the pioneering figure of Tibetan cinema. Alongside this project, he is also developing his first narrative feature film and writing two forthcoming books: Movie Mindfulness and Four Seasons with Pema Tseden.