Leaving Tibet after the Chinese invasion of 1950, director Ngawang Choephel was raised in India where he was surrounded by Tibetan refugees who instilled in him a love for traditional music. Returning to Tibet nearly forty years later as a musicologist, Choephel hoped to record what remained of Tibetan folk music. Confronted by the sounds of Chinese pop music and Communist propaganda, Choephel persisted in his efforts to preserve this native musical history, only to be imprisoned by the Chinese government as a spy
