Tibetan musician Loten Namling was looking forward to arriving in Morocco on Friday, June 3, for rehearsals for the Fes Festival of World Sacred Music. The four-day festival opens on Thursday, June 9. Unfortunately, his name was removed from the list of artists invited to the internationally renowned event. "The organizers told me that they had been under a great deal of pressure from the Chinese government not to invite me. This festival was so important to me! I was looking forward to participating," the artist explained to Le Monde.
Political refugee and activist Loten Namling has been living in Bern, Switzerland for many years. At the beginning of May, the singer and Tibetan lute (dranyen) player received an invitation from Alain Weber, director of the festival's opening show. Following this, he began the necessary steps to obtain a visa, but, two weeks later, the team announced that he was no longer invited. The Chinese Embassy in Morocco is suspected to have intervened with the Kingdom's Ministry of Foreign Affairs to prevent the musician from obtaining a visa. The Chinese diplomatic service did not respond Le Monde's requests for information.
In July 2021, the musician embarked on a bus tour of Europe with an artistic performance called "A Song from Tibet for You." To call attention to the fate of Tibetans, at the end of January and a few days before the opening of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games, he travelled from Bern to Lausanne (base of the International Olympic Committee's headquarters) wearing skis painted "Freedom" and dragging a Chinese flag behind him. This action irritated the Chinese government, and also erased from memory the fact that, in 1996, director Martin Scorsese succeeded in bringing 500 Tibetan actors to Morocco, to Ouarzazate to be precise, to shoot Kundun, a film about the Dalai Lama. "The whole world is beginning to give in to the pressures and whims of the Chinese," said Thupten Gyatso, a member of the Tibetan Parliament in exile in France. "I sing in order to talk about Tibet and about freedom," said Namling. "As an artist, it's a big lost opportunity that I can't perform on this stage. But as an activist, I am very proud that a simple pawn like me can annoy the Chinese authorities."
'Last-minute changes'
Placed under the high patronage of King Mohammed VI, the Fes festival is scheduled to welcome many officials. This year, the 26th edition is organized around the theme of architecture and the sacred and it is very open to the world. Another Tibetan singer, Lobsang Chonzor, will participate in the event and he will sing the poetry by Milarepa, a poet and ascetic of the year 1000. "The opening-night performance will take you from Fez to Jerusalem, through Tibet, to the Taj Mahal, and the Cathedral of Notre Dame, before ending in Casablanca with the Hassan-II mosque," said president Abderrafia Zouitene in his welcoming remarks. When asked about Mr. Namling, Mr. Zouitene explained to Le Monde that he was not involved in programming.
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