There is Gold in Lhasa

Directed & Produced by: Surbhi Dewan

Stage:
- Production
Locations:
- India,
- Nepal,
- China
Updated: April 3, 2026
Project Type:
- Feature
Project Style:
- Essay film,
- Hybrid
Theme Subject:
- Gender,
- History,
- Indigenous

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Logline

Women who once lived along a historic trans-Himalayan trade route have long been forgotten. The film stirs their elusive stories back into being, revealing a world beyond the visible.

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Synopsis

Set along the historic trans-Himalayan trade route connecting Kathmandu, Kalimpong, and Lhasa, the film begins with a simple yet enduring impulse: the pursuit of something valuable. For centuries, this route was driven by the promise of wealth - of goods, opportunity and fortune. Yet beneath this visible economy lies another, more elusive search.

Guided by a personal inquiry, the filmmaker traces the lives of women - past and present - who lived within and against this

...

Guided by a personal inquiry, the filmmaker traces the lives of women - past and present - who lived within and against this world. Interweaving contemporary stories with fragmented historical narratives, the film brings into focus those who took risks, defied norms, and carved unconventional paths in a system that often rendered them invisible.

As the filmmaker follows these traces, the search becomes increasingly uncertain. Memories are fading, archives are scarce, and borders that were once fluid are now tightly controlled. In Lhasa, this search reaches a critical point, where political transformation and cultural erasure make parts of this history nearly inaccessible.

Gradually, the film shifts from recovery to reflection. What emerges is a meditation on the act of seeking itself - what drives it, what it demands, and what remains when what we search for cannot be fully found.

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Background

Director's Statement:
For over a decade, my work has engaged with feminist and queer histories in the Himalayan region through independently produced films shaped by the Partition of India, the Maoist war in Nepal, and the conflict in Kashmir. Across these projects, I have questioned dominant narratives by listening closely to voices that are often simplified, marginalised, or erased.

This film grows from this practice while marking a shift in form and intent. It asks

...

This film grows from this practice while marking a shift in form and intent. It asks me to move away from a primarily observational, research-driven approach toward a more embodied, intuitive mode of filmmaking - one that embraces slowness, uncertainty, and participation.

My connection to the region began in 2008, when I travelled to Nepal to film my friend Manushi, a political activist. Since then, I have built long-term relationships across Nepal through sustained engagement. In 2021, a book shared by Manushi’s family led me to the history of the trans-Himalayan trade route. I was struck by the near-total absence of women.

This absence felt structural. The film emerges from a desire not to complete the archive, but to sit with its gaps - approaching memory as something fragile, and recovery as an act of care shaped by presence, listening, and imagination.

TOPIC SUMMARY: For centuries, the trans-Himalayan trade route connecting the Tibetan plateau to the Indian subcontinent functioned as a vital economic and cultural artery. Among its most active participants were the Newars, the indigenous community of the Kathmandu Valley, who sustained long-standing trade relations with Lhasa. Newar traders travelled across the Himalayas, often living in Tibet for years at a time, facilitating the exchange of salt, wool, silk, grain and livestock - goods that sustained fragile mountain economies and linked them to wider worlds.

At its core, this route was driven by pursuit - the search for value, opportunity and survival. It functioned as a bridge across the Himalayas, shaping cultures, identities, and everyday life through continuous movement and exchange. These extended periods of mobility also produced complex social worlds. It was common for Newar men to marry Tibetan women while residing in Lhasa, even as they had wives and families in Kathmandu. These cross-cultural relationships formed layered kinship networks across borders, languages, and belief systems, yet remain marginal or misrepresented in dominant historical accounts.

This corridor also sat at the intersection of geopolitics - from British expansion and the Great Game to the annexation of Tibet and the 1962 Sino-Indian War. These shifts transformed a once-fluid network into a closed and contested border. The closure of the route in 1962 abruptly dismantled this world. Tibetan wives and their children were forced to leave Lhasa overnight, abandoning homes and belongings. Many resettled along the Indian side of the former trade route, particularly in Sikkim and Kalimpong, as returning to Kathmandu was not always possible or socially accepted. Some families moved back to Nepal decades later, carrying fragmented histories of displacement and belonging.

While men are remembered as the traders who crossed these routes, women sustained this world at every level - through labour, resource management, and the maintenance of social and cultural networks. Their contributions were often rendered invisible, even as they formed the foundation of the trade economy. Within existing narratives - largely authored from a Newar perspective - Tibetan women have often been portrayed negatively, while Newar wives have been reduced to passive figures waiting for absent husbands. These limited representations flatten the emotional and political complexity of women’s lives.

This film resists such singular histories. It approaches the trade route not only as a site of economic exchange and geopolitical transformation, but as an intimate, gendered landscape shaped by movement, separation, desire and survival - asking how these histories might be remembered differently, and what remains at stake in their telling today.

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Team

Surbhi Dewan

Director & Producer

Team

Surbhi Dewan

Director & Producer

Surbhi Dewan is a New Delhi-based independent film director, writer & producer. Her films explore intersections between socio-political conflict, displacement, memory and personhood. Surbhi’s recent film about the transgender community of Kashmir, 'TRANS KASHMIR' (2022), was picked up for distribution by Frameline (USA), Bohemia Media (UK) and is streaming worldwide on Amazon Prime UK, Kanopy and Cinelogue. Her other notable films include 'DAUGHTER OF NEPAL' (2018) and 'A THIN WALL' (2015). She graduated with an MFA in film from Rochester Institute of Technology, New York, and received her BA degree in Political Science from Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi University.

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Jasmine George

Producer

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Jasmine George

Producer

Jasmine is a feminist strategist with 15 years of experience working across South Asia and South-East Asia. She is the founder of Hidden Pockets Collective (a non-profit) and Vipasyin (a startup) – both focusing on women’s health. She serves as a Board Member of CREA (India) and Womenkind Fund (UK), and has previously been a Strategic Advisor to Global Fund for Women and Amplify Change. Currently, she works as a partner liaison for Turning Tides (ocean philanthropy). Jasmine has been a featured speaker at TEDx
Bengaluru and the Aspen Ideas Festival, and has appeared on media platforms such as NDTV, BBC, and CNN.

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Ankita Upadhyaya

Cinematographer

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Ankita Upadhyaya

Cinematographer

Ankita is an independent filmmaker and cinematographer based in Assam, India. She is an Indian-Nepali whose grandparents migrated from Nepal and Bhutan. Ankita is greatly inspired by Iranian cinema, and for her, cinema is a medium of personal expression and resistance. Ankita
infuses films with her poetic visual style that perfectly complements the lyrical nature of this narrative.

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Shreyasi Das

Animator

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Shreyasi Das

Animator

Shreyasi (she/her) is an interdisciplinary mixed-media visual artist specializing in animation. Her experimental work gently weaves drawing, painting, textiles, found objects, and digital media to create tenderhearted visual poetry. She follows intuitive, non-linear processes and predominantly uses vintage, memory-soaked materials, allowing her work to unfold and guide her.
For the last decade Shreyasi has been working at Sony Pictures Imageworks as an award-winning look development and lighting artist for feature animation films. Her recent work includes ‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’, ‘The, Seabeast’, and ‘Over the Moon’, which have been nominated for the Academy Awards, Visual Effects Society Awards, and Annie Awards.
Shreyasi holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Film and Animation and a minor in Writing Studies from Rochester Institute of Technology in New York. She is one of the recipients of the 2025 Lenore G.Tawney Scholarship in craft and a professional member of Women In Animation. She is based in Tiohtià:ke /
Montréal, Canada and was raised in West Bengal, India.

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Nidhi Yadav

Story Consultant

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Nidhi Yadav

Story Consultant

Nidhi Yadav is a story consultant and development executive with over ten years of experience in the Indian film industry. A trained screenwriter from the prestigious Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) Pune, Nidhi has contributed to the development of award-winning films and series.
Throughout her career, she has worked as part of the development and script teams at leading Indian film studios and production houses, helping shape compelling narratives that resonate with audiences.
Nidhi's expertise spans both mainstream cinema and critically acclaimed projects, and her deep understanding of storytelling, narrative structure and screenwriting has made her a trusted advisor in the industry.

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Mithun Gomes

Line Producer

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Mithun Gomes

Line Producer

Mithun has over 15 years of experience in production of independent documentary films, narrative films, and television shows. He has a proven track-record as a Line Producer, overseeing all facets of production from concept development to final execution. Mithun is also co-founder and producer at Painted Tree Pictures, a New Delhi-based film production company.

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Budget

This section includes information about this project.

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Our Ask

We are currently looking for the following:
- Funds to complete Production: $52,500 USD (recoupable/non-recoupable grants)
- Impact Partner: an International Non-Profit organisation that aligns with the film's vision
- Letters of Interest from distributors & sales agents

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There is Gold in Lhasa

Logline

Clips

Team

Surbhi Dewan

Surbhi Dewan

Jasmine George

Jasmine George

Ankita Upadhyaya

Ankita Upadhyaya

Shreyasi Das

Shreyasi Das

Nidhi Yadav

Nidhi Yadav

Mithun Gomes

Mithun Gomes

Budget

Stills

Our Ask