Images from Tibet

“Images from Tibet” will be displayed from January 30 through March 31 in Edward G. Miner Library, University of Rochester Medical Center. 

The exhibit features photographs taken by a team of researchers and students from the University of Rochester and other collaborating institutions studying nutrition in Tibet. The on-going project (named “TSAMPA” after a roasted barley flour that is a staple component of the Tibetan diet) aims to improve nutrition among pregnant women in rural communities by focusing on culture, health, and community workers.  Funded by a grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Association of Teachers of Preventive Medicine, the UR team works with the Lhasa Prefecture Health Department and One HEART (Health, Education, And Research in Tibet, a non-profit agency) to reach community workers and pregnant women in very remote areas. Joining the UR team are researchers and practitioners from the University of Alabama, Cornell University, University of Utah, and the Chinese Centers for Disease Control’s Institute of Nutrition. To date, TSAMPA has involved hundreds of community members, researchers, students, and practitioners throughout the US and Tibet.

The images in this exhibit depict the lives of rural Tibetans in villages and in nomadic areas, the unique diet and food implements common to Tibetans, and special cultural dimensions of Tibetan life. The communities of the Tibetan Plateau are among some of the most remote and isolated on Earth. Despite this extreme isolation, the populations of rural Tibet have survived for many centuries in an environment that is severe, arid, and, in some places, more than three miles above sea level. 

These glimpses of life from the “Roof of the World” are the result of this global team’s work with Tibetan colleagues and villagers.

For more information:

Timothy D. Dye, PhD
Principal Investigator, TSAMPA Project
Director, Center for Global Health
University of Rochester
601 Elmwood Avenue, Box 324
Rochester, New York 14642
585.273.2588
tim_dye@urmc.rochester.edu

Arlene Samen, Executive Director
OneHEART (Health, Education, and Research in Tibet)
740 South 300 West, Suite 301
Salt Lake City, Utah 84101
www.onehearttibet.org
801.596.3317
asamen@onehearttibet.org