personal projects — tsering bista

Redefining The Bakhu—And The Great American Road Trip—Through Self-Portraiture | NPR

Ebi et Watashi

Ebi et Watashi is a visual autoethnography that documents my family’s migration to four different cities —Kathmandu, Tokyo, Kagoshima, and Geneva— through the narratives of four women in my family.

The project, which is primarily composed of a series of video vignettes, considers how migration has shaped the linguistic and regional identities of these four women, and asks if there is a future for dying dialects in an increasingly globalizing world. Above all, it is an exploration of recent sociolinguistic trends within the Mustangi community.

Starting Over

This photo essay is part of an ongoing series about immigrants who have drastically different professions in the United States than they had in their home countries. These shifts in profession are often a result of multiple factors including non-transferrable degrees, lack of connections, and financial need.

Tsang Jigme left his family and his village lifestyle in Mustang, Nepal, to pursue a better future for his wife and three children. He also left behind a career in art conservation and restoration painting. Jigme now works at a gas station in a New Jersey town he’d never heard of before he immigrated here two years ago. Whatever money he makes he sends back to his wife and children, who are many miles and time zones away. Jigme doesn’t know when he’ll see them again or if he’ll ever have the chance to return to art conservation.

Jigme stands outside his residence in Phillipsburg, NJ. He rents a bed from a family of four.

Jigme works the early morning shift at the Mobil Gas station a few blocks away from where he lives. He makes the five-minute commute, there and back, six days a week. Here, he is pictured with another Mustangi worker in the rest area.

Jigme's duties often consist of pumping gas and cleaning cars.

Inside the rest area, Mustangi workers have taped up images of religious Buddhist figures.

Jigme and his coworkers stop at a Popeyes for lunch.

A copy of The Star-Spangled Banner and the Pledge of Allegiance hang in the office of the Mobil Gas station's supervisor, who is also a Nepali immigrant.

Timecards show the names of Nepali and Tibetan workers.

Jigme begins his short walk home after his 12-hour shift.

Jigme and another Mustangi worker share a Nepali meal together.

A photo of Jigme, his wife, and two of their three children hangs in the dining room.

Jigme looks at a photo of himself restoring an ancient cave painting in a village in Mustang, Nepal.

Jigme looks fondly at old photos of his art conservation work in Mustang.

At the end of the day, Jigme makes his bed on a pullout couch in the living room. He has to be at the gas station by 6 a.m. for another 12-hour shift.