A YOUNG Tibetan has won the "First-time Film Makers" (FTFM) programme prize awarded by Discovery Networks Asia, enabling him to embark on a movie-making career.

Wanma Caidan, 35, is a writer-turned-film maker from the Tibetan community of Northwest China's Qinghai Province. He studied film-making at the Beijing Academy of Film Arts with the support of overseas funding.

Previously, he worked as a writer and translator between the Tibetan and Chinese languages. But feeling restricted by purely verbal means of expression, he decided to make films about the culture and life of Tibet.

"Writing in the Tibetan language makes your readership very small, and Tibetan literature has been distracted by various modern literary movements," Wanma explained. Even among the small number of Tibetan writers, there are disputes about the definition of Tibetan literature. Some define it only as work written in the Tibetan language, while others include all work written about Tibet and Tibetans.

This year is the second time the FTFM has been held on the Chinese mainland. Discovery Network Asia (DNA) offered a US$10,000 prize to each of its six winners, enabling them to complete a proposed documentary on the theme of "Inspiring stories about the unique Chinese way of life in a rapidly globalising world."

Wanma Caidan's proposal was entitled "The last Tibetan Hailstorm Shaman". "The weather in the highlands changes very rapidly. Hailstorms happen often and cause serious losses during the harvest season," Wanma said, explaining the subject of his project.

Shamans stand out in the open and conduct a prayer ceremony in order to drive away the dark clouds threatening to bring down hailstorms.

"With the introduction of modern science and technology, people have started to question the power of these shamans," Wanma said. The profession is dying out with the passage of time. Wanma plans to portray one shaman whose son has refused to succeed him in his profession.

Wanma himself believes that this shaman may have some mysterious power beyond common understanding. "I have seen him dispel dark clouds myself," he said.

Trying to teach his four-year grands on the Tibetan language, the shaman in Wanma's film still hopes to carry on the ancient profession.

"I have seen many films -domestic ones as well as Western classics - either shown in the open, or in a small cinema, so I think visual languages can tell more than words alone."

After completing this project, Wamma will make a feature film in winter. "I have gathered the investment. Now the script is being inspected."

Although the Tibetan culture and tourism industry has enjoyed great prosperity in recent years, Wanma feels that the folk culture is slowly dying out.

"Products designed for tourists cannot accurately represent the Tibetan culture. They have usually been made inland and are then sold back to inlanders," he said. "It is only a twisted version of the Tibetan culture."

The productions of Wanma and the other five winners will be shown on the Discovery Channel some time next autumn.