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FROM THE BODHI TREE TO TIBET, BUDDHIST TRILOGY ENLIGHTENS
FROM THE BODHI TREE TO TIBET, BUDDHIST TRILOGY ENLIGHTENS
CAROLYN NIKODYM / carolyn@vueweekly.com
http://www.vueweekly.com/articles/default.aspx?i=5303
It’s hard to believe that the current Dali Lama is over 70 years old and that the implications of his passing are beginning to weigh heavily on Tibetans and his supporters.
After all, he has an otherworldly aura, and death seems somehow beyond him.
Although we never meet him in Vajra Sky Over Tibet, his spirit—and the Buddhism he embodies—is heavily felt throughout. The documentary by John Bush is the final instalment of the Yatra Trilogy—an exploration into Buddhism and how it has travelled from its birth in Southern Nepal and India—showing at Metro Cinema over the next 10 days.
A healthy combination of historical record and religious teaching, Vajra Sky takes its audience through Tibet, its colourful prayer flags juxtaposed against the grey-green majestic Himalayan vistas. But emanating from these flags and the prayer wheels laboured over by Tibetan nuns is the aching realization that we could be watching a culture fade into the historical ether, making us complicit to its demise.
Unlike similar films on Tibet and its brand of Buddhism, however, Bush’s camera captures the complexity of the situation, right down to the insidiousness of it. The din of thousands of tourists in Lhasa, Tibet’s capital, melds into the chanting of monks; hawkers sell small brass Buddhas alongside busts of Mao Zedong; policemen sit smoking on plastic chairs in the middle of the street, in the middle of the throngs of people. Meanwhile, we are told that the population of Lhasa, the spiritual centre of the country where the Jokhang Temple has seen 1 500 years of worship, is now made up of more Han Chinese than Tibetans.
Bush also takes us into the centre of the religion, using the symbolism in Tibetan art to explain the basic tenets of Buddhism. As we learn about the eight-fold path to enlightenment, we see golden dharma wheels with eight spokes and mandelas with eight pedals.
According to Tibetan Buddhism, the higher lamas are “intentionally” reborn—meaning that they choose to reincarnate for the purpose of continuing on their teaching. So a few years after one dies, this lama, now a young boy, is sought out by his closest disciples.
In 1995, after the Panchen Lama (directly under the Dali Lama in hierarchy) died, the Dali Lama announced that the Panchen had been reincarnated and was the six-year-old son of Tibetan nomads. Chinese officials came in quickly after and took the entire family to Beijing. They have not been seen since, making this boy the youngest political prisoner in the world. The Chinese authorities replaced that boy with one of their choosing, and require that his picture is prominently displayed.
Everybody knows that he is a puppet, but here’s the thing. The Panshen Lama is responsible for the search for the new Dali Lama after the current one dies.
Even though the Chinese initially went in to “liberate” Tibet in 1949 with guns ablazing, and even though there are still reports of torture and unlawful confinement, it has been the act of cutting Tibetans off from their leaders that has had such a profoundly negative affect on their culture.
But Bush’s film isn’t a simple polemic on the plight of Tibetans. In concert with the other two films in the trilogy, Dharma River: Journey of a Thousand Buddhas and Prajna Earth: Journey into Sacred Nature, he takes us on a beautifully in-depth trip through Asia from which even the most seasoned traveller would learn. V
Fri, Dec 8 - Mon, Dec 18
Yatra Trilogy
Directed by John Bush
Metro Cinema, $8
CAROLYN NIKODYM / carolyn@vueweekly.com
http://www.vueweekly.com/articles/default.aspx?i=5303
It’s hard to believe that the current Dali Lama is over 70 years old and that the implications of his passing are beginning to weigh heavily on Tibetans and his supporters.
After all, he has an otherworldly aura, and death seems somehow beyond him.
Although we never meet him in Vajra Sky Over Tibet, his spirit—and the Buddhism he embodies—is heavily felt throughout. The documentary by John Bush is the final instalment of the Yatra Trilogy—an exploration into Buddhism and how it has travelled from its birth in Southern Nepal and India—showing at Metro Cinema over the next 10 days.
A healthy combination of historical record and religious teaching, Vajra Sky takes its audience through Tibet, its colourful prayer flags juxtaposed against the grey-green majestic Himalayan vistas. But emanating from these flags and the prayer wheels laboured over by Tibetan nuns is the aching realization that we could be watching a culture fade into the historical ether, making us complicit to its demise.
Unlike similar films on Tibet and its brand of Buddhism, however, Bush’s camera captures the complexity of the situation, right down to the insidiousness of it. The din of thousands of tourists in Lhasa, Tibet’s capital, melds into the chanting of monks; hawkers sell small brass Buddhas alongside busts of Mao Zedong; policemen sit smoking on plastic chairs in the middle of the street, in the middle of the throngs of people. Meanwhile, we are told that the population of Lhasa, the spiritual centre of the country where the Jokhang Temple has seen 1 500 years of worship, is now made up of more Han Chinese than Tibetans.
Bush also takes us into the centre of the religion, using the symbolism in Tibetan art to explain the basic tenets of Buddhism. As we learn about the eight-fold path to enlightenment, we see golden dharma wheels with eight spokes and mandelas with eight pedals.
According to Tibetan Buddhism, the higher lamas are “intentionally” reborn—meaning that they choose to reincarnate for the purpose of continuing on their teaching. So a few years after one dies, this lama, now a young boy, is sought out by his closest disciples.
In 1995, after the Panchen Lama (directly under the Dali Lama in hierarchy) died, the Dali Lama announced that the Panchen had been reincarnated and was the six-year-old son of Tibetan nomads. Chinese officials came in quickly after and took the entire family to Beijing. They have not been seen since, making this boy the youngest political prisoner in the world. The Chinese authorities replaced that boy with one of their choosing, and require that his picture is prominently displayed.
Everybody knows that he is a puppet, but here’s the thing. The Panshen Lama is responsible for the search for the new Dali Lama after the current one dies.
Even though the Chinese initially went in to “liberate” Tibet in 1949 with guns ablazing, and even though there are still reports of torture and unlawful confinement, it has been the act of cutting Tibetans off from their leaders that has had such a profoundly negative affect on their culture.
But Bush’s film isn’t a simple polemic on the plight of Tibetans. In concert with the other two films in the trilogy, Dharma River: Journey of a Thousand Buddhas and Prajna Earth: Journey into Sacred Nature, he takes us on a beautifully in-depth trip through Asia from which even the most seasoned traveller would learn. V
Fri, Dec 8 - Mon, Dec 18
Yatra Trilogy
Directed by John Bush
Metro Cinema, $8
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