Films on Tibet, Ladakh, Bhutan ....

vistet

I picked up a copy of this film just before leaving Delhi , which centers on the exile experience. A film which is more about the people you meet , and the places you are brought to. Liked it a lot.

More interestingly are the reflections of the film written by the Tibetan dissident Woeser , who does this from a position of "inner" exile , being confined to Beijing. A translation from her Chinese blog has been posted on Phayul.com. I was quite surprised to see what was posted on her blog , it challenges a lot of the preconceptions of the Great Firewall.

Trailer here

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Scandojazzbuff

This is an old thread but new movies continue to emerge about Tibet and its environs. Last year, I saw a very intriguing and riveting movie by Pan Nalin, 'Valley of Flowers'. Stunningly shot, flawlessly acted, with a story line that spans 200 years. I don't want to reveal too much. I consider myself a movie buff and I sat mesmerized in the theatre not only by the visuals but by the story. Naseerudin Shah, a major actor in India, 'Monsoon Wedding', has an extraordinary role in it. First class.

I also enjoyed Samsara by the same director, I believe.

Joan Chen directed a movie a few years back called The Sent Down Girl, which was made illegally in China and in either Eastern Tibet or Western Sichuan is worth a view, IMO.

theyyamdancer

I have to agree with the opinion just expressed here by Scandojazzbuff - the new Pan Nalin film "Valley of Flowers" is brilliant. The photography is beautiful, the story is very clever, the acting superb, AND it is filmed in Ladakh... It has to be one of the best films I have ever seen (and I too have seen many). I saw it last year in a tiny film theatre in Paris (in the Indian quartier). I believe that Pan Nalin is living in Paris. We just bought a copy of the DVD and any day now will sit down and enjoy it again.

Scandojazzbuff

Ah, we share the same good taste! His other film Samsara is also worth seeing. If you haven't seen Vaanaprastham directed by Shaji Karun, 1999, try to get it. If you are a dancer as your board name suggests, you will appreciate the film even more. It is special. Let me know if you cannot find the Satyajit Ray film you posted about and I will have a look for you at the video store in Little India here in Bangkok. I have a dancer friend from Greece here and she can bring it back and mail it to you when she returns.

vistet

Ok , that last comment decided me , I´ll order Valley of Flowers later in the week.

I also came across this film list, covers a vide motley of films with Tibetan themes , from Introduction to Buddhist Psychotherapy to Ace Ventura (!)

machadinha

Just FYI, the annual Dutch Himalaya Film Festival has just been,* but going through their past programmes may provide some further inspiration, or check it out next year if you happen to be in the vicinity: http://www.himalayafilmfestival.nl/

* In fact I see now there are still some events scheduled in the towns of Heerhugowaard (musical performance, tomorrow, free entrance) and Dronten (movie screenings, next month).

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theyyamdancer

Scandojazzbuff, thanks for your offer. I will check out the shops first and then if necessary get back to you! I liked Samsara a lot as well as Ayurveda, his first film.

To go back to the subject of Tibetan films, I also recently saw "Dreaming Lhasa" and thought it was excellent.

Sikkim, a documentary by Pan Nalin

Has anyone seen this? I have been unable to find it. I just know it exists.

theyyamdancer

Scandojazzbuff,
Thanks for your kind offer but I found the film I was looking for in a Kolkata shop and more besides.

Kingstonian

There's a series running for about 5 episodes, I think, called "A Year in Tibet" which started last night (9pm Thursdays) - a kind of slow-paced observational look at the everyday details of life - the first episode filmed life for a hotelier in the town of Jianzhang, a local monastery preparing for a visit from the Panchen Lama, and a local woman's experiences over the birth of her 5th child. Can be downloaded, I think, from the BBC.

BBC4 also showed Dan Cruickshank's "The Lost World of Tibet" last Monday, with loads of pre-1951 footage as well as recent interviews, and a focus on the Dalai Lama's background and history. I couldn't seem to track it down on the BBC website, but I didn't look hard.

Scandojazzbuff

Lucky you. I hear that Kolkata can be a very interesting place to visit. I was at a party tonight and someone mentioned Flury's. Many feel that Kolkata is a breeding ground for many of India's intelligentsia.

I'd be interested to hear what are some of your favorite Indian movies, especially more recent ones.

vistet

The documentary has caught some flak since it revolves around the "Zuma" (fake) Panchen Lama , appointed by Chinese authority, and is seen as a staged event. Gyaltsen Norbu is conspicuously absent from Tibet most of the time , when I visited his home monastery Tashilunpo the monks seemed unaware (and uninterested) in his whereabouts : "maybe in Bejing.."

Kingstonian

Yes, Vistet - that was one of the elements I was left wondering about. The programme last night said the 19-year old PL had come from/lives in Beijing. Not much more was said about it than that (what more needed to be said?). Maybe the BBC's approach to the politics was to show "The Lost World of Tibet" in the same week ... viewers can then draw more sophisticated conclusions for themselves.

I know very little about the situation there - strictly outsider stuff. But watching the programme yesterday, I spent some time thinking about the position of a 19-year old as a pawn in that game ... That it was a game ("stage-managed"?) was not explicit, but was clear enough, through the whole programme. I didn't pay close enough attention, but did notice that some people were speaking Chinese, and others were not - didn't pick up on who spoke what - others who know more than me might have made more of that.

I also noticed that the rejection of the Dalai Lama's nomination was mentioned - I didn't know about the 6-year old's subsequent disappearance. I was left with a sense of great grief and sadness for people there - with the heart and soul taken out of them, in many ways. Don't know how much of that was me, or the programme. Very interesting to read the article you reference there.

Also interesting, your impression about the monks' level of interest in his whereabouts.

vistet

Another interesting thing was the amount of affection shown to the previous , ninth and tenth , Panchen Lamas . There is a very popular photograph of the 10th , sitting on a white horse in front of Tashilunpo monastery with a tourist bus in the background that sells very well , and a lot of photographs of the two in the monastery , with fresh offerings of fruits , flowers , water and prayer scarves ( khataks ). In the end I managed to find one or two photos of Gyaltsen Norbu , with a very bare shelf below.

Coming to Manju ka Tilla and other Tibetan communities I´ve come to expect to see posters with the last photograph Gedun Choekyi Nyima , the properly appointed Panchen , in a yellow track suit, out of focus and with a dazed expression. What was new to me was the painting I saw in Nako monastery in Spiti , where the photograph - with the same expression on the face - had been transplanted in to where he should be : dressed in yellow silk robes , placed on a dais , with all the trappings of his religious power and a subtly disturbing mismatch between his imagined body today , and the body of the boy on the photograph.

Kingstonian

Oh boy, I really am going to have to watch that programme again now

It showed the monks (?Chinese speaking?) handing out photos of the PL to everyone who came to see him - the programme said that it was illegal/punishable in some way for people to have photos of the Dalai Lama. Also the strict security measures taken for the visit.

It sounds like those photos/pictures carry a power unrecognisable to a European, for example.

Also a debate between the head monk in charge of the arrangements for the visit - or, who'd thought he was in charge of the visit - and the local party chief, who turned up later on in the preparations. Monastery protocol determined a certain number of monks for the ceremony to greet the PL - but there aren't enough monks allowed by the government now to meet the ceremonial requirements. That seemed particularly poignant to me having seen the footage from ceremonies in the 1930's and 40's in "The Lost World of Tibet" earlier in the week.

dzibead

The BBC is utterly craven to show this program and then make mealy-mouthed disavowals of its obviously propagandistic purpose.

Kingstonian, if you get interested in following up on the Panchen Lama issue, a British journalist/historian named Isabel Hilton has written a book about it:

http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&...JJ pzDQavqszY

And for an overview of the current treatment of Tibetan Buddhism by the People's Republic of China, including the Panchen Lama controversy, you might have a look at the the following report published by the International Campaign for Tibet - the entire report is available online in pdf form at this link:

http://www.savetibet.org/documents/p...gionReport.pdf