Listen & Be Heard Weekly Archives

Tibet: A Buddhist Trilogy
San Francisco, Landmarks? Opera Plaza, 601 Van Ness, 415.267.4893
from April 7th
Show times: Sat & Sun – 11:30, 2:15, 5: 00, 8:00*
Fri, & Mon-Thu – 2:15, 5:00, 8:00*

*Saturday, April 8th: Q&A with the Writer / Director Graham Coleman following the 8.00 P.M. screening

With March 10 marking the 48th anniversary of the Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule, such films as Tibet: A Buddhist Trilogy plays a significant role in modern society sharing an unobtrusive perspective of a culture that contains an amalgamation of monastic traditions, political endurance, and cultural edification.

Complete with digital restoration of original material filmed in the ?70s, British Director, Graham Coleman, welds together this trilogy into a single presentation after more than 20 invisible years. Offering amazing and rare footage of a world that seems unscathed by time, Tibet: A Buddhist Trilogy takes on a Dante-esque journey of the spiritual and mystical elements as it applies to Tibetan Buddhism. The film follows Tibet?s living cultural legacy that represents more than 2,500 years of examination into the nature of the mind and the human condition.

Beginning in 1977 at Sera Monastic University Tibetan Settlement in Bylakuppe, South India, this facility was originally the second largest monastery in Tibet where 6,000 monks studied and lived. Part I of this trilogy treats viewers to sit in with the monks and witness a lively early morning debate session. As well, this segment transitions to an intimate portrait of a younger Dalai Lama as a spiritual and temporal leader.

Part II travels to The Great Stupa and the Phulwary Sakya Monastery, in Boudha, Nepal, providing a wonderful and poetic interpretation of an ancient sacred ritual called ?A Beautiful Ornament? which intends to protect and sweep away negative elements in society.

Part III explores the ultimate in Buddhist philosophy of death and impermanence by way of traveling to the Tiksey Valley in Ladakh. There we come across the monastery, where Tiksey Rinpoche is teaching his students by quoting the incomparable Yogi Tsongkhapa on understanding impermanence stating these words of wisdom: ?Our life ebbs and finishes from moment to moment. We lead a comfortable life yet there are many circumstances that cause death, our life is like a candle in the wind and at any time the wind can blow upon us, and bad conditions make the length of our life-span indefinite. At death even though this present body?s continuum ceases, the mind continuum never ceases at all. Therefore at death we take rebirth again and again.?

Although a film that seems to be geared towards the more serious practitioner, Tibet: A Buddhist Trilogy shows the mystique and beauty of the faculties of the human spirit when one chooses a path towards enlightenment and renunciates all worldly things. This film?s production is timeless?philosophically and cinematographically. If you didn?t know this was produced more than two decades ago, it could have easily just been done today. With uninterrupted documentation of monastic life and mantras interpreted in completion as if you were a guest in the monastery, Tibet: A Buddhist Trilogy presents no commentary and only translation of the rituals that speaks for themselves. For more information visit www.tibet-trilogy.com.