Dharma Documentaries

This is the third of five films about people who were connected with Dunhuang, and their roles in its history. The films are largely elaborations based on legends surrounding the outpost on the western edge of China. This week’s episode starts in 417CE, and the silk road is again in disarray. In China proper it is the time of the 16 kingdoms. Dunhuang however is still prospering, standing as it does, between China and the rest of the world. One of the Hun tribes works to unite control over the Hexi Corridor, which is the raod into China, it is headed by Juqu Mengxun, and eventually he gains control of a large area, including Dunhuang. After establishing himself Juqu Mengxun is being advised by the Buddhist monk Tanwu Chen, who is from India. It is at this time that work begins at Mogao, and the first of the caves are excavated. Juqu Mengxun eventually had Tanwu Chen killed, rather than lose him to a rival, and regretting his action he died himself shortly thereafter. But his legacy lies in the early Mogao Caves.

This is the second of five films about people who were connected with Dunhuang, and their roles in its history. The films are largely elaborations based on legends surrounding the outpost on the western edge of China. This episode looks at the life of Cang Ci, an old official called on by the Emperor to bring order back to Dunhuang after it had fallen into lawlessness with the rise of a local oligarchy, who oppress the poor and enrich themselves. Cang Ci is appointed Governor, but seems to have little power, but he is working to find out who is behind the troubles that plague the city, and when he finds out he acts decisively, and brings order back to the outpost, becoming its most famous and well-loved Governor.

This is the first of five films about people who were connected with Dunhuang, and their roles in its history. The films are largely elaborations based on legends surrounding the outpost on the western edge of China. The first film is about Ban Chao, who was born into a family of historians, but made his name as a stategist and general at a time when the edge of the Han Empire was open to attacks from the nomadic peoples around it. Ban Chao not only managed to defend the western border of China, but also made alliances with many of the peoples beyond the border, and also fought off a huge army coming from the Central Asian Kushan Empire. His story stands near the beginning of the history of Dunhuang, which would become a great commercial centre on the Silk Roads, and also the site of some of the greatest art works ever produced.

This is a record of the Dalai Lama’s one week visit to Norway in 1989 in order to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for that year, which for some time gave hope that growing international recognition of the Tibetan cause would lead to a resolution of the problem. The documentary opens with the formal ceremonies surrounding the presentation of the prize, with extracts from the speeches that were given at the time, including by the Dalai Lama himself both in Tibetan and English. That was followed by other gatherings, including the evening dinner held in honour of the recipient, and more importantly the Nobel Lecture, which was held on the following day. In the following days the Dalai Lama also travelled to Samiland in northern Norway, where he was greeted by the chairman of the Sami Parliment, and Trondheim, where he visited the cathedral. Still we see that 25 years after receiving the prize, nothing much has changed in Tibet, except that the indigenous Tibetan population is now outnumbered by the Han Chinese, and the people have turned to desperate measures to lodge their protests in the form of self-immolations.

This is a film from the Core Kyoto series made by NHK which examines the beliefs, practices and culture surrounding the Goddess of Mercy Kannon in Japan. Kannon, known as Kuan Yin in China, and Avalokiteshvara in India, is a popular Bodhisattva who is believed to listen to people’s pleas and come to their help whenever she is called upon. The film describes the history and introduction of Kannon worship, the sutra connected with her cult, and looks at some of the beautiful art works she has inspired in the temples around Kyoto. We also see the recently revived 33-Kannon statue pilgrimage, visiting some of the most important temples in Kyoto, and hear from some of the leading priests associated with the worship.

This is a very interesting documentary, probably from the 1990s showing how scientists around the world, working in various disciplines, are helping to piece together the pre-history of great civilisations. The focus here is on the predecessors to the great Angkor civilisation, and we see archaeologists, anthropologists and even nuclear scientists working in specialised areas to provide on overview of trade and civilisation in the ancient world. The search takes us all over the eastern and western worlds – Turkey, the Indus Valley, India, Cambodia, Central Asia and China – and they are seen to having been in contact with each other from the earliest times. Out of all this we get a fascinating background to the Angkor civilisation, which was one of the greatest the world has seen, it certainly didn’t arise without a long background of contacts and influences from various other civilisations, even though it proved to be unique in many ways.

This is a film broadcast by NHK, Japan earlier this year, that seems to have been filmed secretly over a period of a year or more by one unnamed Chinese filmmaker at the famous Tibetan monastery at Sertar. Normally the authorities do not allow photography at Sertar, so this is an exceptional chance to see life inside what is probably the largest monastery in the world, housing over 20,000 monks and nuns. Not only did the filmmaker get access to the monastery, but he also interviewed high lamas like Tsutim Lodhi Khenpo, and nuns like Ishi Wangmo, as well as filming teachings in Tibetan and Chinese. The monastery was destroyed during the cultural revolution, and was rebuilt starting around 1980 by Jigme Phuntsok, who was its head until he passed on in 2004. The current head is Tenzin Gyatso, who we see giving teachings and blessings. The film also focuses on the old practice of sky burial, where the deceased are cut up and offered to the birds, mainly vultures, and there is an interview with Tsewang Rinzing, who is a young sky burial master.

This is a fascinating film made just a few months before the Karmapa fled Tibet to join the Dalai Lama in India. The film is a sort of follow-up to an earlier film about his previous reincarnation as the 16th Karmapa called The Lions’s Roar. At the time of the film the Karmapa is just 14 years old and is based around his life at the Tsurphu Monastery in 1999. The film includes the first recorded teaching the Karmapa gave, to a group of devotees from Taiwan who were sponsoring road building works. It also shows the Karmapa dancing in the traditional dances held every year at the monastery, and giving Dharma transmissions. A large section of the film focuses on the reincarnated lamas (Tulkus) he has recognised, and shows how their early development is taken care of. And we also see the unfolding of a massive thangka during an annual festival, which take place on a hillside nearby. The focus of the film though is certainly the Karmapa himself, who really comes across even at this early period as someone destined for greatness.

A short film from Sri Lanka about contrasting lifestyles and how a young man is won over to the Buddha's teaching.

This three-hour film biography of one of India’s most important social reformers was completed in 1999 by Jabbar Patel, who had previously made a well-received, but fairly short, documentary about the same subject. The intention when making the film was two-fold: to produce a dramatic work that would be on the same scale as the Gandhi movie in the 80s; and to correct the historical facts regarding the life of the man and the history of the country. That this was controversial can be shown by the fact that the director took almost 2 years to get the film past the censors. To say the story is epic is very much an understatement, only in fiction would we expect to come across such a story. Here is a man who was born an untouchable at a time when they were largely forbidden education – he himself was not even allowed inside the classroom. But somehow, through hard work he studied and entered Elphinstone College and obtained a degree from the affiliated Bombay University. He managed to get a Baroda State Scholarship and then studied at Colombia University in New York, where he prepared his MA. He later went on to London and did his PhD thesis and meanwhile studied law, attaining both his degree and being called to the bar within three years. In doing so he faced and overcame enormous hardships along the way, but his determination brought him through. Back in India he started working for the upliftment of the untouchables, which brought him into conflict with mainstream Hindu society, which was still shackled to the law books and customs that had been passed down to them. He wrote articles, led marches and engaged in civil disobedience to attain his aims, and gained a huge following amongst the people. He also had to struggle with the leader of the Independence movement, Mahatma Gandhi, who had his own – and sometimes very different – approach to the problems the country was facing. Branded as a traitor for dealing with the colonial government, and facing opposition to his upliftment and human rights programme, he still managed to struggle on, eventually coming to an uneasy compromise with Gandhi. The Indian Congress would only agree to support the Allied Powers during the war if they were guaranteed independence after it, and when the time come it was Dr. Ambedkar who was appointed the nation’s first law minsiter, and was the main person who drafted the constitution. Another of his attempts at reform to uplift the legal position of women, called the Hindu Code Bill, died in parliament, and he thereafter resigned his seat. Already in the 1930s Dr. Ambedkar had announced that because of the impossibility of reforming the Hindu system he would himself leave the fold and take his followers with him, and the final revolutionary act of his life was to renounce Hinduism and declare himself a Buddhist following the Theravada school. That was in 1956, and he died only two months later. He had previously written a book called Who were the Shudras? in part of which he tried to show that originally the Mahar people, the caste he was born into, were originally Buddhists who had been forced outside of regular society when they refused to give up their beliefs and practices, and so he considered his conversion a re-conversion. The film is compelling because the character it portrays is so heroic, but I found that the epic sweep of historical events that was found in the Gandhi film was missing here, and for an outsider they may have difficulty piecing together the life story with the historical story. Next week I will show a recent documentary by Stalin K. about the situation of untouchables (now called dalits) in India today.

This documentary is extracted from a series of films make by NHK and France 5 TV channels covering the history of the cultures of the Eurasian landmass and the silk roads that run through it. This film focuses of Gandhara, which straddles what is now Pakistan and Afghanistan (around the Swat and Kabul Valleys) and the emergent Buddhist culture that arose there just before the Common Era. The film covers the rise and the fall of the religion in the area it covers, and has some interesting interviews with academics working on the material and remains, including Prof. Richard Salomon, an expert of the Gandharian language. We also see something of the Shöyen collection, one of the largest collections of Gandharan texts in the world, and see how computer imaging is helping to reassemble the texts, while preserving the originals. The film shows how the meeting of the Greaco cultures in Bactria and the Indian cultures represented by Buddhism gave rise to the first Buddhist statues, and a truly cosmopolitan culture that stood at the centre of the transmission of Buddhism. The narration is in English, and is evidently a translation of either the French or the Japanese version, but unfortunately the interviews have no sub-titles, so unless you know the languages used part of the film will be lost.

This is a film made in 1994 by NHK about the very strict training practice that is found in certain Zen monasteries in Japan. The one featured here is the Shogen ji Monastery in Shimizu-ku. The film roughly follows an aspirant as he comes to the door of the monastery and seeks entrance, a process which may take some days. It shows the sorts of practices expected in the monastery, including sitting meditation practice and ko’an interviews between master and student. It especially focuses on the Rahatsu sesshin period in which, for eight days in the dead of winter, the monks exert themselves at their very best trying to achieve satori, or a form of enlightenment. Along the way we are introduced to the spirit of Zen, which is simple, austere, strict and focused, and we learn something about the history of the school and of the temple itself.

A film made by NHK, and seemingly a companion piece to last week’s film about training in a Zen monastery, this documentary looks at how Zen has affected the arts and culture in Japan. The film looks at many aspects of the arts and culture, including No Theatre, the tea ceremony, simplicity in architecture, and the fine arts: painting, black ink line painting, and other modes of expression, all of which have been influenced by Zen principals. Near the end of the film we are given a set of seven aesthetics of Zen art, which I enumerate here: 1. Fukinsei, Asymmetry 2. Daisuzoku, Non attachment 3. Shizen, Naturalness 4. Kanso, Silence 5. Koko, Reasoned Austerity 6. Yugen, Profound Subtlety 7. Sei-Jaku, Tranquility The film has a wonderful soundtrack by Toru Takemitsu which also incoporates these qualities. The film was directed by Toshimaro Ama.

By chance this documentary, which was produced as part of the Journeys to the Ends of the Earth series for the Discovery Channel in 1999, turned out to be really historical because it seems to have been filmed just a couple of years before the destruction of the Bamiyan statues and the invasion of Afghanistan following the 9/11 attacks. We therefore get to see some of the last footage of the statues, and their environment in the Bamiyan Valley, before they were blown up by the Taliban. One thing that occurred to me, is that there must be much more footage available to the makers of the film than is shown here, and it would be good if it were released for its historical value. Before we get to Bamiyan though, David Adams, the photo-journalist at the center of the film, has to travel through what was a dangerous and pretty unyielding country, starting from Kabul and making a detour round the country to eventually end up just a couple of hundred kilometres north of Kabul. Along the way we see some of the destruction of this turbulent country, which has, in fact, for centuries been in the midst of one war zone after another. So the film is as much about Afghanistan in the present as it is about its really glorious past. But that perhaps only adds to its pathos.

This is a very good and well made documentary from Channel NewsAsia about King Thibaw, who was deposed and taken into remote exile in India in 1885, and his wife, children and their descendants up and till today. King Thibaw was revered in Burma at the time as something like a Divine King, and he lived like one also: sitting on a solid gold throne, eating off solid gold plates, etc. All of that changed when he was removed to the isolated fishing village of Ratnagiri in Maharasthra on the west coats of India, far away from his homeland. There he lived on a small pension, but with no sense of fiscal propriety at all, trying to still live like a King, even if only of a very small and humble castle. His eldest daughter however fell in with the doorman, and became pregnant, which must have shocked all and sundry, and even after the King died and the family were allowed to return to Burma, she fled back to be the doorman’s mistress. The film itself follows not only the twisting and turning fate of the King and his immediate family, but also of his descendants, one of whom is a humble three-wheeler driver in Ratnagiri to this day. Others retain their regal airs in Burma, some fell into disgrace, some feel the King disgraced the monarchy and find it hard to come to terms with their ancestry. All-in-all this is a very unexpected and entertaining look at a fallen King and his familial legacy and how it has affected the generations that came after.

This is a very fine retelling of the traditional Angulimāla story. The Buddhist tradition is full of great stories that convert well into modern media, but so far very little has been done in this regard. This film, which has English subtitles, was made in Thailand in 2003, and it is as dark and foreboding as its central character, who is born Ahimsaka (meaning: Non-Violent), but turns into Angulimāla (Finger-Necklace, from the necklace he makes of his victims fingers). How he makes that transition is interesting indeed, as he wishes at first to prevent bandits from hurting themselves (and others) any further, by killing them. Later he starts killing anybody, simply to relieve them of their suffering in this world. He is led astray in this through his high levels of meditative achievement, unmatched with insight, which put him in touch with the God of the Mountain, who is really a Māra in disguise. We should always remember that Māra Devaputta is one of the highest gods in the sense-spheres (Kāmaloka). While about to kill his own Mother to fulfil his vow to kill 1,000 people (and attain the Dhamma-core), the Buddha appears in a blazing light, and converts him by showing him how to really end suffering. Angulimāla gains right view and ordains, but he is followed by the remembrance of his deeds, and even as a monk the people attack and stone him when he tries to enter the village for alms. The film is something of a psychological thriller, something of a horror story, but the interesting thing is that it is all told from a Buddhist perspective, and we understand in the end that, despite his background, even he can attain Awakening.

The last film in this series actually has nothing to do with Buddhism, but I append it here as it still has interest. The first section continues the story of the West Market and the financial technologies employed. The second and larger section tells the story of the arrival of Islam in Chang’an 30 years after its beginnings, and the development of the Great Mosque, which still flourishes today. It is an interesting story, and shows just how cosmopolitan China and its leaders were in those days, and is a good example for today

This is the third of four documentaries from Chinese Central Television’s Channel 9 in a series about Eminent Buddhists in Ancient Chang’an. In this week’s episode we have two sections. The first is about the great pilgrim and translator Yijing, who was younger than Xuan Zang, and concentrated on Vinaya texts, which he brought back from India and Sri Lanka, almost at the cost of his life. Once he had returned he was installed at Jianfu Temple, which is where he built the Small Wild Goose Pagoda to house the sacred texts he had brought with him from India. During his 17 active years of work, he translated 61 sutras, including the Avatamsakasutra, which is the basis for the advanced Huayan school of Buddhism. The second part of the film looks at the West Market and how cosmopolitan Chang-an was during the Tang dynasty. The city at that time was very large, having up to 1 million residents, a third of which may have been foreigners.

This is the second of four documentaries from Chinese Central Television’s Channel 9 in a series about Eminent Buddhists in Ancient Chang’an. This episode takes up the story of Xuan Zang and his translation project, looking at the Ci’en Temple that the Emperor built for him to carry out his work. He had the help of 50 permanent staff, mainly monastic, and 200 others who lived elsewhere; later he asked the Emperor to build The Big Wild Goose Pagoda, which housed not only his texts and translations, but also Buddha statues brought from India, and Bodily Relics (sarira) also. Xuan Zang’s translation work lasted for 19 years, in which time he managed to supervise the translation of 75 sutras, comprising more than 13 million characters. Later he retired to the Yuhua Palace in Shanxi province, where he lived out the last four years of his life. We also hear something of the life stories and works of two of his most famous disciples: Kuiji and Yuan’ce, whose work contributed to the corpus of the great Master, and whose relics now lie close to the Master’s.

This is the first of four documentaries from Chinese Central Television’s Channel 9 in a series about Eminent Buddhists in Ancient Chang’an. In this episode we see something of the life story of one of the greatest of Chinese translators, Ven. Kumarajiva, who was born in the kingdom of Kucha, which now lies in what is Xinjiang in western China. At the young age of seven he was ordained and sent to India to study, returning to Kucha when he was twelve. By the age of twenty he was already a famous monk, with his own disciples. Eventually he founded the Caotang Temple near the ancient capital Chang-an, and it was here that he did his main translation works, which included some of the most difficult of the philosophical works that had been written in the schools in India. This film also begins the story of his most influential of the Chinese translators, Xuan Zang, a story that will be continued next week, when we see his travels and work on return. This part focuses on his writing of the A Record of the Western regions of the Tang Dynasty.

This is a film from the Technical University in Darmstadt, Germany, giving 3D modelling of the various temple sites in Angkor, as well as of the surrounding civilisation. Although the film is in German, and there are no subtitles, it is so brilliantly realised that I thought to include it here, as it supplements many of the other films I have presented about Angkor. The modelling is made not just of the famous Angkor Wat, but also of Bayon, Bakheng, Ta Phrom and others, and also explains many things about the hydraulic works that supported the cities and surrounding towns. It would be really wonderful if somebody could provide subtitles in English for the film, as there is evidently a lot of research gone into it, and at present it is only available to German speakers.

Previously I have shown a couple of videos made by Goenka’s vipassanā students about the good effects of introducing vipassanā practice into prisons. The first of these looked at the Indian prison service, with Doing Time, Doing Vipassana from 2004; the second was The Dhamma Brothers in the US prison service from 2007. The current film is made about similar efforts being made in the Mongolian prison service in the years 2014-5, with an update at the end from 2018. The film is made entirely by Mongolians themselves, and similarly have indigenous teachers leading the teachings. The film is somewhat more poetic than the previous films mentioned, as it presents at times illustrated inner monologues of some of the people incarcerated, the despair of prison, and the realisation of what they have done, and how they need to move forward and out of it. As with the other films there are also interviews with the students which reveal what good effects the practice has had on them, and how they are planning for the future, especially for life when they get out of prison. The film is very moving at times as people come to see the reality of their actions and consequences, and determine to do better by themselves and others in the future. The prison authorities and the responsible people at the Justice Department have also been suitably impressed with the changes seen in the prisoners, and have expanded the programmes so that by the end of 2018 more then 1,300 prisoners have done the course, and there are ongoing efforts to increase this number, as well as provide facilities for daily practice in prisons.

The final episode is about music and dancing from the Balinese village of Peliatan, the separate items linked by an appropriately illustrative detail from Balinese paintings. The pieces featured are: a virtuoso instrumental from the gamelon orchestra a dance choreographed in 1951, The Bee Sips Honey snippets from 4 different ensembles the unforgettable Monkey Dance.

The second episode in this documentary series covers the animistic rituals and festivals of Bali, officially Hindu, but with origins in ancient ceremonials practised long before Hinduism came to the island. It opens with the spirit possession of children, said to be the origin of the Legong dance; it continues with possession by pigs, horses and even pots; and concludes with the all-important Barong ritual. This episode includes historical footage of the 1963 eruption of Mount Agung. Tomorrow I will show the last in the series, which differs from the others in offering little contextual commentary, being rather a collection of musical pieces.

I first visited Bali in 1990 on my way between Malaysia and Flores. I stayed in the cultural capital Ubud, which is in the hills near the centre of the island. I met a young Englishman on the bus and in exchange for giving meditation classes, he let me stay in the top half of his two-story house overlooking the paddy-fields, about 1km from the town centre. The setting, as is normal in Bali, was idyllic. I was only able to stay for a couple of weeks, but I was so much taken with the music and arts of the country that I attended the cultural performances nearly every night. Many of the performances took place at Peliatan, a well known village and important cultural centre not far from Ubud, which is featured in the video below. Just recently I came across a 3-part series about Bali made by David Attenborough in 1969 for the BBC, and will show it here over the next couple of weeks. The first episode is a general introduction to Bali, its people and their varied arts. It focuses first on the gamelon orchestra, before turning to the influence that Walter Spies has had on the younger generation of painters and sculptors, and concludes with the training of new pre-puberty Legong dancers and their first performance.