Bhutan, Back to the Roots

In 2022 Matthieu Ricard, a French-born, Tibetan-ordained monk, writer, translator and photographer, returned to Bhutan for the first time in seven years. It was in Bhutan that he had studied with the great Khentsye Rinpoche for a number of years in the 1970s.

The trip back is a pilgrimage of sorts, back to his roots, and the land of his root-teacher, now long passed away, but still lovingly remembered by the people of Bhutan.

It is also a journey to a sheltered people, who still value the environment and a more simple life, lived according to Buddhist principles, although modernity is creeping in.

The film follows him as he travels around Bhutan, going to various places that he or his teacher have connections to, and to one or two places he has not been to before. Along the way he reflects on what he sees and who he meets. The film is beautifully photographed, and we see a number of his own photographs, both old and new.