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Stuggle for freedom marks Tibet
By Nicholas Dewart
dewart@mscd.edu

Courtesy of Thread Cross Films Tibet: A Buddhist Trilogy Not rated 134 minutes Opens Sept. 15

China’s occupation and domination of Tibet, beginning in 1949, violently transformed an intact civilization, pushing many from their homes and causing the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Tibetans.

But nearly 20 years before Brad Pitt starred in Seven Years in Tibet – popularizing Tibet’s plight in American pop culture idiom – Graham Coleman was trailblazing the territory with his documentary Tibet: A Buddhist Trilogy, which has recently been re-edited and re-released.

On March 10, 1959, the people of Lhasa lashed out against Chinese occupation. Thousands of Tibetans were killed and the Dalai Lama fled to India. In his documentary, Coleman captures an eloquent Dalai Lama giving a speech on the 18th anniversary of the event.

In his speech, the Dalai Lama advocated compassion, asked his people to look to the Chinese for guidance and commended his enemies’ societal progress. He stressed that his people’s individual actions should be aimed toward the good of their society.

“As an exile community, our task is to persist with our struggle for freedom,” the Dalai Lama said. “What is important though, is to be honest, sincere, truthful and kind. The principal premise of our struggle for freedom is to safeguard our unique identity.”

Although the Chinese occupation ravaged Tibet and destroyed over 6,000 monasteries, Coleman focuses on how Tibetan culture transcended the violence to safeguard its rich and peaceful traditions.

One such tradition the film showed was the rite known as “A Beautiful Ornament,” a nearly 2,000-year-old tradition that seeks to sweep away the forces of harm in society. During religious retreats Buddhist monks meditate and construct a “cosmogram,” a symbolic depiction of the universe made of wood and colored thread.

Coleman filmed this section in the ancient village of Boudha, Nepal, where Tarik Rinpoche, abbot of Phulwary Sakya Monastery, prepared the rituals.

Originally, Tibet comprised three films that clocked in at more than four hours. Over 20 years later, Coleman has taken a more pragmatic approach to presenting his film. The edited version is just over two hours in length and divided into three concise parts: “The Dalai Lama, the Monasteries and the People,” “Radiating the Fruit of Truth” and “The Fields of Senses.”

Even though the film’s third part is set in Ladakh with scenic mountain views, this is not a typical PBS documentary. Viewers won’t find themselves passing a beginning philosophy course after watching this; it is not a general overview of Buddhism. Rather, it is an in-depth look at specific aspects of Tibetan culture.

Although the loud opening scenes of monks in full debate – who ominously slap their hands while making their point – may not match the distilled vision of Buddhism previously presented in American pop culture, Coleman’s documentary does its job eloquently, capturing on film a civilization crying for freedom.