BUDDHISM CULTURE MEDITATION LIFE SEPTEMBER 1998

A Video Film by Barbara Green

REVIEWED BY JOHN WELWOOD

Berkeley filmmaker Barbara Green, working with editor Nathaniel Dorsky, has made an award-winning film about Tashi Jong, a Tibetan Buddhist community in exile in Northern India, which is a joy to watch. Narrated by two young Tibetan women, the film radiates warmth and intimacy, while providing the viewer a complete picture of life in this unique community, where the traditions and way of life of sacred Tibet are preserved.

Tashi Jong is a community of the Drukpa Kagyu lineage and was founded by the eighth Khamtrul Rinpoche, who brought from Tibet knowledge of many of the traditional Tibetan arts and crafts that are practiced there today. Khamtrul Rinpoche himself was a master of the lama dance, a rare ceremony now prohibited in Tibet under the Chinese occupation. The film's dramatic climax brings us right into the heart of the dances that celebrate the birth of Padmasambhava each spring at Tashi Jong. The final sequences of the film show us the latest incarnation of Khamtrul Rinpoche presiding over the sacred ceremonies.

Along the way, the film lovingly introduces us to may aspects of the community: family life, education of the young monks, thangka painting, carpet-weaving, and even a Free Tibet demonstration that some community members participate in at a nearby Indian town. One of the most touching sequences, and my personal favorite, is the portrayal of the young monks, in all their awkward enthusiasm, learning the lama dances.

At Tashi Jong, where lay people, monks and nuns, and retreating yogis all live together, we witness the seamless harmony of heaven, earth, and man (human), joining together to constitute a complete sacred world. In these troubled times it is rare to witness such a simple ad wholesome way of life, based on the integration of sacred and secular. Barbara Green's film provides a precious glimpse of a world that is ancient yet timeless, forever fresh, eternally flourishing in the now.

JOHN WELWOOD is a psychotherapist in San Francisco , a teacher of integrating meditation and psychotherapy and author of Journey of the Heart and Love and Awakening.