Journey Into Buddhism: Vajra Sky Over Tibet

Product Description Vajra is the Sanskrit word signifying the thunderbolt of illumination, and yatra is the word for pilgrimage or spiritual journey. This enthralling documentary offers a cinematic pilgrimage to central Tibet, bearing witness to the indomitable faith of its endangered Buddhist community and the imminent threat to its very survival. A film by John Bush. Review John Bush, who has taken a long interest in our traditions, has created this full length documentary of pilgrimage to Central Tibet, bearing witness to the enduring faith there. I am grateful to him for his dedication to this project to raise awareness of the Vajrayana Buddhist tradition of Tibet as well as the current restraints on religious freedom there. --The Dalai Lama, from him Special Message Bush's stunning camera work adroitly captures the majestic landscapes and icons of Buddhism: its murals and artworks, monks and nuns... A tonic for Buddhists, no doubt, it offers many pleasures to atheists as well. When the Iron Bird flies, the dharma will go to the West, says a 1,500-year-old Tibetan Buddhist prophecy, one that seems to have been amply fulfilled in 1959, when Mao s Communist forces overwhelmed Tibet, killed a million or so Tibetans, and forced the 14th Dalai Lama into his still-continuing Western exile. In the near half-century since, there has been a deliberate long-term undermining of Tibet s ancient Buddhist culture crudely violent in the Great Helmsman s time, more subtle and insidious since. Deep physical and spiritual scars remain on this tiny, beleaguered nation. Longtime Buddhist filmmaker John Bush took a two-person crew into the country without official permission, they avoided interviews for fear of reprisals and filmed, often surreptitiously, the great religious sites as they exist now, after decades of oppression from Beijing. He finds a resilient, welcoming people who continue to practice their religion (now officially tolerated ) despite the infiltration of Chinese agents into their monasteries, the razing of many sites to facilitate surveillance, and the kidnapping of the family of the 9-year-old Pandau Lama (whose future duty is to choose the next Dalai Lama) and his replacement by a 6-year-old Beijing-backed stooge. Filmed only with direct light and sound, Bush s stunning camerawork adroitly captures the majestic landscapes and icons of Buddhism: its murals and artworks, monks and nuns. Not incidentally, the film also offers a compact primer in the ways of dharma. A tonic for Buddhists, no doubt, it offers many pleasures to atheists as well. --John Patterson, Village Voice Not only the year s best documentary, but also among the finest films ever made about religion... A work of power and glory. John Bush s Vajra Sky Over Tibet has been traveling the art house circuit under the proverbial radar, which is a major shame since it is not only the year s best documentary, but it is also among the finest films ever made about religion. The faith in question is Vajrayana, the Tibetan form of Buddhism. Vajra is Sanskrit for thunderbolt of awakening and Vajra Sky Over Tibet is a thunderbolt in its own right. Traveling through Chinese-occupied Tibet with only a local guide and driver, Bush quietly captured the most remarkable portrait of that Himalayan land imaginable. In a way, this may be the last hope to see Tibet before it is permanently asphyxiated by the Communist Chinese authorities, who are slowly turning this ancient land from a vibrant and distinctive culture into a massive Chinese-operated museum. Bush chose not to interview any local people for his film, fearing reprisals by the Chinese government for anyone who speaks out against the occupation. He also kept his camera away from the Chinese occupation force (except for a brief and funny shot of two sloppily dressed soldiers enjoying a cigarette break). What Bush focused on, however, is the remains of Tibet s Buddhist cultural heritage. The fact any of it survives is miraculous, given the genocide enacted against the Tibetan people by the Chinese and the wreckage of the holy shrines during the chaos of the Cultural Revolution. The temples and palaces that survive overcame years of desecration (with sacred sites used for storing pigs or grain) and subsequent years of haphazard restoration (some statues of the Buddha were repainted in hideous and inappropriately garish hues). But the will and faith of the Tibetan people was not destroyed by the Chinese, and Vajra Sky Over Tibet brilliantly shows how both the surviving monastic orders and the general population did not jettison their religion. Sequences showing people coming to prayer and celebrating religious festivals provide an extraordinary view of quiet, sincere and genuinely humble allegiance to a power greater than the Chinese military. Even the Chinese who ve been relocated by the Beijing regime to Tibet in an effort to outnumber the Tibetan population have been caught up in this (the Co
ASIN: B000T4SXB0
VSKU: DBV.B000T4SXB0.A
Condition: Acceptable
Author/Artist:Tenzin L. Choegyal|John Bush
Binding: Dvd
Note: Any images shown are stock photographs and product may differ from what is shown.
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