[Indigsol] Angry Monk: Reflections on Tibet

[Pei-Ju Wang]

Angry Monk: Reflections on Tibet

(a documentary by Luc Schaedler)

 

Part of the uOttawa Cinema Academica (uCA) series

Friday Oct 31 7:30 PM at the University of Ottawa

MacDonald Hall Auditorium (MCD 146), 150 Louis Pasteur

 

Q&A after the film with Tibet Activist Pema Namgyal

Hosted by Cinema Academica

 

trailer  www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCpb4cfytT4

 

about the film

 

Gendun Choephel (1903-1951) is a legendary figure in Tibet, not simply

because he was believed to be the reincarnation of a famous Buddhist lama

but also because this promising young monk eventually turned his back on

monastic life and became a fierce critic of his country's religious

conservatism, cultural isolationism and reactionary government. After

leaving the monastery in 1934, and fueled by his intellectual curiosity

and free-spirited nature, Choephel began extensive travels throughout

Tibet and India in order to understand the true political history of his

country.

 

ANGRY MONK provides both a personal and political portrait of this

pioneering and visionary intellectual who was also a smoking, drinking and

sexually active man who renounced the "false duty of monastic

obligations." The film traces the biography and historic times of

Choephel, who lived between the British colonial invasion of 1903 and the

occupation by the Chinese army in 1951.

 

In addition to rare archival footage, Choephel's paintings and sketches,

and contemporary scenes of many of the sites he visited, the documentary

features interviews with Tibetan historians, scholars, writers, poets, a

travel companion, a contemporaneous British diplomat, and Choephel's wife.

Their commentary and reminiscences chronicle the major phases of

Choephel's life, including his monastery education in Lhasa (1927-34), his

journey across Tibet (1934-1938), his journey throughout India

(1938-1946), and his return to Tibet (1946-1951).

 

Choephel's many writings include a guide book to Buddhist holy sites in

India, a Tibetan translation of the Kama Sutra, and a political history of

Tibet published posthumously. He also wrote articles for an expatriate

newspaper that criticized Tibet as a political, cultural and scientific

backwater, which in 1946 led the Tibetan government to imprison Choephel

for three years as a political subversive. Today Choephel is a revered

figure in his Chinese-occupied homeland, and an influential symbol of hope

for those seeking political and spiritual reform in a free Tibet.

 

watch the trailer

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCpb4cfytT4

 

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