Gazettenet.com
CHRIS LINDAHL
October 19, 2015
NORTHAMPTON — The screening of two films about Tibet at the Academy of Music this week will raise money for survivors of earthquakes in Nepal and help fund a newly established Tibetan Buddhist center in Amherst.
“Tibet in Song,” a film about the region’s folk music and dance by director and former political prisoner Ngawang Choephel, will be shown at the Academy Monday. The Tuesday showing, “Bringing Tibet Home,” tells the story of artist Tenzing Rigdol and his quest to bring Tibetan soil — literally — closer to people exiled from the region.
Both films start at 7 p.m.
Proceeds from the cost of admission will be split between two organizations raising money for the victims of April’s earthquakes in Nepal and the Jampel Nyingpo Ling Center for Tibetan Buddhist Studies in Amherst.
Tibet declared itself a republic in 1912 and functioned as an independent government until Chinese troops entered Tibet in 1950. Soon after, the Chinese government summoned a group of Tibetans to sign a treaty ceding sovereignty to China.
Since then, relations between ethnic Tibetans and Beijing have been tense, causing many Tibetans to leave in exile to practice their religion, culture and speak their language.
The local Tibetan community has found success in raising money by showing films in the past, like in June when a showing of “When the Iron Bird Flies” raised $12,000 for earthquake relief, film festival organizer Thondup Tsering said.
“It’s a means to inform the community about Tibetan Buddhism and at the same time we’re able to raise funds,” Tsering said. “The earthquake happened in April and right now the media isn’t covering it. People are still homeless and in dire need of help and we want to do whatever we can do.”
The 7.8 magnitude quake on April 25 killed over 9,000 and injured some 23,000. A May 12 aftershock killed more than 200 people.
Films on Tibet
“Tibet in Song” is a 2010 documentary by Ngawang Choephel, a Tibetan exile and former Fulbright scholar at Middlebury College. He returned to Tibet in 1995 to document traditional music and dance.
While on the trip, he was arrested by Chinese authorities and convicted of spying for the U.S. government. After being sentenced to 18 years in prison, he was released in 2002.
The film in 2010 won the Special Jury Prize for World Cinema at the Sundance Film Festival.
Tsering said Choephel has a “special tie” to New England. Many area residents involved in Amnesty International and Students for Free Tibet advocated for his release, with Vermont Senator Patrick J. Leahy, one of the most vocal public officials involved in the effort.
“Ngawang in some ways is coming back to his home away from home,” Tsering said.
In “Bringing Tibet Home,” directed by Tenzin Tsetan Choklay, Rigdol shares his quest to help his fellow Tibetans living in exile to temporarily return home. Inspired by his father’s dying wish to die in Tibet, Rigdol risked arrest when he smuggled 20,000 kilograms of soil from Tibet into India to create an interactive art installation.
“People from his father’s generation were able to reunite in Tibet,” Tsering said, while younger Tibetan people were given the chance to reconnect with their homeland.
Choklay will host a question and answer period after the showing.
This week’s festival was set to coincide with a visit from Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, to the Mullins Center in Amherst next week. The Dalai Lama cancelled his speech due to health reasons.
Center for Buddhist studies
The festival is organized by community members of the Jampel Nyingpo Ling Center for Tibetan Buddhist Studies. The center, formed in 2012, aims to teach Tibetans and non-Tibetans alike about the region’s culture, Buddhist religion and mediation.
The center’s main teacher and director is Geshe Ngawang Singey, a Buddhist monk.
At present, the center uses buildings at Amherst and Smith colleges, though a key goal is to move to a physical, permanent home in the future, said Tsering, who is on the center’s board of directors.
Singey, speaking with Tsering as a translator, said that he had three distinct motivations in starting the center.
“After 20 to 30 years of studying Tibetan Buddhism, he’s found that Buddhism has something to give to the wellbeing of the community,” Tsering said.
The Dalai Lama has said that a critical way to continue Tibetan culture is to ensure that its language is not lost. The center preserves and promotes the study of Tibetan language to Tibetans and non-Tibetans.
And the Dalai Lama has also said that its important to be a “21st century Buddhist,” which means that reciting prayers is not enough. A key part of being a Buddhist today is understanding its core teachings and having discussions, debates and exchanging ideas, Tsering said.
That includes working across the boundaries of faith to promote core goals of happiness and reducing suffering, he added.
“This is what I know and what I know is what I want to share and contribute to the community,” Singey said through Tsering.
Singey teaches several classes through the center, including course on Tibetan dialectical debating, which will be offered at Smith College Spring Semester, Tsering said.
Singey said he thinks the film festival is an effective way to teach people about the region’s culture and religion.
“Because some people learn better with a movie than with a lecture,” Tsering said.
Tickets for each film are $15 for general admission and $50 for reserved seating, and can be purchased at the www.academyofmusic.org, at the Academy’s box office and at the door. Additional donations for both causes will be accepted at the showings.
