Kundun

What was supposed to be a quiet evening, after dinner, relaxing with Martin Scorsese's 1997 epic, triggered a 3 hour Internet research exercise on the history of Tibet and the man they call Kundun in the Lhasa Dialect, His Holiness, the Dalai Lama.



Invaded and occupied by Motherland China who claimed Tibet as her own in 1951, Kundun fled to Dharamsala, India in 1959, where he heads the Tibetan Government In Exile and the thousands that make up the Tibetan Diaspora, till today.

The film is beautifully shot, with scenery and colors so breathtaking you forget that most of the stuff was done in the mountains of Morocco. China would never have allowed Scorsese do shoot something like this in Tibet and I think the auteur is still banned from the Motherland for daring to glorify the Dalai Lama on the big screen. Kundun never made it big at the box-office. But most critics agree it is one of Scorsese's greatest works. Visually stunning, emotionally moving.

Watching it made me feel alittle ashamed about being Chinese though. And I can only imagine how the Dalai Lama must be feeling, seeing his country's rich Buddhist traditions and culture, diluted with each passing day by atheist Communist ideology and indoctrination. Watching his very magnificent Potala Palace turned into a Tourist Museum. And his people displaced by the ever increasing Han Chinese who have all but taken up Permanent Residency in the capital Lhasa.

The 14th Reincarnation of the Compassionate Buddha and Nobel Peace Prize-winning Laureate is facing a mighty juggernaut unprecedented in the whole of Tibetan history. And the juggernaut is here to stay. Sometimes I feel that the world has forgotten its roof. The impending US recession, the Middle-East conflict, natural disasters, and the fact that we are in the process of selecting a new Global Big Brother (Obama being my choice but who cares?), means that the call for the return of full Tibetan independence has been placed on the back-burner again. And with China flexing its economic and military muscles on the world stage, I'm not even sure Kundun will see true freedom in his lifetime.

But I don't think His Holiness is particularly bothered by it. Because according to the concept of Re-birth, the 15th Reincarnation would simply carry on his good work. There is a peace and genteel humility about the man. As epitomised by the final lines in the film when Kundun is asked by an Indian Border Guard, May I ask, are you the Lord Buddha?

To which he replies, I think that I am a reflection, like the moon on water. When you see me, and I try to be a good man, you see yourself .

Lovely.