A Gesar Bard's Tale Documentary directed by Donagh Coleman and Lharigtso September 11, 2014
Fascinating lovely film, by a winner of the Grand Prix at Cannes,2009, Cerino Cinemountain Festival in Italy, "Stone Pastures", 2008. Donagh is born American, but Irish and Finnish, and his previous film is an Irish-Finnish-English co production. He now lives in Dublin but also spends time in Finland. . He studied Tibetan Buddhism and spent long periods in India and China. He has made this film at the suggestion of Lharigtso, who graduated from Beijing's China Womens University with a degree in Media Studies. She was born in Amdo, Qinghai Province(where I travelled last summer, over four mountains and visiting three lakes, the Greater(Sacred) and Smaller Qing Hai Hu, and the Great Salt Lake. Lharigtso has worked in the art department and Tibetan documentary productions in Zizang TV, Lhasa, as well as in Beijing TV. From 2003, she worked with the ngo Tibet Heritage Fund, where she organized projects, photographed and produced videos, including UN-Commissioned programmes. Since 2008, Lharigtso has worked with Donagh Coleman, producing programs for FInnish and Irish broadcasters.
A Gesar Bard's Tale is about Dawa, an illiterate Tibetan nomad whose life revolved around herding yaks. He says he had a happy childhood. Through a series of visions, Gesar obtained the gift of telling Tibet's King Gesar's epic story(I recall, and Donagh confirmed it: Mongolia also has the Gesar tradition). I once had a copy of this tale. Thousands of verses of the world's longest epic started pouring out of the nomad boy, who became a celebrated Gesard bard. He is sent to Llhasa, to develop his ability, and returns to learn to teach himself to read and write down the epics, which are made into tape recordings. At 35, Dawa receives a salary from the Chinese government as a guardian of National Cultural Heritage and is regarded as a "holy man" , --due to his ability to "heal" through tibetan medicine techniques--, by his community. Then a devastating earthquake hit Dawa's hometown, Gyegyu (this earthquake followed about six months after the devastating earthquake in Sichuan China) With the old Tibetan town reduced to rubble, Chinese redevelopment of the region further destroyed the remaining structures, in order to develop a whole new town. Dawa takes a pilgrimage to the highest sacred mountain, to seek healing in view of man's destructiveness to the Earth which has spoken back to him, by offering himself in prayers to Gesar.
Lharigtso and Donagh Coleman, the film maker of a Finnish Irish production
A Gesar Bard's Tale is about Dawa, an illiterate Tibetan nomad whose life revolved around herding yaks. He says he had a happy childhood. Through a series of visions, Gesar obtained the gift of telling Tibet's King Gesar's epic story(I recall, and Donagh confirmed it: Mongolia also has the Gesar tradition). I once had a copy of this tale. Thousands of verses of the world's longest epic started pouring out of the nomad boy, who became a celebrated Gesard bard. He is sent to Llhasa, to develop his ability, and returns to learn to teach himself to read and write down the epics, which are made into tape recordings. At 35, Dawa receives a salary from the Chinese government as a guardian of National Cultural Heritage and is regarded as a "holy man" , --due to his ability to "heal" through tibetan medicine techniques--, by his community. Then a devastating earthquake hit Dawa's hometown, Gyegyu (this earthquake followed about six months after the devastating earthquake in Sichuan China) With the old Tibetan town reduced to rubble, Chinese redevelopment of the region further destroyed the remaining structures, in order to develop a whole new town. Dawa takes a pilgrimage to the highest sacred mountain, to seek healing in view of man's destructiveness to the Earth which has spoken back to him, by offering himself in prayers to Gesar.
 |
| Dawa as Gesar in prayers after earthquake |
Comments
Post a Comment