my work...

City Lamas is one of my previous works on documentary film which portraits the Tibetan Buddhists in Beijing Lama’s Temple. Lama is the name of monk who believes in Tibetan Buddhism. I made this documentary film in the summer of 2010, right after the “March 14 Insurrection” happened at Tibet. During this insurrection, a group of Lamas attacked the government building and public facilities as the resistance to the governor at Tibet. They set cars on fire, burnt the national flag and attacked people on the street. This group of Lamas insisted that the Chinese government took away their religions and oppressed them by army force. What they fight for are their religious freedom and independence. They intended to build a new country. Things made this situation more complicated and tricky is that since foreign journalists fabricated some of the reports and the report did really bad damage to China worldwide, the Chinese government decided to close Tibet to all the foreign presses and also other media presses from China except China Central Television. The aftermath for this insurrection is that people from foreign country began to misunderstand the way that Chinese government solve this problem is to cover the truth that the government did dominate Tibet without giving Tibet its religious respect. People in China began to question Tibet Lamas, question about their religion and their life, or even afraid of seeing them on the street. Since then, this social and political issue becomes more and more sensitive than ever. It’s not easy to be solved because it is not only about politics but also religion.
As the questioning and curious voices about Lamas’ real life keeps rising, I decided to make this documentary on Lamas to give people a real look of Lamas. I began to feel a deep connection to the Tibetan Buddhism when I was a child and I was intrigued by the wisdom lies in the Buddhism philosophy. What disappointed me was that people paid too much attention to the political side of Lamas and even forgot to look at the amazing philosophy lie in Tibetan Buddhism. I want to use this documentary to draw people’s attention back to the real treasure that Tibetan Buddhism gives us: the wisdom of living with peaceful heart and the endless kindness. I did not put any sensitive political issues in this documentary. The basic way to construct City Lamas is to follow the daily life of Lamas in order to present the spiritual world they have. I do not want to judge right or wrong, define what should do or what should not do in this piece. I wish people can see by heart and judge by themselves, hopefully, give a satisfied answer to themselves at the end.