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Tricycle Film Club | Buddhist films and discussion for the Tricycle Community |
May Film Club: Angry Monk
Welcome to the Tricycle film club! This month (5/6-6/2) we are showing Angry Monk, a biography of Gendun Choephel, Tibet's most important intellectual of the 20th century.
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.
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.
Read our short profile of Gendun Choephel's life here.
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.....the visuals alone are stupendous, the story is epic...... Choephel was a visionary, in the end we feel his great sadness and that of tibet. He has let us use his eyes, and in these times the same changes and neglects are so evident...well, in this vast matter our hearts to truth will show the way. thanks to the film makers, editors and all involved for this very fine work............. matt
I'm sure Tibet would have changed for the better with the many people like Gendun Choephel speaking out and with HH XIV Dalai Lama's ideas on change and openness.
It's unfortunate we will never know what kind of society it might have changed into now.
It is refreshing to see that their were sane voices against the traditional feudalistic tibetian religious society. The romantic idealization of tibet had suppressed these voices. Gendun Choephel's was an unfortunate victim in a illiberal religious state.
Amazingly interesting history presentation enhanced by real film of the people and land.
Yes, the invasion is hard to watch as the same of our Native Americans was and is hard to study.
Namaste',
This is a wonderful, thought provoking film. I will need to watch it again. Thank you for making it available on Tricycle.
he broke his back
well done, deep bows of gratitude!
Interesting isn't it, how the story of reformers, revolutionaries are so similar in all cultures and histories of spiritual paths. What seems to be a life of failure or no worth are really gems. I guess I would hope my life and yours was a gift to all beings as Gendun Choephel's life was. The Chinese invasion is always hard for me to watch, as I am sure it is for you. The richness of the path cannot be removed from the dynamics of the earth or its creatures.