Tricycle | Awake in the World

Should the life of Gendun Chopel ever be made into a movie, the film would begin with a panoramic shot of the Potala, the palace of the Dalai Lama, on a brilliantly sunny morning in November 1950. The camera would pan down to the cluster of buildings known as Shol at the foot of the Potala, zooming slowly to the notorious prison, where a group of prisoners is being released as result of a general amnesty proclaimed in the name of the current Dalai Lama, who was then fifteen years old. The inmates emerge one by one into the sunlight, some staggering, some limping, all unshaven, with long, unkempt hair, emaciated, dressed in rags. The camera focuses on the last man to emerge, undistinguished from the rest. He appears disoriented as he is approached by a small group of obviously well-born monks and laypeople. But instead of greeting them, he turns to look behind and above, to stare at the massive edifice of the Potala, looming over him.