Review: Tibet: Cry of the Snow Lion (2003)

“When I see beings oppressed by evil deeds, may I hold them dear as if I have found a rare and precious treasure” — HH the 14th Dalai Lama.

Last night I caught this great documentary about the plight of the Tibetan people and their “religion.” I quote religion because, Buddhism isn’t about a god or the supplication of oneself to a god. But that’s for another article or debate. I’ll also add that I caught this gem on The Documentary Channel; ever so great as a purveyor of documentaries, on which I feed my mind.

The quote at the top of the reviw is what the whole documentary is about. It’s about the slow not-so-subtle genocide of the Tibetan people, and their culture, going on to this day. It’s about not hating your oppressor and making friends with him, to understand him, to know him. It goes from depicting the absolutely serene and beautiful land and culture of Tibet, to horrid stories and images of persecutions these people, especially the monastics, have been put through.

It begins by telling the story of a monk, whose name I cannot remember, throwing himself into a burning police station during a massacre by the PLA (People’s Liberation Army) to save his fellow monks from being shot. He created quite the disturbance and got severely burned in the process, only to be captured at a later time, tortured and killed. It then rolls to the opening sequence.

The documentary goes on to tell about Tibet, Buddhism from the very beginning, and covers many of today’s stories. This is where we get to see the wonderful and beautiful culture living in a land so wondrous that to take an award winning picture, all you need is to take out a camera, use the auto-focus and click away in any direction; it’s that spectacular.

The Chinese government said they came as liberators from Anglo-American imperialism. The word liberation in a Tibetan’s understanding is very different than the meaning Mao Tse-Tung held. So the Tibetans basically welcomed the Chinese into their country. This led to the pacification of the people, by outlawing religion, especially monastics, because they lived off the generosity of its people and did not work to earn their money. They outlawed the Tibetan language, because, they stated, it was a language of religion. The Tibetans are free to roam but they are prisoners of the mind.

For a would-be practitioner like me, just hearing the Dalai Lama speak of this history of brutality was enough to bring me to tears. Many monks and nuns are interviewed; all are survivors of massacres or were jailed for lengthy periods of time. The nuns were raped with electric cattle prods and a defiant monk had it used in his mouth. We get to see the tools and pictures of abducted monks and nuns. They tried to fight back but their army was not an effective opposition for the strong PLA. And the Dalai Lama fled because his people would have defended him to death, he fled because he could not stomach violence.

Article Author: David Desjardins

Dave works in the IT industry despite his better judgment. He’s an artist at heart with a critical mind. He enjoys photography more than he could ever express. Dave feels a need to tweak his brain with copious amounts of taurine to stay sharp while absorbing all kinds of media on any medium. …

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