Pema Tseden’s first feature shows how Abbas Kiarostami’s neo-realist stories of children shaped his early style. During Losar, Tibetan New Year, a very young Tibetan lama living in a monastery in Qinghai discovers the delights of binge-watching a Chinese TV serial The Tansen Lama (aka Xi you ji, aka Journey to the West), the famous story of a monk and his fellow traveller the Monkey King who bring Buddhist scriptures to China from India. The young lama shuttles between watching the shows at home and watching in his monastery with his friend the Tulku (a seven-year-old Living Buddha). He also attends — and with unexpectedly humorous results, interrupts — a live traditional Tibetan opera on the life of Prince Drime Kundun (see Pema Tseden’s The Search for another version of this tale).
As the little lama starts to explore various aspects of his identity, he is tugged in different directions: by traditional practices and contemporary society; by folk opera and modern media; by a life apart from and one that flows through the secular world.
Pema Tseden
Luosang Danpai, Quesai, Quhuancang Buddha, Sanmu-dan, Puri-wa, Limaojia
China
2006
In Tibetan with English subtitles
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Credits
Screenwriter
Pema Tseden
Cinematography
An Li
Editor
Fang Li, Yifu Zhou
Original Music
Dege Cairang, Dukar Tserang
Also in This Series
Tibetan director Pema Tseden became one of the most remarkable filmmakers of this century, revolutionizing the representation of Tibet and Tibetans and sharing his visions of authentic Tibetan life with the entire film-going world by reimagining how narrative cinematic fiction could operate within so-called “Chinese minority cinema”.
The Search
Shot in exquisite long takes, this brilliant film is a road movie wrapped around three love stories. A director and crew are looking for local cast to star in their film version of the classic Tibetan opera Prince Drime Kundun.
The Silent Holy Stones
In Pema Tseden's first feature, a very young Tibetan lama living in a monastery in Qinghai discovers the delights of binge-watching a Chinese TV serial, just one aspect of the contradictions he will have to navigate in a culture steeped in tradition.
Snow Leopard
The last film Pema Tseden finished before his death at age 53 is an enthralling, semi-mystical fable about the deep spiritual connection between a young Tibetan priest and a snow leopard responsible for killing livestock belonging to the priest's brother.
First Steps: Pema Tseden Short Films
Pema Tseden was the first Tibetan director to graduate from the Beijing Film Academy. The Silent Manistone (2002) and his graduation film, The Grassland (2004) are fascinating sketches for later works.
Old Dog
In what may be Pema Tseden's darkest film, a Tibetan mastiff is sold, recovered, re-sold, stolen, and recovered yet again, passing through the hands of an ethnic Chinese dealer, the local police, and Tibetan dog rustlers.
Balloon
The young sons of virile Tibetan shepherd Dargye mistake their parents' condoms for balloons. Meanwhile Dargye is looking for a ram to impregnate his flock. Balloon is fascinated with ideas of potency, pregnancy, and the possibilities for female autonomy.
The Sacred Arrow
A romantic, gorgeously shot, widescreen modern fable, this is a marked departure from Pema Tseden's usual stye. Handsome Nyima and brooding Dradon are ace archers from rival villages who vie in an annual contest for the ultimate prize, the Sacred Arrow.