These Tibetan pilgrims have utterly nothing in
common with Chaucer’s. They will tell no bawdy stories and engage in absolutely
no untoward behavior. Their devotion is real, as is the danger they face while
making the 1,200 mile journey to Lhasa, straight down Tibet’s National Highway
318 in Zhang Yang’s docu-hybrid Paths of
the Soul (trailer here),
which screens as part of the 2016 Doc Fortnight at MoMA.
Nyima’s uncle Yang has always been a father
figure to him, so he readily agrees to accompany the patriarch when he resolves
to finally make his pilgrimage. Eventually, eleven members of the extended
family are chosen for the trek. Each will have their particular reasons for
joining, but all share a deep but unfussy belief in the tenets of Tibetan
Buddhism.
The pilgrimage is especially meaningful for
Uncle Yang, who always regrets his younger brother died before he could make
the journey he always talked about. In accordance with their selfless faith, Nyima’s
teenaged sons will be praying for the two laborers who died while constructing
their house. The presence of the pregnant Tsring initially seems completely baffling,
but the karmic benefits for her baby are apparently well worth the effort if
she delivers during the pilgrimage. Likewise, the ritual journey hardly looks
appropriate for the ten or eleven-ish Gyatso, but what she learns will last a
lifetime.
Spanish Catholics might think the pilgrimage
to Santiago de Compostela is a tough road to travel, but they have nothing on
Tibetan Buddhists. Yang and his family are not merely walking over two thousand
kilometers, with their tractor trailing behind. They must stop after every
three or four steps to kowtow. That entails complete prostration on the busy
mountain highway. To facilitate these regular acts of obeisance, they wear the
pilgrims’ clothes: full body aprons and hand-planks.
This is an absolutely grueling film, but also
a powerfully moving one. Yang and clan will endure inclement weather, rock
slides, and one auto accident. Yet, there is also hope and hospitality to be found
along the way. Throughout it all, their faith and their family cohesion are too
strong to even be tested. Watching them plug ahead is truly awe-inspiring. To
what extent the non-professional actors are playing themselves or namesake characters
hardly matters (either way, they are incredible), because the conditions they
endure are more than real enough. By the time they reach Lhasa, you hope to see
the Dalai Lama himself triumphantly swoop down on a giant golden eagle to
personally bless each one of them.
