Just
about everyone associates the Free Tibet movement with non-violence—specifically
the 14th Dalai Lama’s “Middle Way.” However, that was not always the
case and might not always be true in the future. Three generations of Tibetan
exiles represent three different response to China’s oppressive occupation in
Tenzin Phuntsog & Joy Dietrich’s 63-minute short documentary feature, Rituals of Resistance (trailer here), which screens
during the 2018 Margaret Mead Film Festival.
They
might have differing opinions regarding tactics, but the three exiled profiled
all agree the Chinese invasion was a massive human tragedy. Tendar is a former
Buddhist monk, who remains as devout as ever, but in the early 1960s, he
renounced his vows to enlist in the Tibetan rebel army. He can even be seen
leading a raid on a Chinese convoy in a rare British documentary. For Phuntsog’s
mother Dolma, the personal is political. She risked certain imprisonment and
possibly worse to sneak back into Tibet for a reunion with the brother and
sister she had not seen since they were young children.
Lakpa,
born in the early 1980s will be the most troubling for many viewers, because he
represents the increasingly prevalent self-immolation movement. Arguably, it is
related to the nonviolent Middle Way, because it scrupulously avoids harm to
others, but it obviously represents a very extreme and final form of protest.
He did indeed attempt to self-immolate during Hu Jintao’s official state visit
to India, but the authorities intervened.
Resistance clearly
demonstrates Tibetans are far from monolithic in their thinking. However, there
are broad points of consensus, notably including the complete illegitimacy of
the Chinese occupation and a reverence for the Dalai Lama (but not necessarily
lock-step agreement with the course he has charted for the government in exile).
Frankly, that is far more common ground than we share as Americans these days.
Phuntsog
is Tibetan-American, but through his three primary subjects, he and Dietrich
piece together a mural portrait of the Tibetan national character. It also
happens to be a rather sad and wistful film, because it definitely gives
viewers a sense of the pessimism and weariness afflicting so many Tibetans,
especially exiles (in this respect, they are quite like Americans, who have
been mired in pessimism and negativity since the Clinton years).
This
is a deeply humanistic film, but it is also uncompromisingly truthful, which
often makes it profoundly distressing. First and foremost, the filmmakers are
determined to provide an opportunity for their subjects to tell their stories,
but in the process, they convey of vivid sense of what life is like for Tibetan
exiles and activists. It is a well assembled film, but sensitive viewers should
be warned the filmmakers have incorporated some highly distressing news footage
of the recent immolations.
Get
your sutras ready, because the experiences chronicled in Resistance will make you pray for Tibet. Beyond timely, Rituals of Resistance shows us what real
“resistance” and real dissent look like. Very highly recommended, it screens
this Sunday (10/21), with Tibetan Nomads
in Exile, as part of this year’s Margaret Mead Film Festival, at the
American Museum of Natural History.