DVD & Book Review: Sacred Landscape and Pilgrimage in Tibet

Sacred Landscape and Pilgrimage in Tibet (Book & DVD)

by Geshe Gelek Jinpa & Thomas L. Kelly (Photographer)

Abbeville Press, New York, New York, 2005    60 minutes

Do you want to travel in Tibet?  In the Pilgrimage & Travel Section of the Center library is a book, Sacred Landscape and Pilgrimage in Tibet, and there is a companion DVD too (#670). Through this film and book Geshe Gelek Jinpa, a young monk of the Bon faith, narrates for us his pilgrimage to the Bon homeland of Zhangzhung in western Tibet. I have traveled close to the border of western Nepal and the Tibetan plateau, and suggest you watch the DVD before you read the book.

All of our senses are involved as we experience the film and book…listening to the words of the story teller, catching the space, the silence…I was curious about Tibet and the Bon faith. I learned more than I could imagine. Below are the three comments from fellow travelers about the land of Tibet and its relationship to its people and their faiths.

Fellow pilgrims describe Tibet as a land of potent sites of power, places of immense natural beauty and inspiration . . .

"I know of villagers of my homeland who prostrate all the way to the Jokhang in Lhasa or Mount Bonri in Kongpo. The greatest of all has always been pilgrimage to Gang/Tise in Zhangzhung. It takes pilgrims from my village two years to cover the distance by performing prostrations — extending themselves full-length on the ground and repeating the process from the point reached by the fingertips."

"Waves of pilgrims, generations of sweat and aspiration, have worn these trails of devotion into this earth’s stark, desolate terrain. These trails crisscross Tibet, reaching these sites of power from all directions, like veins reaching arteries in the body."

"The Chinese may possess our territory politically, but we have been able to reclaim our sacred terrain by virtue of walking it, singing the prayers of our ancestors, keeping our tradition alive. For us Bonpos, the very heart of our tradition, synonymous with the territory, is the mountain/lake triad at the center of our ancient Zhangzhung kingdom." (p.73)

-- submitted by Barbara Goldberg

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