Between China and Tibet

The Karmapa-project has changed my life greatly. While I have worked on my own ’spiritual process’, being in contact with the Buddhist world, my contradictory choice of subject has led me to many conflicting views and various tumults. It has provided me with an excellent possibility to separate the sheep from the goats, and to observe both sincerity and calculation - the conscious and subconscious influence of politics and religion on our behaviour and the making of our morals. It was expected that Chinese officials would condemn the final outcome of the film…and so they did. The film does reveal some sensitive and unscrupulous actions, which the official China would rather keep quiet about. But I was much more surprised by the division the film created among the Buddhist viewers. The film deals with the crisis that tears the Buddhists apart and the two Karmapas who are in the eye of the storm… as well as the question of who is the “right” spiritual leader. The contradictory situation is inevitably reflected in the viewing experience of the Buddhists, although I feel I deal with the subject impartially and truthfully…and maybe because of that. Most of the Buddhist viewers seem to appreciate the film but some of them are offended that both Karmapas are in the same film: ”One must not present a lesser being next to a deity as if they were equal.” They think that the journalistic approach of truth and equality is secondary to their religion. Although Buddhism in its philosophical quality is a unique doctrine, it is not easy to walk its sympathetic ways without stumbling. While China is systematically trying to change history, some representatives of spiritual matters are unconsciously guilty of the same sin, coloured by the thirst for power. Some for their party politics, others for their religion. The film has, however, made an interesting tour around the world. The fear of the Chinese scared some film festival organisers and TV channel managers, but contradictory examples abound as well. The traditional film festival of the just-turned-Chinese Hong Kong bravely chose the film into its repertoire. As one interested in the subject I wanted to partake in the festival, but because I knew I was an unwanted person in China, I hesitated. In the end, I decided to fly anyway, especially because visas still weren’t obligatory in Hong Kong unlike China. The Karma Kagyu Buddhist Society of Hong Kong tried to ban the showing of the film with an army of lawyers. Everyone knew, however, that behind the request was the Chinese government that used the innocent Buddhist organisation as its shield. The censorship officials and the lawyers of the Hong Kong government were dealing with the matter. Finally the film was despite everything shown. The publicity attracted a house full of people. I was approached by the Hong Kong and foreign newspaper reporters. A brave American reporter organised a private screening for Hong Kong’s foreign correspondents. 100 correspondents arrived and to most of them China’s unscrupulous and calculated operation in the Karmapa situation was new information. After the festival screening one of the members of the Karma Kagyu society dressed in civil clothing came to praise the film. He had bought several tickets for the organisations’ monks at their request but in the end only he had dared to come and watch the film. And these people were pretending to be behind the banning requests! I was scared as well. Many people had warned me about the trip. I spoke diplomatically to the press so that I wouldn’t be guilty of ”agitation”, which could have been enough of a reason, and a legal one, for arresting me. I was rather relieved to leave Hong Kong behind. While I was there, I wasn’t scared of the few Buddhist activists but the Chinese government and its methods of operation. I had made my film in favour of Tibet and the unique Tibetan Buddhism - including its most ardent representatives. Arto Halonen