Tulku

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You’re the reincarnation of your father’s teacher…
now what?

A film by Gesar Mukpo

CRITICAL ACCLAIM

“Intensely personal” –Shambhala SunSpace

AWARDS

  • Official Selection Vancouver Film Festival
  • Official Selection Buddhist Film Festival Europe
  • Official Selection Atlantic Film Festival
  • Official Selection International Buddhist Film Festival
  • Official Selection Calgary International Film Festival
  • DOXA Documentary Film Festival

THE FILM

At age three, Gesar Tsewang Arthur Mukpo, son of renowned Tibetan Buddhist teacher Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche and his British wife Diana, was identified as the reincarnation of the late Jamgon Kongtrul of Sechen, one of his father’s own teachers in Tibet. Living in Boulder, Colorado and then Halifax, Nova Scotia, Gesar balanced competing cultures and strikingly different definitions of self. His life was far from that of an ordinary contemporary American or Canadian—his father was a world famous Buddhist teacher and author—but there was no monastery upbringing like that of perhaps the best known tulku, the Dalai Lama, or even like his father. And after his father’s untimely death, he was on his own with this challenge…

Inspired by Tibetan Buddhist teacher and noted filmmaker Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche (The Cup, Travellers & Magicians), Gesar Mukpo has documented his own story and those of several other tulkus in this personal and thoughtful film that asks the questions, “What does it mean to be identified as a tulku? and more broadly, “How does one live in this world, fulfill one’s destiny?”

Features rare archival footage from Tibet, with appearances by Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche; HH Ogyen Trinley Dorje, the 17th Karmapa; Lady Diana Mukpo

60 MINUTES OF BONUS FEATURES

  • extended interview with Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche
  • interview with Gesar Mukpo by Lesley Ann Patten (Words of My Perfect Teacher)

A National Film Board of Canada Production
Written and directed by Gesar Mukpo
Produced by Kent Martin
Filmed on location in North America, Nepal and India

TRAILER

FM1015

76 min / Color / English / Stereo / NTSC / All Region
SRP $24.95