IN HIS MASTER’S FOOTSTEPS
Filmmaker Laurence Brahm’s latest documentary attempts to retrace the story of a legendary figure who spread Buddhism in China, Xu Fan reports.
American explorer and film director Laurence Brahm’s courtyard nestles in a narrow hutong (alley) lined with lush greenery in a corner of downtown Beijing. A knock on his red wooden gate guarded by a pair of lion statues brings the tall, thin filmmaker out. He has a warm smile and is wearing a black jacket and jeans.
After having spent the night editing his upcoming documentary, Searching for the Lotus-Born Master — which is subtitled Eight Manifestations of Quantum Energy — Brahm looks a little tired.
But he becomes animated when talking about his latest film of 75 minutes, which is due to have its international debut at the Canada Golden Maple Film Festival in Vancouver.
As an annual event that serves as a bridge between Chinese and North American audiences, the festival will run from Sept 21 to 24 and the documentary will be premiered on Sept 22.
Brahm coproduced Searching for the Lotus-Born Master with William Lo, a Shanghaibased businessman who has always had a fascination with the legendary figure, and believes that his legacy is an important aspect of spiritual culture.
The Lotus-Born Master, who is also known by the names Padmasambhava in Sanskrit or Guru Rinpoche in both Tibetan and Bhutanese, is a historical figure who lived during the 8th century and traveled across the Himalayan mountains to spread Buddhism.
Shrouded in myth and mystery, the monk is recognized by researchers as the founder of Tibetan Buddhism, according to Brahm.
Retaining a deep fascination for China and its culture, Brahm began to learn Chinese in the United States during the late 1970s and later studied at Tianjin’s Nankai University.
A fluent Mandarin speaker, Brahm recalls his previous career as a lawyer assisting foreign enterprises looking to invest in China and as an adviser to the Chinese government on economic and environmental policies for over 12 years.
But he gave up wearing suits to embark on a new chapter of his life in 2002 as he grew increasingly weary of the emphasis placed on materialism.
To seek a more meaningful life, Brahm shifted his focus to Tibetan-inhabited areas, to indulge his fascination for a mystical kingdom, which is thought to bear similarities to Shangri-La as described in British author James Hilton’s 1933 novel Lost Horizon.
From 2001 to 2010, Brahm organized three expeditions traveling across the Tibet autonomous region and Qinghai
and Yunnan provinces to produce three documentaries and a 10-episode documentary series Searching for Shangri-La.
Somewhat of a follow-up to the Shangri-La series, which earned a rating of 7.2 points out of 10 on the Tencent Video streaming site, Searching for the Lotus-Born Master exemplifies Brahm’s latest exploration that goes deeper into a theme to connect the history of China and its neighboring countries.
“The Lotus-Born Master spent a lot of his life traveling through China, India, Nepal and Bhutan where he was responsible for promoting or establishing Tibetan Buddhism,” explains Brahm.
“The master was also the one who brought Tibetan Buddhism from India and Nepal to Bhutan and then spread it across the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. He is an important and influential person in our history,” he adds, referring to the countries that were influenced by Buddhism.
With so many myths revolving around the legendary figure — such as his ability to fly over mountains or survive being burned at the stake — Brahm decided to use this year’s expedition to ascertain the facts about his existence.
He assembled a research team that spent last year documenting the history of the Buddhist master’s life and investigating the locations he journeyed to.
Following in the master’s footsteps, earlier this year he launched a series of expeditions to travel over 20,000 kilometers across China, India, Pakistan and Nepal.
“We scaled the mountains that the Lotus-Born Master had crossed, explored the caves where he meditated and visited the sacred lakes where he performed his legendary magic,” recalls Brahm.
The experience came as something of a revelation to Brahm, leading him to believe that he had discovered the connection between Tibetan Buddhism and quantum physics.
“The Lotus-Born Master had eight manifestations depicted in thangka paintings, murals and statues across the Himalayan range. Our expedition team sought to decode the quantum energy fields behind each of these manifestations,” he explains.
“These involve the discoveries in the 7th and 8th centuries of electromagnetic energy fields, vibrational sound and light frequencies, and the use of certain metals to conduct electricity.”
Brahm believes Tibetan monks had a rich scientific knowledge that dates back centuries, and can cite evidence of this, including ancient murals that depicted how humans evolved from monkeys, and relics showing that locals understood how copper could conduct electricity.
The team also interviewed several leading quantum physics experts and researchers, including Jeanne Lim, chief marketing officer at the artificial intelligence company Hanson Robotics in Hong Kong, and Danah Zohar, an American professor in quantum philosophy at Zhejiang University, who has written many books on the subject of quantum physics.
In addition, Brahm believes the documentary offers a fresh take on the historical relationships among China, Bhutan, India, Nepal and Pakistan by “following in the footsteps of an icon of Buddhism on the Silk Road, and seeking the history that lies within the legends”.
“Moreover, the idea that earlier cultural exchanges between the nations of these regions may have given rise to an earlier understanding of science reflects the importance of globalization and the need to exchange ideas along with trade and commerce,” he says.