Akong at Arran High School
A film of the life story of the Tibetan lama who founded Europe’s first Buddhist monastery is showing at Arran High School on Thursday June 1.
Akong: A Remarkable Life, which premiered at Samye Ling in Eskdalemuir earlier this spring, follows the life of Akong Tulku Rinpoche from his birth in Tibet to his murder in China in 2013.
The film’s billing begins: ‘In 1959, a dramatic 10-month escape from Tibet through the Himalayas would change the course of his life – and the lives of many thousands of people around the world.’
The feature-length documentary tracks the ‘dangerous journey’ of the revered Tibetan Buddhist master Akong Tulku Rinpoche, who was forced to flee his homeland at the height of the Sino-Tibetan tensions, and exiled into unknown lands.
During his 10-month escape across the Himalayas to India, which only 13 of his 300 compatriots survived, Akong lay close to death in a cave, and promised that if he survived the ordeal, he would devote his life to helping others.
In India, he meets an Englishwoman, Freda Bedi, and together they ran a home for young refugee lamas, until she arranges for him to travel to Britain with Chögyam Tungpa Rinpoche. Akong, alongside Tungpa Rinpoche, co-founded the first Tibetan monastery in the West, Samye Ling, in Dumfriesshire in 1967, and later a string of schools, orphanages and humanitarian charities, including ROKPA, from the Tibetan word for help.
Akong Rinpoche was in Chengdu, China, in October 2013, about to embark on another humanitarian mission to Tibet, when he was murdered, senselessly, along with an attendant and his nephew.
But despite the sad and shocking end of remarkable life, the film ends on a message of hope.
The billing concludes: ‘The life of Chöje Akong Tulku Rinpoche – together with this beautiful film documenting that life – is a clear, kind call to action.
‘It is an encouragement to everyone to engage in compassionate action in the world, wherever help is needed.’
The Brazilian director, Chico Dall-Inha, said: ‘Akong Rinpoche was truly wise. Out of compassion for other beings he developed projects that continue to directly help many thousands of people around the world. It was incredible that he survived to do any of this at all.’
The film starts at 7.30pm, and tickets are £10 or by donation.