Directed by Gesar Mukpo
76 min. / Canada / English / 2010
Documentary
Asia Premiere

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. The film goes beyond autobiography to explore the Tibetan tradition of recognition of reincarnations of Buddhist teachers. Other non-Tibetan tulkus are interviewed as well as renowned Tibetan teachers including Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche and HH Ogyen Trinley, the 17th Karmapa.

This screening is part of the International Buddhist Film Festival Hong Kong 2012. For more information, please visit AsiaSociety.org/IBFF.