Forging a Buddhist Cinema: Exploring Buddhism in Cinematic Representations of Tibetan Cultur

In contrast to the West where the divide between the secular and the religious is generally perceived as distinct and impermeable, in the Tibetan Buddhist culture, religion is at the root of all political and social formations. The current scholarship in world cinema has shown the importance of situating a particular cinema---whether it is national, transnational or exilic---within a social, political and cultural context. Yet this scholarship subsumes religion under the broad umbrella of culture, effectively limiting what could potentially be a thorough exploration of the representation and place of religion in films.;This thesis explores the centrality and multidimensional features of Buddhism by means of a close textual analysis of four films about Tibetan culture---The Cup (Phorpa, Khyentse Norbu, India, 1999), Travellers and Magicians (Khyentse Norbu, Bhutan, 2005) Milarepa: Magician, Murderer, Saint (Neten Chokling, Bhutan, 2006), and Kundun (Martin Scorsese, USA, 1997). It argues that a Buddhist ethos forms the core of these films and informs how the language of cinema is used to convey Buddhist themes and principles.