A still from 'The Dalai Lama's Gift.'
Birds chirp in wooded green hills. A monk in maroon and saffron robes rides a lawnmower over tall grass. It’s the summer of 1981 near Oregon, Wisconsin, and a small group of spiritual seekers, monks and hippies are preparing for the arrival of the Dalai Lama. His Holiness is visiting Wisconsin for the first time to offer the Kalchakra Tantra — or Wheel of Time — a sacred Tibetan Buddhist teaching that’s never before been offered in the West.
Ed Bastian’s quietly moving documentary, The Dalai Lama’s Gift, showing April 5 at the Bartell Theatre, illuminates a pivotal moment in Buddhism’s journey to the West, weaving never-before-seen footage from 1981 with intimate present-day interviews with those who organized and attended the ceremony at what is now Deer Park Buddhist Center.
Bastian, who has produced several documentaries on Eastern religions and teaches Buddhism and meditation at Antioch College in Ohio, says that unveiling a film that was more than 40 years in the making makes him feel “a little dreamy, because it’s been a lot of work.” But, he tells Isthmus, “I wasn’t ready to understand the Kalachakra at the time I filmed it. The time was a great gift because I had the opportunity to really learn about this extraordinary tradition.”
Bastian was already a filmmaker when he began a doctoral program in Buddhist studies at UW–Madison under renowned scholar and professor Geshe Lhundup Sopa. When Sopa invited Bastian and Tibetan translator Sharpa Tulku to assist in documenting the historic event, they said yes. “Sharpa was absolutely essential for the Kalachakra to happen at all and for us to do the film,” says Bastian.
When the Dalai Lama accepted the invitation to visit, Sopa bought a cornfield in the town of Dunn and told his doctoral students they had six weeks to build a temple and prepare for His Holiness and the 1,000-plus people who would attend the ceremony. The group faced numerous challenges, including inexperienced volunteers, a town reluctant to embrace a horde of Buddhists, and a lack of funding. But they rose to the occasion and held a successful ceremony.
“We were part of a generation that had the hubris to think we could change the world,” Bastian remembers. One of the most moving parts of the film is hearing participants reflect on how the ceremony shaped their lives more than 30 years afterward. Interviews with the Dalai Lama, Sopa, and numerous experts give context to the magnitude of what unfolded in that Wisconsin cornfield.
Bastian hopes that the film will increase awareness for audience members. “There are many Tibetan refugees living in Madison and struggling to keep their traditions alive. I want it to help them,” he says. “I also want to help Deer Park and their work to preserve Tibetan culture and welcome everyone who comes there. And I want people in Wisconsin to know about this precious tradition. Having the film come to Madison is really meaningful because that’s where it all took place.”
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