This is a rather wonderful film about the relationship between two cultures and between the gifted American artist Jane Lillian Vance and the Mustang Lama Amchi Tsampa Ngawang.
After meeting in the Mustang region of Nepal and getting to know each other over many years Amchi Tsampa was invited to teach at Virginia Tech where Jane also teaches arts.
Amchi stayed in Virginia for nearly a year, and in was at that time that Jane had the idea to make a lineage painting for the Lama, which reflected his standing in the community.
The delivery of the painting to Mustang by a support group, their trips into remote caves (also featured here), and the festival that was held when the painting was unveiled are at the heart of the film.
The painting itself is a really wonderful mix of Jane’s own colourful style and Tibetan traditional painting, which seem to enrich and present a real compliment to each other.
The film also is about a meeting of two cultures and the exchange and learning that takes place, and one gets the impression that everybody really benefited from the meeting.
Shortly after Amchi was teaching at Virginia Tech the shooting took place there that claimed so many lives, and the film is also a reflection on that event and the prayers that were offered for the victims and their families.
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to see an album of stills click here