Lost Civilisations: Ancient Tibet

This film is part of Time-Life’s series on Ancient Civilisations, and is possibly the most recent of the civilisations it considers lost. It was made in 1995.

The film features reconstructions of life in pre-invasion Tibet, including the identification of the 14th Dalai Lama and his flight from Tibet.

One interesting point that is made is the relevance of the great Tibetan experiment of swapping teachings for security, which worked well to protect Tibet over hundreds of years.

Until, that is, an avowedly atheistic government came to power in China which thought it no longer needed any teachings, and swept away the security they had previously provided.

It should be noted that although this a generally sympathetic and appreciative look at its subject, it nevertheless contains some serious misapprehensions about the teaching, which somewhat jar while watching.

It features short interviews with HH the Dalai Lama, Prof. Robert Thurman, Richard Gere and many others commenting on the situation Tibetan culture now finds itself in, and prospects for the future, or survival, of Tibetan culture.