This is the last of these World Heritage documentaries I will be showing from CNTV, although there are many more, and people who are interested can follow up on their channel.
This week’s programme is about the Historic Ensemble of the Potala Palace in Tibet, which includes the Potala Palace, and also the Jokhang Temple and Norbulingka, the Dalai Lama’s summer palace, all of which are on the World Cultural Heritage list.
The film starts by describing how the Palace was first made in the 7th century, and then remade in the 17th by the 5th Dalai Lama, and the various ancient statues and paintings that are still found there, before moving on to describe the other featured monuments.
The film inevitably touches on the turbulent history of Tibet, and makes claims about that country’s relationship to China that not all will be able to accept.
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Guan Yin? LOL Apparently, the Chinese Director was not allowed to use the word “Chenrezig”, which is the Tibetan name for Avaloketeshvara, and a word used quite often to describe a fellow called “His Holiness the Dalai Lama”, whose general name was used but no reference to the current 14th Dalai Lama, of course. “Guan Yin” is a phrase heard only in China, never used by Tibetans. Typical Chinese whitewash treating the Tibetan Buddhist monasteries as tourist attractions, instead of the teaching monasteries they are supposed to be, which they are no longer. Also, the claim is made that Tibet was a part of China from the 9th century on. Pretty typical crap put out by the Chinese government. And, btw, lightning rods were invented by Benjamin Franklin, in 1749, and not by the Chinese, I don’t think, as the movie says the Potala Palace has had lightning rods for over 300 years. Funny stuff. “The Yellow Temple (in the Forbidden City) in the highest college of Tibetan Buddhism”. Really? Bah-ha-ha! Pretty typical Chinese propaganda on Tibetan Buddhism. And don’t plan on actually seeing much of the Potala Palace inside. You get to see a couple of rooms and that’s it. Sad for the Chinese people and the Chinese government. Their karma must be just awful. So sad.