Milan honors the Dalai Lama for the presentation of the new documentary: “Never Forget Tibet” (to watch, also in streaming)

Despite its worldwide popularity, despite its choice of non-violence, despite the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize, China still considers the Dalai Lama a terrorist. His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama, born in 1935 in free Tibet, from 1959 with the Chinese occupation he became a wanted man, exiled from his own country, welcomed by the Indian government in Dharamsala where the Tibetan government in exile.

The painful and powerful story of the journey that led him to leave Tibet is retraced by “Never Forget Tibet, The Dalai Lama’s Untold Story”the director’s documentary Jean-Paul Mertinezwhich will be screened in Italian preview in Milan thanks to the Italian Buddhist Union in a weekend dedicated to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, at the Feltrinelli Foundation on 12 and 13 November 2022.

The film (which can be seen here in streaming) recounts those moments and opens to the discovery of Tibetan culture, and of the figure and personal history of the Dalai Lama. In the days when he Holiness of him understood that leaving Tibet would be the only possible choice, he embarked on a difficult and dangerous journey, in which he put his life in danger. The Dalai Lama himself tells it in the documentarya story never heard before, which touches intimate and private chords, which is intertwined with the testimony of Har Mander Singh, the Indian official sent to meet the Dalai Lama across the Tibetan border. His task – he says in the documentary – was to reach His Holiness, who traveled incognito, weakened and sick, identify and “neutralize” any Chinese murderers in disguise following him, and lead the young Buddhist leader to safety in the Indian plains. . He rode nonstop pony back and covered a journey that normally would have taken eight days in three days, and finally succeeded in the feat of bringing the Dalai Lama to India. Just on the occasion of the filming of Never Forget Tibetthe Dalai Lama and Har Mander Singh met. They had never spoken to each other since 1959.

The movie, Hugh Bonneville and the unspoken story

Presented in March this year, Never Forget Tibet is the director’s project Jean-Paul Mertinezwhich has as a narrating voice Hugh Bonneville (the Earl of Grantham in Downton Abbey, among many roles) and music by Anouska Shankar. The film is the Dalai Lama’s intimate account of the moment he left Tibet, along with the words of his family members, the Indian official’s account. Har Mander Singh and of characters linked to the history of Tibet, of young activists who are making history today.

It is a work that is based on careful historical research and research of sources, documents and photographs: Declassified top secret letters and communications between His Holiness Dalai Lama, Prime Ministers Nehru and Macmillan, and President Eisenhower were found and included in the story during the making of the film, testifying to concern around the world about what was happening in Tibet. But there are also in the film 75 rare photographs of Tibet before and during the Chinese invasionincluding photos from the Austrian explorer’s archive Heinrich Harrer, (remember the story of the friendship between the explorer and the Dalai Lama was told by the book and film “Seven Years in Tibet”?).

(The film will be broadcast exclusively in streaming for the Italian public Saturday 12 November at 8pm and Sunday 13 November at 7pm. A donation of 5 euros is foreseen; part of the proceeds will be donated to educational projects for the Tibetan people).

The event in Milan: Jetsun Pema, sister of the Dalai Lama, meets the Italian Buddhists

Two days of international online conferences organized by the Italian Buddhist Union (to follow in streaming at this link) accompany the presentation of the film in Milan with in-depth moments dedicated to educational, environmental and political issues of contemporary Tibet.

At the conference, organized in collaboration with International Campaign for Tibet,
the organization chaired by actor Richard Gere, will participate in NGOs, important
academics and activists, representatives of the Tibetan government in exile and members of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s family, including his sister, Jetsun Pemawho for 42 years was president of Tibetan Children’s Villages (TCV), for Tibetan refugee students.

Tibet certainly raises questions of human, civil and political rights. But not only. Tibet is the cradle and guardian of a millenary culture animated by principles of wisdom and compassion “, declared Filippo Scianna, President of the Italian Buddhist Union. «A culture that answers many questions of today’s world by offering a sense of real interconnection. A profound and sensitive vision of the way of being of things that promotes an intelligence of compassion and founds new approaches to education and environmental protection ».

Here is the guest list, the complete program is here.

Claudio CardelliPresident of the Italy-Tibet Association; Debbie Carranihead of Tibetan Refugees Camps; Thinlay ChukkiRepresentative of His Holiness the Dalai Lama – The Tibet Bureau (Geneva); Günther CologneHead of Department, Education and Training – Eurac Research, center dedicated to energy, environmental, health and social issues based in Bolzano and Member of the Board of Directors of the International Tibet Network (ITN); Marco Del Corona, deputy director of the cultural pages of Corriere della Sera; former correspondent
from Beijing; Kelsang Gyaltsenformer envoy of His Holiness the Dalai Lama for Sino-Tibetan negotiations; Jean-Paul Mertinezdirector of Never Forget Tibet; Kai Muellerexecutive director of the International Campaign for Tibet in Germany; Geshe NegiPh.D., Executive Director of the Center for Contemplative Science and Compassion-Based Ethics at Emory University and Coordinator of SEE Learning-Social, Emotional, and Ethical Learning; Luciano NobiliFormer Coordinator of the Italian pro-Tibet interparliamentary group; Tenzin SewoSecretary of the Gaden Phodrang Foundation of the Dalai Lama; Kasia SmutniakPresident of the Pietro Taricone Foundation – The Mustang Project, Nepal; Francesca Tarocco, Full Professor of Buddhist Studies and Chinese Religions; Director of The New Institute Center for Environmental Humanities (NICHE), Ca ‘Foscari University of Venice; Wangpo Tethong, Executive Director of ICT Europe and head of the ICT office in Amsterdam and Brussels; Piero Verni, journalist, writer and documentary maker; Michael van Walt van Praagexecutive president and co-founder of the Kreddha Foundation and international lawyer specializing in intra-state conflict resolution.

For the Italian Buddhist Union they participate Filippo SciannaPresident of the Italian Buddhist Union; Giovanna GiorgettiVice President of the Italian Buddhist Union; Stefano Bettera, writer; member of the Board of Directors of the Italian Buddhist Union and Vice President of the European Buddhist Union; Silvia Francesconin charge of the Ecological Agenda of the Italian Buddhist Union.

With a message from His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama and a video contribution by Deepak Chopra,
Indian-American writer, promoter of alternative medicine and friend of HH the Dalai Lama