"The Roaring Silence" journey to Nepal (film)

Peter Montagnon, The Roaring Silence, BFI/BBC TV; Crystal Q., CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Swayambhu is an ancient religious complex atop a hill in the Kathmandu Valley, west of the capital. The Tibetan name for the site is "Sublime Trees." But Shing.kun may be a corruption of the local Nepal Bhasa name for the complex, Swayambhu, which means "self-sprung" (Wiki).

WARNING: Take the commentary with a grain of salt. The Buddha (Prince Siddhartha Gautama, for example, was not born a Hindu prince. Hinduism did not yet exist. Vedic Brahmanism existed but was not dominant among the Scythians (Sakas, Shakyians). who were nomadic warriors around Gandhara (modern Afghanistan and Pakistan) subordinating Brahmin priests in their social order to the rulers. Women were held in high regard and were as fierce as the men. Nor was there yet an India, Prince Siddhartha renounced and went to proto-India (Magadha, Savatthi, and Bihar). India came into existence centuries later under the Buddhist Emperor Ashoka, who united many janapadas or clan territories, kingdoms, and republics. The information is part of the Mahayana world view, which is extensively influenced by modern Hinduism and ancient Brahmanism.

(Higher Sofia) Old, rare Buddhist documentary shows Tantric Buddhism in Nepal in the Himalayas. This is a BBC production entitled The Roaring Silence. A BBC crew visited Nepal in February 1973 to document the Buddhism practiced there and came out with outstanding footage of this era. The film includes a visit to Kopan Monastery soon after it was established and interviews from there with several early Western students including Anila Ann McNeil, Marie Obst (Yeshe Khadro), Harry Luke, Nick Ribush and David (whose last name has been forgotten in the mists of time). The film includes footage of two famous temples, Swayambhunath and Boudhanath, in Kathmandu, a long trek to Tengboche, and concludes with the arrival there of Trulshik Rinpoche by helicopter.