Buddhism and Film—Inter-Relation and Interpenetration: Reflections on an Emerging Research Field
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Contemporary Buddhism An Interdisciplinary Journal ISSN: 1463-9947 (Print) 1476-7953 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rcbh20 Buddhism and Film—Inter-Relation and Interpenetration: Reflections on an Emerging Research Field Almut-Barbara Renger To cite this article: Almut-Barbara Renger (2014) Buddhism and Film—Inter-Relation and Interpenetration: Reflections on an Emerging Research Field, Contemporary Buddhism, 15:1, 1-27, DOI: 10.1080/14639947.2014.897834 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14639947.2014.897834 Published online: 06 May 2014. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 447 View related articles View Crossmark data Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=rcbh20 Download by: [117.102.49.93] Date: 12 December 2015, At: 09:42 INTRODUCTION BUDDHISM AND FILM—INTER- RELATION AND INTERPENETRATION: REFLECTIONS ON AN EMERGING RESEARCH FIELD Almut-Barbara Renger This article provides an introduction to the special issue of Contemporary Buddhism entitled ‘Buddhism and Film’. Since the silent movie The Light of Asia,a1925 German- Indian co-production released in the USA in 1928, increasing numbers of films have been produced across the globe that are related in some way to Buddhism. In the specific conditions of the modern period and an increasingly globalised world a new field of research gradually formed, which has continued to develop to the present day. The present special issue is devoted to this research field. The introduction will sketch its contours and give as examples particular films, especially (but not exclusively) dramas and documentaries on Tibetan Buddhism and Zen. I cannot provide here the detail and nuance which the complexity of this field truly demands, but will rather offer an introduction by picking out certain select aspects and points of view for discussion. The following eight articles of the special issue will provide more detail. The volume takes account of the topic’s complexity by including contributions from various academic disciplines (theology, religious studies and cultural anthropology; literary, film and media studies) as well as from filmmakers themselves. Its goal is to make clear how rewarding it is to study this steadily expanding field, and to encourage more in-depth Downloaded by [117.102.49.93] at 09:42 12 December 2015 interdisciplinary studies that will be able to explore the complex reciprocal relationship of Buddhism and film. Since it first arose on the Indian subcontinent, Buddhism has developed an extraordinary range of forms in the course of its history and dissemination, and into the present day it continues to undergo numerous cultural transformations. It has adapted itself to each new culture in which it has been received and has thus taken on many different interpretations and forms: Sri Lankan, Burmese, Thai, Contemporary Buddhism, 2014 Vol. 15, No. 1, 1–27, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14639947.2014.897834 q 2014 Taylor & Francis 2 ALMUT-BARBARA RENGER Vietnamese, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Tibetan, Mongolian and finally also European, American and other so-called ‘Western’ forms. By now various different forms are present side by side, above all in larger cities both in Asia and in Europe, as well as the USA, Australia and New Zealand. This has produced any number of tensions between the traditions, but also all kinds of cooperation and in turn also many new cultural developments. As happened in the past when it transferred into new areas, Buddhism has changed not only styles and methods but, with changes in media, also forms of expression and modes of representation—not least in the arts, which have always been screens for the projections of the cultures that Buddhism reached. In the twentieth century Buddhism moved into the art form that is expressed in the production of moving pictures: film. Gradually, ever more films have been produced that are in some way related to Buddhism and so a new research field came into being in the specific conditions of modernity and the contemporary world: Buddhism and film. 1. The research field: Contours and perspectives The interpenetration of moving pictures and Buddhist teachings has a long prehistory. In both the history and the present-day practice of Buddhism there has been a close connection between images, narratives and teachings. Although the earliest phase of Buddhist art was aniconic, in the course of the centuries many different works of art have been created with all kinds of figural representation and symbols for Buddha and dharma (e.g., Bodhi Tree, lotus, dharmachakra, etc.), and, from around the first century AD, also portraits of Gautama Buddha himself. Through the dissemination of Buddhism in the countries of Central, East and Southeast Asia, and complex reciprocal influences with various Asian cultures, a rich and complex system of iconography and symbolism came into being, with characteristic representations of physical poses and hand gestures (mudra¯). Many pictorial media—e.g., sculptures, reliefs and paintings—show episodes from the life of Buddha and are used for religious and moral education by illustrating dharma and making basic themes of Buddhism visible in everyday situations. Not Downloaded by [117.102.49.93] at 09:42 12 December 2015 least through contact with Western cultures (see below), Buddhist pictorial art has also adopted modern forms of expression. Since the twentieth century, not only Western but also Asian artists have increasingly taken up motifs from Buddhist iconography and have combined them in part with Western forms of artistic expression, in part with further developments of Asian regional styles. It remains to be seen whether the development of Buddhist art from initial resistance to depiction through to richly abundant representation will be repeated in the history of film. Much points in that direction at present. A growing number of filmmakers are transferring traditional elements of Buddhist iconography and formal language into their own chosen contexts and so are opening up new approaches to and perspectives on Buddhism. Even depictions of the historical Buddha have been growing in Asian film (see below, section 3), though previously BUDDHISM AND FILM—INTER-RELATION AND INTERPENETRATION 3 motion pictures showing the Buddha in human form were often banned, particularly in Buddhist parts of South Asia (Dwyer 2006, 28). Sri Lanka, for example, was one of the states in which the epic silent film The Light of Asia (1925) was not allowed to be screened, but the epic drama Siddhartha the Buddha (2013; original title Sri Siddhartha Gauthama) directed by Chandran Rutnam and Saman Weeraman and others, was produced and in early 2013 premiered there. The field of Buddhism and film as it appears today is characterised by numerous inter-relations and interpenetrations. It emerged from the complex interplay between the so-called ‘East’ and the so-called ‘West’, and between the pluriform nature of a religion characterised by great cultural and ethnic diversity and a medium that is art form, mass medium and economic factor all in one. The increased transfer of culture and knowledge at a global level, to which, among other things, colonialism and new communication technologies contributed, has meant that, alongside the expansion of Western culture into large parts of the world, there has also been an adoption of the bodies of knowledge of so-called ‘Eastern’ cultures in the West, for which the term ‘the Easternisation of the West’ has been coined (Campbell 2007). Admittedly, some of the teachings and practices adopted had already undergone a process of ‘Westernisation’ before they were accepted in the West. The international Buddhist film festivals of the twenty-first century, which are held around the world (e.g., in Los Angeles, Washington DC and San Francisco; Mexico City; Amsterdam and London; Singapore, Hong Kong and Bangkok) and show films from many countries (including international co-productions), offer lively testimony of this interpene- tration of cultures and of the interplay of Buddhism and film. The works presented there include non-scripted shorts in the sphere of documentary, and drama films aiming for major box-office success, but also television show episodes and many other, often experimental, productions from the sphere of visual media. The film festivals make clear the cultural and ethnic diversity of Buddhism and show that many different Buddhist notions and images have found their way into many different societies around the globe, and particularly into the collective consciousness of Western cultures. As in the sphere of literature, the cinematic reception of Buddhism covers a Downloaded by [117.102.49.93] at 09:42 12 December 2015 very broad spectrum. Beginning with the silent movie, it comprises many different genres and encompasses in diverse ways instruction and entertainment, and both fly-on-the-wall documentary realism and the illusionistic creative potentials of special effects. In some cases films merely allude to Buddhism or it is an incidental element; in others it is an explicit theme and Buddhist characters, teachings and practices, sites and institutions are documented or provide the setting for the events of the film’s story. Sometimes Buddhist themes are presented expressis verbis as norms and values, sometimes they are implicit in action and dialogue, in visual sequences and musical accompaniment. Some films (or their directors) intentionally communicate Buddhist messages, in others these are (sometimes to the surprise of the filmmakers) interpreted into the film, in which case the reception of Buddhism occurs on the part of the viewer. This phenomenon may 4 ALMUT-BARBARA RENGER arise due to the experience of film: for example, this experience may raise existential questions to which Buddhism offers an answer, or (on the basis of stereotypical sequences of activities involving gestures, words, and objects) may be perceived as a ritual and provoke a religious experience, which the viewer then interprets as Buddhist.