Journal of Religion & Film Volume 20 Issue 1 The 2015 International Conference on Religion Article 19 and Film in Istanbul 1-4-2016 Enlightenments: The nI terpretation of Tibetan Buddhism on Screen Andronika M. Martonova Institute for Art Studies, Bulgarian Academy of Science,
[email protected] Recommended Citation Martonova, Andronika M. (2016) "Enlightenments: The nI terpretation of Tibetan Buddhism on Screen," Journal of Religion & Film: Vol. 20 : Iss. 1 , Article 19. Available at: https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/jrf/vol20/iss1/19 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@UNO. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Religion & Film by an authorized editor of DigitalCommons@UNO. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Enlightenments: The nI terpretation of Tibetan Buddhism on Screen Abstract The iT bet Buddhist tradition is a specific system for a vertical and horizontal transmission of the culture of one generation to the next. This transmission is realized through a relevant training or initiation. The holy text has an absolute value, while its further hermeneutic development in the way of interpretations and comments is a priori viewed as secondary, complementary and commenting. The cinema art is a kind of modern, interpretative commentary of Buddhism. Through the audio-visual media the religious transmissions have been delivered, transformed and incorporated in new forms, utilizing the semiotic power of the cinema language. The proposed paper examines three very different films which articulate various views of Tibetan Buddhism, its sacral continuum, symbolism, and being on the screen. In these case studies the interpretation of religious narrative is determinate as a process of gradual transformation.