Photo by Lucas Gilman

Samdup Lama

Keeping Faith Alive
School, monk try to preserve anchient religion

By Chris Parker

The School of Journalism and Mass Communication has become an ally in a fight to save one of the Earth's oldest religions from extinction.

Most Westerners are familiar with Tibetan Buddhists — envisioning monks clad in maroon robes atop great mountains — but very few realize Buddhism's rootsgo back thousands of years to another ancient tradition: Bon, a pantheistic religion the followers of which worship many gods and goddesses.

The Bon-Po Media Archive Project, headed by the School’s Associate Professor Roslyn Dauber and Samdup Lama, a Tibetan monk, aims to inform Westerners as well as Bon-po — meaning "the people of Bon" — on the practices and rituals of the ancient religion. The followers of Bon practice a shamanistic, nature-worshipping religion in which they believe that mountains and trees thrive with spirit. Bon, whose followers believe it was practiced more than 15,000 years before Buddhism, was nearly wiped out during the Chinese Cultural Revolution.

"In this area, having text and written materials is not sufficient to really record an ancient traditional culture that has disappeared," Dauber said. "By using still photography, digital video and audio tape, we're able to document ritual sites of the Bon-po."

As the Chinese invaded Tibet in the 1950s, they killed thousands of people and destroyed more than 300 ancient Bon monasteries. To avoid death the 12 surviving monks fled to India. Currently, two elder monks remain the only link to ancient rituals.

In 1991, Dauber learned the plight of the Bon-po while making a short documentary at the Menri Monastery in India. The Indian monastery is the only fully accredited, teaching monastery of Bon in the world. Fearing what might happen to their religion upon the death of the old leaders, the Bon-po turned to Dauber and the West to document ancient rituals, which younger monks do not fully understand.

"They are refugees. They are not free to go to these places or see these rituals, so the mediated material is an opportunity to learn old ways," Dauber said.

About three years ago, when Dauber was living in Los Angeles and before she joined the School's faculty, one of the senior Bon-po monks came to the United States to find her and ask for her help. Dauber said the monk, who knew her through her previous work with the Bon-po, literally showed up at her doorstep with an armful of shabby videocassettes.

This August, Samdup, a 21-year-old Bon-po monk, was dispatched to Colorado to work with Dauber. In his traditional maroon robe, Samdup quickly became a familiar part of the School's academic landscape as he shared Dauber's Macky office. Because he studied in India, he has translated many hours of audio on videotape from Tibetan to English.

Three hundred Bon monasteries are in Tibet, but older monks are no longer alive to conduct rituals and teachings of Bon, Samdup said.

The elder monks told Dauber they hope the video archives will serve to guide generations to come after their death. Because most of the Bon-po monks range in age from 20 to 30, videos seemed an effective way to pass on old traditions without losing traditional meanings, she said.

"We have a different culture and traditions, which are changing generation by generation," Samdup said. "The younger generations need a visual record."

So far, Dauber and Samdup have amassed 100 hours of video to pass on to future generations. With four academic grants funding the project, the research and documentation will continue into the next year.

Dauber said she hopes the archive project will set a precedent to aid other cultures facing extinction.

"The Bon-po are a big piece of Tibetan history that have gotten left out,"Dauber said.

Samdup, who hopes to stay in Colorado through February, said he is enjoying his time in Boulder. Although he is an excellent cook and has no trouble finding familiar ingredients in Boulder's culturally diverse food stores, Dauber noted that pizza quickly became one of his favorite dishes. She said it's one of many things he has in common with CU students.

"I like it here very much," he said. "It's clean and quiet. When I walk in Macky, I feel very good."

Dauber said when he's not working on translating the tape, Samdup enjoys seeing — and being seen by — students he has met.

"He especially knows everyone in the basement," she said.

"In the editing bays," Samdup added.

"I can't believe I know all those people," said Samdup, who is working toward a Ph.D. in religious studies in India. "Meeting everyone has been so good for me."

Dauber said the more people who know of Samdup and the plight of the Bon-po the better. Through television and newspaper reports, the story of his visit was told to audiences along the Front Range this fall.

"What's happening to the Bon-po religion is dramatic and a great news story," Dauber said. "We're trying to find larger news organizations to cover it."

She said she hopes wider coverage of the compelling cultural needs of the Bon-po will generate donations to keep the project going.