The DALAI LAMA: SCIENTIST
A FILM BY DAWN ENGLE AND IVAN SUVANJIEFF
PRESS KIT
NOBEL
LEGACY
FILM
SERIES
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ABOUT HIS HOLINESS THE 14th DALAI LAMA
In 1935, a little boy named Lhamo Thondub was born to a peasant family in Takstar, a small
village in Tibet, high in the Himalayan Mountains. Lhamo had one older sister and three
older brothers. Lhamo grew up as an ordinary Tibetan boy. He enjoyed ice skating in the
winter and helping his mother around the farm. He would also often make believe that he
was going on a trip to Lhasa, the capitol city of Tibet that was a several months journey
from his home. His parents thought this was very strange because they were not sure how
Lhamo even knew that Lhasa existed.
The Dalia Lama, leader of one of the main branches of Tibetan Buddhism, and head of the
Tibetan government, had died. Now this team was looking for his reincarnation, the young
child in which the old Dalai Lama’s soul had been reborn. In their dreams and visions the
monks had seen a home with turquoise gutters -- just like Lhamo’s house. They suspected
that Lhamo was the reincarnation of the thirteenth Dalai Lama. But they had to test him
first. They set several pairs of objects in front of the boy, such as eye glasses, canes, and
prayer beads. One of each object had belonged to the thirteenth Dalai Lama and the
other had not. When Lhamo chose the objects that belonged to the previous Dalai Lama
the monks were convinced that they had found the next Dalai Lama. Lhamo was going
to Lhasa after all. Lhamo and his family packed their bags and traveled to Lhasa where
Lhamo began his studies with other monks. He learned about Tibetan art and culture,
logic, and meditation in preparation to be the official leader of Tibet on his 21st birthday.
Lhamo was taught to strive for compassion and sympathy for all living beings, without
exception.
In October 1950, when the Dalai Lama was just fifteen years old, 80,000 soldiers from
China invaded Tibet. Thousands of Tibetan people were killed in the invasion. The people
of Tibet needed a strong leader to stand up to the Chinese and to bring peace back to
their country. They could not wait for the new Dalai Lama to turn 21. So at the age of
fifteen, the boy who had been named Lhamo Thondup found himself the spiritual and
political leader of over six million Tibetans. The Dalai Lama worked for nine long years
to find a peaceful solution to the conflict with China. But the situation grew worse. On
March 10, 1959, thousands of Tibetans demonstrated in Lhasa, demanding an independent
Tibet. Chinese soldiers fired on the protesters and thousands of Tibetans were killed. Tibet
was no longer safe for him and the Dalai Lama had to flee his country.
The Dalai Lama traveled for many weeks over the Himalayas-- the highest mountains in
the world into India. His parents and siblings went with him, as did many of his teachers
and other Tibetan government officials. They made their way to Dharamsala, now known
as “Little Lhasa,” where they set up the Tibetan Government in exile. The Dalai Lama
started over 50 large settlements for Tibetan refugees in India and created a Tibetan
school system to teach refugee children Tibetan language, history, religion, and culture. He
founded several cultural institutes to preserve 2,000 years of Tibet’s arts and sciences and
helped reestablish more than 200 monasteries to keep Buddhist teachings alive.
In 1989, on the 30th anniversary of China’s invasion of Tibet, the Dalai Lama was awarded
the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to find a non-violent solution to the conflict with
China. He continues to travel the globe speaking to world leaders and with ordinary
people, spreading his message of peace and urging all people to live their lives with
compassion for others and the earth. The Dalai Lama often says, “I am just a simple
Buddhist monk -- no more, no less.” Living in a small cottage in Dharamsala, he rises
at 4 AM each morning to meditate, attend meetings, and conduct religious teachings
and ceremonies. He concludes each day with more prayers. The Dalai Lama has worked
hard over the years to bring compassion and loving kindness to the world -- even to the
Chinese government after all they have done to his people. For him, this is the only way to
bring peace to Tibet and to the world.
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SYNOPSIS
“For more than 30 years,
I have spent much time
with these Western
Scientists. When I
think about myself
now, sometimes I think
that I am only one-half
Buddhist monk. The
other half -- Scientist.”
Around the world, one of the most recognized leaders on our
planet today is The Dalai Lama. Everyone knows him as a man
of peace, a great Buddhist teacher, an advocate for humanity.
“The Dalai Lama: Scientist” tells the story of the man you do
not know; the Dalai Lama that very few people have seen. For
the past thirty-five years, The Dalai Lama has been engaged
in an ongoing series of dialogues with groups of Scientists.
Organized in part by the Mind & Life Institute, they have
covered subjects ranging from quantum physics and cosmology
to compassion and destructive emotions. “The Dalai Lama:
Scientist” immerses the viewer into these profound dialogues;
explores the correlations between science and Buddhism; and
shares personal life experiences from The Dalai Lama that have
had a deep impact on his development as a truly one-of-a-kind
world leader. As The Dalai Lama says, “while Scientific findings
offer a deeper understanding of such fields of knowledge as
cosmology, it seems that Buddhist explanations can sometimes
give Scientists a new way to look into their own field of study.”
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ABOUT- THE TALENT
Arthur Zajonc
Arthur Zajonc is the former President of the Mind & Life Institute. He is also
emeritus professor of physics at Amherst College, where he taught from 1978 to
2012. Since 1997 he has served as scientific coordinator for the Mind and Life
dialogue with H.H. the Dalai Lama whose meetings have been published as The New
Physics and Cosmology: Dialogues with the Dalai Lama (Oxford 2004) and The Dalai
Lama at MIT (Harvard UP, 2006).
Richard J. Davidson
Richard J. Davidson, Ph.D. is the William James and Vilas Research Professor of
Psychology and Psychiatry, Director of the Waisman Laboratory for Brain Imaging
and Behavior, and Founder of the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds at the
Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has been a member of the
Mind and Life Institute’s Board of Directors since 1991.
Daniel Goleman
Daniel Goleman is an internationally known psychologist. Goleman is a board
member of the Mind & Life Institute. Goleman has organized a series of intensive
conversations between the Dalai Lama and scientists, which resulted in the books
Healthy Emotions, and Destructive Emotions. He is currently editing a book from the
most recent dialogue on ecology, interdependence, and ethics.
Matthieu Ricard
Matthieu Ricard is a French writer and Buddhist monk who resides at Shechen
Tennyi Dargyeling Monastery in Nepal. A board member of the Mind and Life
Institute, which is devoted to meetings and collaborative research between
scientists and Buddhist scholars and meditators, his contributions have appeared in
Destructive Emotions (edited by Daniel Goleman) and other books of essays.
Joan Halifax
Joan Jiko Halifax is an American Zen Buddhist teacher, anthropologist, ecologist,
civil rights activist, hospice caregiver, and the author of several books on Buddhism
and spirituality. She is on the board of directors of the Mind and Life Institute,
a non-profit organization dedicated in exploring the relationship of science and
Buddhism.
Barry Hershey
Barry Hershey is an award-winning filmmaker. Hershey studied filmmaking at
Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and the
University of Southern California (USC), where he received his Masters in Fine Arts
(MFA) in Cinema.
Thupten Jinpa Langri
Thupten Jinpa Langri is a leading Tibetan Scholar, and he received his Ph.D from
the Institute for Tibetan Classics. He has been the principal English translator to the
Dalai Lama since 1985. He is also the Chairman of the advisory board of the Mind
and Life Institute, dedicated to fostering creative dialogue between the Buddhist
tradition and Western science.
Diana Chapman Walsh
Diana Chapman Walsh was President of Wellesley College from 1993 to 2007.
Walsh has published on topics related to the organization and financing of health
care services, the conservation of health, the prevention and treatment of substance
abuse, the health effects of work and on a number of issues in higher education.
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She currently serves on the Mind and Life Institute advisory board.
ABOUT- THE FILMMAKERS
DAWN ENGLE - WRITER/DIRECTOR
Dawn Gifford Engle is an activist and filmmaker, and she has been nominated
sixteen times for the Nobel Peace Prize. She directed the award-winning
documentary films, “PEACEJAM”, “Mayan Renaissance”, “Children of the Light”,
“Rivers of Hope”, and “Daughter of the Maya”. She also co-authored the book,
“PEACEJAM: A Billion Simple Acts of Peace”, which was published by Penguin
in 2008. She has a background in public service, working 12 years for the U.S.
Congress, and she was the youngest woman ever appointed to serve as Chief of
Staff for a U.S. Senator. In 1994, Dawn Gifford Engle and Ivan Suvanjieff created the
PeaceJam Foundation, which has been recognized nationally as an award-winning
service learning program, and internationally for excellence in peace education.
IVAN SUVANJIEFF - EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
Ivan Suvanjieff is an artist and an activist. He was a Detroit punk rock musician (lead
singer of the Ramrods) and an editor at CREEM magazine (his work is featured in
two recently published books: ‘The Best of CREEM’ and ‘Iggy Pop and the Stooges:
The Authorized Biography’). He is well known for his abstract paintings and his
literary magazine, ‘The New Censorship’, with contributing editors Charles Bukowski,
Anselm Hollo, Anne Waldman and Andrei Codrescu. He co-created the PeaceJam
program, and he has been nominated 16 times for the Nobel Peace Prize. He was
the Executive Producer and Director of Photography for the award winning films
“PEACEJAM”, “Mayan Renaissance”, “Children of the Light”, “Rivers of Hope”,
and “Daughter of the Maya”. He and his wife Dawn were married by Archbishop
Desmond Tutu at Saint Georges Cathedral in Cape Town, South Africa in March
2000.
DAVE WRUCK - CINEMATOGRAPHER
Dave Wruck is an Emmy Award winning editor, with nearly two decades of
experience working in both television and documentary film. He has received five
Emmy Awards for documentary films he has edited. He has also won many awards
at leading film festivals, including Best Documentary Film, Audience Favorite, Jury
Award, and Directors Choice. He is a constant traveler as he takes on documentary
projects all over the world. Dave Wruck has worked closely with the PeaceJam
Foundation film department for ten years.
GIACOMO BOUNAFINA - SOUND DESIGN
Giacomo Buonafina is an award-winning actor, sound engineer, and activist from
Guatemala. As an actor he is known for his work with respected directors Carlos
García Agraz, Rafael Rosal, and the great Guatemalan director Luiz Tuchán. His
indie label, “Primera Generación Records”, recorded over 100 albums of local and
Central American music and worked with artists to record albums which became
fundamental in the post war artistic movement in Central America.
ZABE HOLLOWAY - EDITOR
Elizabeth “Zabe” Holloway has been working professionally in the film production
field since 2004. She’s an award winning editor, and first began working with the
PeaceJam Foundation in 2010 as an Editor for the documentary film “2012: The True
Mayan Prophecy” and continued on as Editor and Production Manager for the films
“Mayan Renaissance”, “Children of the Light”, “Rivers of Hope”, and “Daughter of
the Maya”,. She is a graduate of the Art Institute of Colorado.
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BUDGET
Story development & Script
Director
Director of photography
producers
cast
total above the line
$66,000
$60,000
$60,000
$70,000
$40,000
$296,000
Grip/set operations
camera
production sound
transportation
location & office expense
production film & lab
stock footage
total production
$8,000
$22,400
$31,400
$92,342
$10,898
$4,000
$47,200
$216,240
editing staff
music
post sound
post film & lab
titles, optical, & digital fx
other deliverables
other post costs
total post-production
$111,000
$24,000
$35,600
$62,000
$25,500
$30,000
$33,000
$321,100
publicity & marketing
legal & accounting
insurance
general expense
total other
$126,000
$16,000
$6,000
$18,660
$166,660
total above-the-line
total below-the-line
grand total
raised to date
remaining funds to raise
$296,000
$704,000
$1,000,000
$850,000
$150,000
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