To mark its twentieth anniversary, Buddhadharma is sharing an exclusive clip and reflection from the original Blessings: The Tsoknyi Nangchen Nuns of Tibet, which offers a rare glimpse into the powerful moments captured during this unforgettable journey.
Here, filmmaker Victress Hitchcock also shares a personal reflection on how the experience has continued to influence her life over the past twenty years:
It was a Saturday in June 2005 when I got the call on my cell phone. “Are you doing anything in August?” Brady Hogan asked. I had just met Brady, Tsoknyi Rinpoche’s assistant, so the question took me by surprise. “Nothing I can think of,” I answered. “You want to come to Tibet?” she went on. “Sure,” I said, having no idea what she was asking of me.
As it turns out I was being asked to help document a journey of mostly western women students, led by Buddhist teacher Tsoknyi Rinpoche, to a mountainous region of Eastern Tibet where we would meet the Nangchen nuns – 3000 extraordinary women practicing an ancient yogic tradition in remote nunneries and hermitages. There was one other filmmaker on board, Amber Bemak, a film student at the time. Barbara Green, a filmmaker and therapist joined us and once in Tibet we added a young monk to the crew.
If I had understood what the journey would entail—traveling for four weeks in jeeps and on horseback, crossing 14,000 foot mountain passes, sleeping on dirt floors and wooden planks, no showers, no toilets — I might have hesitated, but, thankfully, I had no idea what we were in for, so I jumped at the chance.
As we traveled deeper into the mountains the journey became wilder and more unpredictable. The moment we had to leave our jeeps behind and mount up on horses to travel to our first nunnery, Dechenling, was when I knew I had to let go of any flimsy sense of control I might have still harbored and trust the dharma and the universe to guide us.
It was beginning to rain. The film equipment was teetering on the back of small ponies. None of us had any idea how far we would be riding or what we would find when we arrived. After traveling across rolling hills, we began the final steep climb up a narrow trail to Dechenling. Amber grabbed a camera and began filming from the back of her horse as Tsoknyi Rinpoche was greeted by nuns and laypeople and a cacophony of horns, drums, and chanting. Everything was glistening in the light rain with slashes of late afternoon sunlight.
As we continued our pilgrimage, each day was a revelation, each place we encountered was unimaginable. But one thing that was true wherever we went, in every nunnery and hermitages we visited, was a sense of devotion and dedication infused by a relaxed joy. The days were simple. No one was rushing. No one was pushing to get ahead, to be first in line, to be recognized. Everything was done when it needed to be done.
Being in a world where the women around us seemed genuinely more interested in our well-being than in their own was almost shocking. Within a day, the nuns at Dechenling had figured out how each of us liked our tea, while we struggled to remember their names. By the time we reached Gebchak, the largest nunnery, I felt nourished in a way I don’t remember ever feeling before. It was as if we had been pampered for weeks at a spa; only, in this case, we didn’t even have a shower, much less daily massages and delicious food.
As we neared the end of the journey the word that came to me for what I had experienced was love, love as a meeting of one open heart with another. With no shared language, we communicated with gestures, holding hands, leaning towards each other, and laughing together. Being with the nuns showed us how to live with compassion and joy. They gave us a taste of what the path of liberation looks like and the unspoken inspiration to step onto it ourselves and keep walking, however unpredictable and wild it gets.
Blessings: The Tsoknyi Nangchen Nuns of Tibet will be featured at two special screenings this September. The first takes place on Sunday, September 14, as part of the Boulder Buddhist Arts and Film Festival. The second screening will be held at Tibet House US in New York City on September 18.
