Students Again

The movie I have chosen to write about for this project covering Southeast Asian art was Seven Years in Tibet. How did this movie help me to understand the art of the Southeast Asian culture better and what was my emotional reaction to the movie? I will attempt to answer these questions in the following paragraphs. In the pursuit of answering these questions my focus will be on the things I witnessed in this movie which I might assume is specific to Tibet, but might also apply to other areas of Southeast Asia.

The first thing that I learned during this film that I believe might have an influence on the art is that Tibet is the highest country on Earth and the most isolated. I would imagine that high elevation mountain living would greatly impact the art that is produced from this area. The climate and vegetation must be quite different than areas along the same latitude but lower in elevation. Landscape might be a subject of the art that is produced and due to the high elevation the depiction would almost certainly be quite different than landscape art from lower elevation on the same latitude. As elevation heightens air pressure increases, wind speed increases, and temperature decreases, these facts would greatly affect the types of animals to be seen, vegetation that could survive, and weather that would be experienced. I would bet that India to the west and China to the east of Tibet sharing the same degrees of latitude but different elevation would have vast differences in the way animals, vegetation, and the sky are depicted in the art that is produced. Obviously, these cultures are different and you could expect differences in art. However, animals, trees, plants, flowers, and the sky are surely to be depicted across all cultures and I would expect along the same latitude the sky (denoting weather) and the vegetation would be quite similar because similar latitudes around the world share similar climates, but Tibet would probably have a quite different depiction of the vegetation and the sky because even though other areas within this latitude would share a similar climate, Tibet would not because high elevation is one exception to climate classification in the fact that it will have a different climate regardless of common latitude. It was also mentioned that Tibet is the most isolated. This would surely inhibit outside influence on the art that is produced. I would assume the art would be authentically Tibetan. The subject of each piece of art would be of Tibetan land, culture, beliefs, and people. As I also learned later in this film, sad to say, that this isolation will not last due to the occupation of Tibet by China which I would expect the pre and post occupation art would be quite different.

As this film progressed I learned many other things about this culture that might influence the art, but one thing stands out and that is the rituals and beliefs that are performed and held. One example is the belief that long journeys are a means of purification and the longer and more difficult the journey the more pure you become. Another example is that gifts are sacred and the return of a gift from the gift receiver to the gift giver is an unforgivable action. A last example is the ritual of having a cup of tea when someone is leaving on a journey and before they leave pouring another cup of tea that is to remain untouched until their return. I would imagine the rituals and beliefs of the culture would influence art. Certain rituals might even be an important subject in different works of art and some beliefs might also be symbolized in art that is produced. During the film there were also many other rituals shown and beliefs presented. There were so many, and I assume so many more that were not shown, that I suspect that rituals and beliefs are very important to the cultures way of life.

The last thing that definitely stood out in this film is the emphasis of how peaceful this culture is and how they strive to be peaceful, worry free, and giving to their fellow man. As a way of life, this culture seems to always hold others happiness in high regard. They will make sacrifice to please their fellow man and in return are happier themselves. In the film, there was one quote by the Dali Lama that I think sums up the importance of a clear mind to this culture and that quote was “if you have a problem that can be solved then you need not worry and if you have a problem that cannot be solved then there is no reason to worry about it.” The Tibetan people also seemed to oppose any kind of tension. It was evident that fighting and violence had no place in their society. This was also shown when the Dali Lama had a very violent dream of the occupation of Tibet by China in which he dreamt of many people violently killed and maimed bodies lying lifeless on the ground in the path of the Chinese soldiers and when he awoke he was extremely disturbed and did not understand how these images were introduced into his mind. Being peaceful, worry free, and giving people would quite possibly shine through in art from this culture. I wouldn’t imagine that there would be much art that would have “dark” subject matter.

In conclusion, there are a lot of things I could assume influences Southeast Asian art. The influences I found during watching this film were location (high elevation), isolation, rituals, beliefs, and the peaceful nature of the people. There were so many other things that I saw in this film that could also influence art of this culture that I could write a book, but I think the things I wrote about here stood out the most for me. In my opinion, I thought this movie was fairly slow at first, but just seems that way if you do not look deeper into what is being shown and said. All in all, the movie was pretty good. However, I was completely disgusted with the Chinese occupation of Tibet. It seemed so symbolic of a big bad bully picking on a sweet defenseless little person. It was sad in that respect.