Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00Jardins do Éden, Bhutan.
00:26Hidden between Tibet and India is a tiny buddhist kingdom.
00:30A jewel in the crown of the Himalayas known as Bhutan.
00:34Its people call it Drukyu, the land of the dragon Throval.
00:40It is believed that protective gods and vengeful demons
00:43have made their homes in the virgin peaks
00:46that reach 7,500 meters from the sky.
00:51The cold of the Arctic and the tropical heat
00:53almost collide within a distance of only 160 kilometers.
01:07Its wealth and diversity combined with the teachings
01:11of an ancient religious philosophy
01:13made Bhutan a unique place.
01:19Buddhism arrived in Bhutan in the 9th century.
01:22Its legacy penetrated the kingdom,
01:24not only as a religion, but as a way of life.
01:28Buddhism has cultivated the broad appreciation
01:31for the beauty of the natural world in every size, shape and color.
01:52The meaning of the Bhutanese goal in the world
02:01is probably best illustrated by the Buddhist allegory
02:04of the four harmonious friends.
02:08All men, women and children in Bhutan know this by heart.
02:23Once upon a time, there was a strange bird
02:25from a distant land that had flown for days
02:28with a seed in its beak.
02:30After such a long journey, it dropped the seed
02:33because it was too tired to eat it.
02:35A hare dug a hole in the ground for the seed
02:38and a monkey planted it.
02:45An elephant then cast a shadow on the little plant that sprouted,
02:48watering it and protecting it from the midday sun.
02:53With time, the young sprout grew and became a magnificent tree,
02:59a tree of life, with fruits in abundance.
03:10It is an idea of harmony that springs up through the earth
03:13where myth and legend cannot be separated from the landscape itself.
03:23BUDDHIST FAITH
03:36Sacred altars mark these severe landscapes
03:39as constant reminders of another reality beyond the present world.
03:48Even in the remotest corners of Bhutan,
03:50the evidences of Buddhist faith are always present,
03:53in isolated monasteries,
03:56in places of pilgrimage
03:59and prayers,
04:00and in the altars dedicated to the holiness of life.
04:08In Bhutan, the crow is the incarnation of the protective deity Yeshe I Goen
04:13and hurting or killing these birds is a serious crime.
04:21The reverence of Buddhism for life extends beyond individual creatures
04:25to natural elements.
04:29Fire,
04:30water
04:32and air.
04:34Each of them is used and celebrated in daily rituals.
04:40The wind gathers the prayers written on flags known as wind horses
04:45and distributes them throughout the kingdom.
04:48Water wheels rotate cylinders containing sacred verses.
04:52Each revolution releases its power in the world.
04:59Fire burns offerings of Zimbru to bring good weather.
05:11When summer passes and harvest begins,
05:14the barley, a product of the land itself, is offered in gratitude.
05:38When autumn comes to an end in the capital of Bhutan, Thimphu,
05:41the monks of the kingdom begin their own ritual of departure.
05:45Every year they leave their summer monastery
05:48and go to the winter settlement in the valleys below.
06:03Sacred relics accompany the procession
06:06as the population comes to seek the blessings of the religious leader.
06:11Supreme of Bhutan,
06:13the Gen Khenpo.
06:21The date of this human migration is marked according to a Buddhist special calendar.
06:27As if they were following the same calendar,
06:29black-necked geese that gathered at the top of the Tibet
06:33begin their own epic journey to the south.
06:42In Bhutan, events in the human and natural world
06:45rotate according to the same seasonal wheel,
06:48while the Buddhist belief in reincarnation
06:51connects all creatures in an even greater cycle.
06:57But the Buddhist philosophy of reincarnation
07:00places all living beings,
07:02from the most humble to the most important,
07:05in a continuous chain of birth, life and death.
07:10All life belongs to this spiritual procession
07:13and all living things are interconnected
07:16in the common purpose of reaching nirvana or enlightenment.
07:21The Buddhist philosophy believes that by showing compassion and love
07:24for all living things, sublime or not,
07:26we will be cultivating the greatest sense of connection with this world
07:30and enlightenment in the next.
07:34Among the most mysterious birds,
07:36it is believed that the black-necked geese live a long life.
07:41It is not surprising that, according to Buddhist thought,
07:44these birds have a type of wisdom
07:46that comes only with the experience of life and many past lives.
07:51In the same way that the Buddhist pilgrims,
07:53the geese circulate the monastery three times in a clockwise direction,
07:56announcing their arrival and devotion to this place.
08:07RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL
08:13Buddhism emphasizes the impermanence of all things.
08:17Here, the river gives and takes life.
08:19Nothing remains the same.
08:21The only constant here is change.
08:26The cycles of creation and destruction bring new habitats
08:29that, in turn, bring new life to this landscape of constant renovations.
08:37As the Kingdom of Bhutan is a true celebration of biological diversity,
08:42so is the story of the four harmonious friends.
08:47The parable explains how, even having collaborated together,
08:51the four harmonious brothers
08:53were not able to achieve and reap the fruits of their collective efforts.
08:57Then they formed a pyramid,
08:59one animal on top of the other,
09:01and this time managed to share the sweet rewards of their efforts.
09:07BUDDHISM
09:19Forests have a special meaning for Buddhists.
09:22For them, forests are places where we can move away from the worries of the world.
09:27It was in a forest, sitting under a tree, that Buddha received enlightenment.
09:33BUDDHISM
09:36This extraordinary chain of environments
09:39and a special reverence for life
09:41came together to make Bhutan the last Shangri-La on Earth.