In 1964, when Adrian Cowell, Chris Menges and George Patterson embarked on their secret film expedition to film Tibetan guerrilla fighters they were originally commissioned to make another film Buddhism in Tibet. The three young men used this as their cover story granting them access into the remote Mustang Region of Nepal. High in the mountains they departed from the script and made Raid into Tibet incognito. Buddhism in Tibet explores Mahayana Bodhisattva Buddhism in the context of the 1959 revolt inside Tibet and among Tibetan refugees in northern Nepal. The film features rare footage of the 14th Dalai Lama as a young man five years after the exodus from Tibet in his exiled home in Dharamsala, India, as well as Tibetan refugees in Katmandu, Nepal. The film illustrates the violent strains that are appearing within Tibet Buddhism as it tries to adapt to a modern environment.
This is the first time that Raid into Tibet and Buddhism in Tibet are screened together in the light of this new historical information.

Tenzin Phuntsog