Oracles and Demons of Ladakh | movie | 2004 | Official Trailer - video Dailymotion

Isolated in the Indian Himalayas, Ladakh is a western enclave of the Greater Tibetan Plateau untouched by Chinese occupa | dG1fOEZTak9wQVZyZ0k

Transcript

00:00In this constant rushing of the wind, and the cold temperature, and the poor food, the

00:30you hear things and see things that may not be there, but you sense that there's strange

00:37things lurking in the snows.

00:59An oracle is a universal shamanic phenomenon where people consult the deities of the region

01:18by an individual who is trained for that purpose, a medium, going into a state of possession

01:23by the oracle, and then speaking the wisdom of the oracle, and in that way the community

01:28can consult. An oracle is this type of mediumistic phenomenon that they had in ancient Greece,

01:33that they had in all ancient cultures.

01:54Holy fucking hell!

02:06Is everyone okay?

02:11I think we can see Buddhism in the dark as really having two major faces, or two major

02:17aspects, one of which is perhaps the side of Buddhism that Westerners are more familiar

02:24with, that's centered around the monasteries, around meditation, around the search for enlightenment

02:31and Buddhahood. We can call this first aspect of Tibetan Buddhism the clerical, and we can

02:38call the second aspect the shamanic. And if we're talking in these terms, then the oracle

02:45priests are of course very much part of the shamanic side of Tibetan religion and very

02:49much part of the shamanic side of the dark.

03:15Ah!

03:45Ah!

04:15Ah!