Travellers and Musicians

From the director-writer Khyentse Norbu, the lyrical film TRAVELLERS AND MAGICIANS recounts the age-old story of longing for a better life. A story within a story, it follows two men: one real and the other fabled as they seek greater happiness. The film becomes magical as it gives glimpses of the land of Bhutan, the tiny Buddhist kingdom nestled in the Himalayas between India and China.

It probably wouldn’t surprise anyone familiar with Khyentse Norbu to know that every choice he makes as a filmmaker comes about through a Tibetan oracle’s divination process. That includes selecting the crew, locations and even casting. Norbu is the third incarnate of a Tibetan Buddhist lama, Dzongar Khyentse Rinpoche, and a member of one of Bhutan’s noble families. In ‘Travellers and Magicians,’ Khyentse Norbu lets us experience the culture and the people of his homeland in a story infused with Buddhist tradition.

The film opens as Donrup, an educated university graduate, decides that any job in America - even if it means picking fruit - would be more fulfilling than his work as a government official in a remote village in Bhutan. He is an unhappy man in a country where the King prefers to measure “gross national happiness” instead of the national gross product.

To make his connection for passage to America, Donrup must hitchhike across the country, and his sense of urgency is challenged and transformed by the timeless pace of the Bhutanese landscape and the fellow travelers he meets along the way. They include a farmer and his daughter, an apple seller, and my favorite, a delightfully perceptive and playful monk who relays a story within the story. He tells Donrup a fable of two brothers, magic, love, lust, and seduction. True to Buddhist form, the movie ending offers no “big bang” and instead charms us with a pastoral “middle way”.

Alan Koslowski, cinematographer, musician and owner of “On The Path” gallery in Santa Monica served as Director of Photography on the film (again prescribed via divination). As the first DP to ever shoot a film in Bhutan, Alan recounted how the “remoteness of the land required lots of flexibility to plan and change according to “Mo’s” (Tibetan Oracle). The ritual and spiritual practice allowed for continual renewal to maximize what could be accomplished and not be burdened by the difficulty.” Working with a teacher like Dzongar “really shook me in many ways to my roots of belief and expectation, to shed them and get in the present with what is.”

In one scene, the farmer’s daughter exclaims, “I hear most people in America do not even know that Bhutan exists.” Indeed, this kingdom country, often referred to as Shangri La, maintains a policy of careful controlled growth, cautious of too much tourism and modernization. Most of us will never be able to make the journey there, and I am glad this film allows us to share in its magic and beauty.

Travellers and Magicians is available on DVD.