Overview

Tholing Monastery (Tuolin si 托林寺) is the oldest monastery in the Ngari Prefecture of western Tibet. It is situated in Tholing (Zanda), Zanda County, near the Indian border of Ladakh — more than 1,800 km from Lhasa. It was built in 997 AD by Yeshe-Ö, the second King of the Guge Kingdom. In the Tibetan language, 'Tholing' means "hovering in the sky forever," and is reflected by the location of the monastery, which sits at an elevation of 12,400 feet. This documentary follows an old monk who spent his childhood at the Tholing Monastery, in the 1950s. In 1960, he fled to India, and in 1967 (during the Cultural Revolution), Tibetan residents from in and around Zanda County gathered at Tholing Monastery and demolished most of its buildings within a month. The monastery was allowed to resume Buddhist prayer activities in 1984; upon hearing this, the old monk left his life in India and returned to Tibet.