EDITION RUINE DER KUENSTE BERLIN

Demon in the Rock/ Der Daemon im Stein

A video document by

Wolf Kahlen

German, 1988/90, 110 minutes

 

The 14/15th century Tibetan mahasiddha Thang-stong rGyal-po

(spoken:tungtonggyulpo) is believed by Wolf Kahlen, besides other genious

activities as a Leonardo of Tibet, the founder of Tibetan

theater A-lche lha-mo). His plays are known ,well

but the missing link for a proof of this thesis

has not yet been searched for.

We found it in 1988 in Spiti:

And this so far undocumented ceremony,

thought  to have been vanished  by long,

called Pho-bar rdo-gcog (Breaking of the Stone),

which incorporates within a pre-buddhist (Bon) ritual a history lesson.

The astounding dramaturgy of the event obviously is a masterpiece.

There might have been changes in the course of more than 500 years,

But the ritual repeatedly is attributed to the Great Magican,

and still practized today in the high plain deserts of Spiti, a country

secluded by mountain passes and cut off the world by politics,

neighbouring Guge, Tsaparang and Tholing,

in the most eastern corner of Himachal Pradesh, India.

The contents of the ritual are several differently accentuated tries

first to ask friendly, then ban, then chase or force a demon,

who has hidden inside a rock of temple doorstep dimensions,

to leave the place,

since he is the originator of an epidemic disease.

Blessings, offerings, sword dances and the use of the

magic dagger (phur-bu) are all in vain.

Finally to set the demon free, the rock is placed on the chest

of an "acting" initiated one in trance, and smashed by a boulder.

The historical part within the two hours ritual is structured like a

funny event in the beginning, when a nomad pretends to be a buddhist believer,

later discovered as an enemy of "religion" in general, as

the "Wild King of the North" himself, who has to be killed finally.

This input calms down the dense tension of the ritual,

then leads up step by step to the final solution of the ritual.

The film is one of the results of the

First International Thang-stong rgyal-po Expedition,

and shows the search and finding of the fully recorded, here

abbreviated ceremony.

It is both a sensational scholarly research,and,

since seen by an artist, an emotional loaded experience.

Second new edition numbered and signed copy Euro  155,-  Order here: ruine-kuenste.berlin@snafu.de



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Copyright 2001