Journey Into Tibet with Robert Thurman

I was watching the clips on YouTube and realized the "five parts" are from a rough edit (with place holders). The DVD is available at TibetDoc.com and live streaming or for purchase on Amazon in a better format than this stepped down SD version. However, the teachings within it from Professor Thurman are timeless. "Outside of time."

Dr. Thurman, head of Tibetan Studies at Columbia, has an encyclodedic mind. Trained as a Gelupka monk, he was ordained by the Dalai Lama. He left the monkhood after meeting his wife to be (the former Ms. Tim Leary) and they had 5 kids, while living in Dharamsala, India and studying with the Dalai Lama's doctor (Dr. Donden). I have had the profound good fortune to travel to India, Ladakh and Dharamsala, as well as Tibet (Lhasa to Kailash and back) in this lifetime. No other way to put it.

I was making a Bollywood film ("My Bollywood Bride" which I wrote and shot second unit) when I got an email from Robert saying "If you can be in Katmandu next week, you may join our trip around Mt. Kailash." I was sponsored by Tibet House in NY and Geographic Expeditions which covered my hotel and expenses. Their gift to me has been endless, as it's been 16 years since I shot this footage - and have had any number of unusual adventures since then (including but not limited to beginning to research the flipside).

So this is a document "outside of time" of a place that still exists - that if someone goes to Lhasa, this world is "just under the surface." (It takes some searching, but it's there.) I recommend watching some of the "Lhasa" vacation videos on YouTube to get a sense of what it looks like in HD or 4K. (This was shot on tape, transferred to MP4, so the quality is fuzzy). If someone wants to take a trip with Professor Thurman (this was his 4th trip to Kailash) he gives tours of Bhutan and other Buddhist sites through Geoex.com.

In my research into the flipside, it led me to Robert, and eventually led me to Tibet. I remember the feeling sitting on the runway in Lhasa, wondering "how it could be" that I had come there - which felt like I had returned. Since then I've done more research that has filled 8 volumes of books, but it began here. At the end is an interview with the Hindu monk who lived in a cave on the edge of Lake Mansarovar. He said "People come here from the West and take a trip around this sacred lake and Mt. Kailash - but they don't realize that they've "ingested" the experience. The mountain then decides what your life will be like from that point forward."

Those words have never been more accurate - it was in a tent on Kailash where I heard the actor Michael Gough's voice speaking to me (he was still on the planet, but said he was "traveling the universe" with our departed pal Luana Anders.) It was at the mouth of the valley where I heard my friend Paul Tracey's voice remind me of the "Happiest day of his life." I could hear it clear as a bell, and he reminded me of a day I had forgotten (new information) where we got deliriously, hilariously lost in the woods of Ohio. It was on Mt. Kailash where my son, two years later, told me he "found me there" on the "path."

So within this footage are all kinds of hidden gems, hidden teachings, and a taste of the beauty that was Tibet, a taste of the beauty that is and will forever be Tibet. I offer this as a gift - free - to anyone who will take the time to watch it all the way through. For more info: Geoex.com, TibetHouse.us, RichMartini.com, MartiniZone.com, Tibet.com, Tibetdoc.com. Enjoy this two hour trip into Tibet, edited by Josh Davidow, shot and directed by yours truly.

Emaho! Tso Tso Tso!