The Tibetan Book Of The Dead The Great Liberation

The Tibetan Book of the Dead remains an essential teaching in the Buddhist cultures of the Himalayas.

Narrated by Leonard Cohen, this two-part series explores ancient teachings on death and dying and boldly visualises the afterlife according to Tibetan philosophy. Tibetan Buddhists believe that after a person dies, they enter a state of "bardo" for 49 days until a rebirth. Program 1, The Tibetan Book of the Dead: A Way of Life documents the history of The Tibetan Book of the Dead, tracing the book's acceptance and use in Europe and North America. Program 2, The Tibetan Book of the Dead: The Great Liberation observes an old Buddhist lama and a 13-year-old novice monk as they guide a deceased person into the afterlife.

"Tanka" means, literally, "a thing rolled up". Photographed from Tibetan scroll paintings of the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries, Tanka is a cyclical vision of ancient gods and demons, an animated journey through the image world of the Tibetan Book of the Dead.