In 2008 I started to look after an old Sri Lankan Temple in Taiping, Malaysia. As part of our Dharma propagation work I would show a film every Friday and hold a discussion on the issues it raised.
I left that Temple in 2010, but having just started this blog I wanted to continue sharing the documentaries I think are helpful for an understanding of Buddhism in its wider aspects, and the cultures it has influenced.
After more than three years of publications it seemed to me to be worthwhile to hive off the documentary side of this site into a dedicated website of its own.
I have checked each and every one of the pages over the past couple of weeks to make sure all the embeds are working OK, and have spent quite some time on the design also.
The new Dharma Documentaries website presently has over 200 documentaries from three main areas:
1) all traditions of the Buddhist Teaching
2) the associated cultures, mainly in Asia
3) materials about other areas of concern, like ecology, human and animal rights
The collection presented is a personal choice, and the site is mainly for well-made documentaries and academic lectures. I will not include material just because it is on subject, if I judge the presentation to be poor.
There is an accompanying Facebook Page where updates will be announced, and screenshot albums will be shared. If you use Facebook and you like the page they will come straight into your news feed.
A word about the use of Dharma in the title: of course it’s primary usage here is to represent the Buddha’s Teachings, and the main part of the site is about just that.
But Dharma also means justice, righteousness and so on, and I use it to include those issues which are, to my mind, an essential accompaniment to the main teaching of the Buddha.
Today the health of the earth, and human and animal rights are really essential in building a world in which everyone has a chance for bringing about the end of suffering, both for themselves and for others.
I don’t post so often as I first have to review the works and then write them up, before preparing a post for publication, so you can expect an update only once or twice a week.
Meanwhile I will continue to use this blog as a place to announce updates on other websites and for somewhere to share other materials that are of interest.
I have set up a redirect so that people trying to access the documentaries originally published here will go to the correct page on the new site.
I hope you like the these Dharma Documentaries and that you will be able to use them as a good resource for information on the Teaching, and that you will also share it with others.