Today, over 50 years after being forced to flee their homeland, the bearers of Tibet’s ancient Buddhist traditions stand upon a precipice. The last generation to have been fully educated within Tibet before 1959 has almost disappeared, leaving a scant handful of leaders and teachers to ensure, along with their students and heirs, that Tibetan Buddhist knowledge continues into the future, not as a museum piece or historical curiosity, but as a vital, living tradition that has a part to play in the modern world.

The younger generations are confronted with the awesome task of upholding their sacred heritage. In exile, the leaders of Tibetan Buddhism have struggled to provide stability, establishing monasteries and teaching tirelessly. But the next generations desperately need access to their sacred texts in order to ensure the accurate and complete transmission of Tibetan Buddhist knowledge.

This moment is the turning point for Tibetan Buddhist culture. Will it survive as its “greatest generation” passes on? Will the new lamas, monks and nuns have a strong enough educational basis to ensure the survival of their traditions in a contemporary world that moves almost too quickly for comprehension?

Pema and Barry, the Director and Producer of Guna Foundation, met several times in 2013 with the late Leslie Bradburn, then the Managing Editor of the Yeshe De Project. Together with Leslie, they began to envision a film about Yeshe De’s decades of Tibetan text preservation work, a film that would emphasize the universal human love for knowledge, and the sacrifices people make in order to keep it alive.

Our main story challenge was to give depth to the history and tradition of sharing knowledge in the Buddhist world, while creating a vital context for the preservation activity taking place today. We hoped that by illuminating the past, we could help viewers grasp the significance of the devastating experiences of Tibet, and begin to appreciate the determination of its people to carry their heritage into the future.

In order to round out our story, we interviewed several Tibetan Buddhist scholars and teachers, as well as Western scholars and thinkers who could help us dig more deeply into the significance of our story. We also interviewed key figures at the Yeshe De Project, who unfolded the story of their decades-long work making the sacred texts of Tibet available once again to the Tibetan people.

Thai animator Phanuthep Sutthithepthamrong joined the Guna team in early 2014. His skill and drive opened up an entirely new set of storytelling possibilities for The Great Transmission, allowing us to produce sophisticated and affecting 3D visuals of key moments in Buddhist history.

As production began, we assembled a dynamic team of filmmakers, editors, animators, and volunteers who dedicated themselves to the project. French cinematographers Yann Tribolle and Simon Pénochet spent ten days with Pema filming at the World Peace Ceremony, conducting interviews and capturing spellbinding footage of Tibetan and Indian Buddhist practice.

We were fortunate to have extraordinary access to the Mahabodhi Temple complex and to the Nyingma Monastery in Bodh Gaya, allowing us to film in their classrooms, dining halls and assembly spaces.

When we reached out to celebrated actor Michael Nouri to be our voiceover narrator, he delighted and astonished us by responding to our query within hours, graciously donating his time and that of the recording studio.

New-York-based composer Albert Behar worked with very closely with Pema to create a score that would express the energy and compassion that animated the film. In order to work effectively despite being separated by a continent, Albert was able to connect Pema directly to his workspace, enabling the two of them to collaborate and edit on the fly.

We are very proud of the outcome of this incredible team effort, and hope it will provide a window on a sacred culture with much to offer to the modern world.