DocMiami International Film Festival

The King of Tibet, living in exile in Dharamsala in Northern India, is the 16-year-old Namgyal Wangchuk Trichen Lhagyari. As the only recognized descendent of the first Dharma King of Tibet (617-698 AD), Namgyal carries the unique responsibility of representing Tibet's unbroken history and heritage. Yet, as a teenager, he also represents a new generation of young Tibetans who are caught today between the peaceful traditions of Tibetan Buddhism and a desperate desire to fight for the freedom of their people. BYkids film mentor Dirk Simon, whose film Between the Lines has received world-wide recognition, worked with Namgyal during spring 2008 to help him tell his emblematic story through film. Dirk actually met Namgyal in Dharamsala four years earlier at the time of the young boy's coronation ceremony, presided by His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, in June 2004. The previous Dharma King of Tibet, Namgyal's father, had died just a year earlier. Namgyal's father had been incarcerated by the Chinese authorities for 20 years and struggled for the survival of his lineage.Dirk describes the young king as carrying the vision of two worlds: the one-thousand-year-old heritage of Tibet's Dharma Kings and the current struggle of a people striving to survive under repression, abuse and ethnic genocide. "With his devotion to the principles of Tibetan Buddhism, his kindness and modesty, he touches the heart of everyone who meets him. Now we are back here to help him tell his story.”