About Kangyur Rinpoche
Who was Kangyur Rinpoche? One of the first Tibetan Masters who, heeding the imminent danger to Tibetan Buddhism during the Cultural Revolution of the 1950’s, braved the arduous journey over the Himalayan Mountains to India, rescuing many thousands of Buddhist texts that otherwise faced potential extinction.
The journey took over three years, was undertaken on foot, accompanied by his young family, and involved immense physical hardship.
Once in Darjeeling he built Orgyen Kunzang Choling, a Monastery at 54 Gandhi Road. It was at this address, where the few single-minded Westerners, at the time in search of a more meaningful life, began to arrive.
Their meeting, although brief (with Rinpoche’s passing in 1975), eventually had an extraordinary widespread effect – directly contributing to the Dharma’s spread throughout much of the Western world.
Read Kangyur Rinpoche's full biography here.
The Return to Gandhi Road project
Return to Gandhi Road is a feature documentary project on the extraordinary life story of Kangyur Rinpoche and of the select few Westerners who discovered him in Darjeeling India in the early 1970's.
Told through the eyes of one of Kangyur Rinpoche’s first Western students, New Zealander Kim Hegan, who now after more than forty years since Kangyur Rinpoche’s passing will trace the journey he made from New Zealand to Darjeeling 45 years earlier, to tell Rinpoche’s story.
Guided by Kangyur Rinpoche’s two sons, Tulku Pema Wangyal Rinpoche and Jigme Khyentse Rinpoche, and with appearances by all of Rinpoche’s family, as well as those first Westerners to have met him in the late 1960’s, Return to Gandhi Rd will be a direct encounter with a man who’s little known, yet utterly extraordinary actions, led to such a widespread positive affect on the lives of tens of thousands people to this day.
How can you see the film?
The film is currently being released in international film festivals, and is now available online in Canada, Australia and New Zealand. It will be released online for the rest of world shortly.
To be notified when and how you can see the film, please join our emailing list.
If you represent a film festival or distribution company, please contact us.
Film Festivals & Distribution
Winner – Best Emerging Filmmaker at Doc Edge (New Zealand) 2020
Winner - Best documentary at DIFF (Bhutan), February 2020
Official Selection – FIN Atlantic International Film Festival (Canada) 2021
Official Selection – International Buddhist Film Festival (USA) 2020
Official Selection – Waiora Film Festival (NZ) 2020
Official Selection – Dharamshala International Film Festival (India) 2020
Official Selection – Tricycle Magazine online film festival (2024)
Cinema release in Australia and NZ by Vendetta Films
- NZ cinema release happened in Sept – Oct 2020.
- Australian cinema release happened in Feb – July 2021.
Upcoming screenings
Dharamshala International Film Festival 2022
Online Viewing Room (Asia territory only)
Online viewing available until February 13th 2022, for anyone living in Asia
To watch the film - https://online.diff.co.in/