The movie "Buddha's Lost Children" directed by Mark Verkerk reveals the story about Thai boxer turned Buddhist monk Khru Bah who takes the young children into his monastery. The actions take place in the borderlands of Thailand's Golden Triangle which is known for drug smuggling and impoverished tribes living there. The monk Khru Bah with the nun Khun Mae Ead traveled through the villages and took in children from extremely poor families into their monastery where they gave them food and some sort of training. The movie shows the Khru Bah, nun Khun Mae Ead and the novices through a year in the lands of Thailand's northern border with Burma. At first sight, this movie may seem like the story about a small monastic community who are traveling through the villages. However, this movie covers a lot of major issues.
Firstly, this movie demonstrates how the Khru Bah and his small monastery gave the children a chance for a better life that they have never had. They were born in poor families, had poor nourishing, some health issues and when they come in the monastic community their lives have totally changed throughout the year. Under the monk Khru Bah and nun Khun Mae Ead's care they had an opportunity to live as children. They had clothes, food, and teachers who teach them the skills that they need in their life.
In the beginning, I feel negative emotions while watching this movie. This is because children seemed unhappy for me, it was the feeling that they did not want to live as monks. They are crying, was not laughing or smiling, and were homesick. All of these representations viewed as an act of despair. Parents who were not able to support their children financially have to give their children to the monastery. It reminds me of the reading that we have read in our course "Tibetan Buddhism Monasticism" where the author listed the reasons that may cause parents to give their children to the monastery. Among these reasons one of them was the financial reason when parents have many children and cannot feed them, so they decided to make their son monk. The families were shown in the movie were having three or more children and living in an extremely poor region. However, even the children's unhappiness at the beginning of their way, it is demonstrated that it gets better and better for them. They were learning and training how to ride and take care of the horses, trying some activities, praying, eating well and even their health was getting better. Thus at the end, we can see how Pan Saen who cannot concentrate and were confused about what to do, learning slowly and being better.
This movie also breaks some stereotypes with his dynamics. Before watching it, I imagined Buddhist monk and monastic community as passively active. However, Khru Bah and his Golder Horse monastic community was not the usual representation of what I have imagined. Khru Bah and his Golden Horse novices were riding horses, traveling through the villages, training something resembling Muay Thai. In this movie, Khru Bah used horses not only as a transportation tool but also for educating his novices. Through taking care of the horses, he taught children to understand themselves. When one horse fell and nearly strangled itself in its reins, nobody left the horse, even though everyone takes care of her every day.
In the extremely poor and dangerous area, when you may lose your hope and faith in better things Khru Bah started from himself and try to give others the chance to live a better life. The children who may have not got the chance to escape from the suffering of living in poverty, the monk Khru Bah gave the chance and taught life lessons with expect from the novices discipline and diligence.
Review of Buddha's Lost Children
