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FESTIVAL CANCELED DUE TO HEAVY RAIN A film by Lama Choyin Rangdrol As the contributions and challenges of black America become increasingly relevant, one of the few African American Buddhist teachers in America weighs in on the use of Buddhism as a healing tool for black America. Festival Cancelled Due to Heavy Rain is Lama Choyin Rangdrol’s personal story of redemption and healing. Rangdrol recounts the turmoil of his youth as a young black man growing up in a neighborhood slowly overtaken by gangs and violence. It is the story of a "tall, gaunt, light-skinned black kid" adrift in a community racked by drugs, police brutality, and the constant threat of incarceration. Historical footage of African-American men being beaten, shot, arrested, and incarcerated is interspersed with television clips of the simultaneous bombing of Vietnam and Cambodia. After twenty years of contemplation and study Rangdrol becomes a Buddhist teacher, and is alienated from and shunned by the African American Christian community. As the lone African-American among Asian and white Buddhist colleagues, he is haunted by post-traumatic flashbacks of his tumultuous urban childhood. In an effort to heal the suffering of his childhood, Rangdrol, the ghetto boy turned adult Buddhist teacher, journeys to Cambodia in search of the enduring African influences in the Asian Buddhist world. Rangdrol moves forward with both skepticism and faith, hoping the sight of black Buddhist monuments and the environment of their ancient peace will help to resolve his decision to enter a spiritual path outside the African American Christian experience. Surprising setbacks and overwhelming grandeur transform his quest for inner peace into the journey of a lifetime. He realizes he has witnessed a marvel of the world that may never reach the crime and drug-ridden neighborhoods of America's inner cities. Millions of African Americans remain unaware of the African influence in early Buddhist Asia. And many who do know about the African legacy in Asia reject its relevance due to their Christian or African centered beliefs. Festival Canceled is a refreshing and authentic counterpoint to these ideas. Informative and inspirational, this is a film every African-American should see. ______________________________________________________
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