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"Living is an art to be learned" is an opening phrase in a documentary movie called "Buddha's lost children" which accurately describes what the main character, the monk Phra Khru Bah Neua Chai Kositto or shortly Khru Bah, wants to educate his young apprentices. The film by Dutch director Mark Verkerk thoroughly captures a one-year moment of a local residents of a Buddhist monastery placed in the so-called Golden Triangle, an area in the northern part of Thailand which unfortunately well known for being a largest drug-producing region in Asia. The film focuses on children who have been taken under a wing of the local monk Khru Bah to become his novices due to such harsh conditions as a poverty, starvation and drug abuse. By showing a daily routine of the Golden Horse monastery this feature film tries to say that for the children, who ended up in poor and disappointing circumstances of this former high criminal region, the only and best option to have a better life and a brighter future is to bind their life with a Khru Bah and his Buddhist community. Khru Brah teaches children essential basic life skills and Buddhist traditions but most importantly how to apply those traditions in practice. Khru Bah' s involment, work and influence are a great example to challenge a stereotype of Buddhist monks who are perceived to be passive and compliant with contemplative perspective of the world. The film starts off by revealing a backstory of Khru Bah, his Thai box past and how certain crucial moment of his life encouraged him to change his way of being. The pivotal turn was a vivid dream that made Khru Bah to become a Buddhist monk, he devoted 15 years of his life spreading a word of Buddha and saving children by taking care of them when they needed it most. Although the path he chose in not the easiest one he obtained true followers and friends like nun Khun Ead, for example. For the las five years Knuh Ead is responsible of the daily life of the monastery by sorting the alms and donation and keeping children' hygiene in good condition. The Golden Horse monastery where Khru Bah and his novices inhabit is heavily depends on hill tribe people and their donations. He collects alms every day, usually it is food but for the villagers it is a chance to earn a merit according to Buddhist tradition. But then the focus of the picture is moved to one of his novices named Suk. Suk is one of the many poor children who ended up in monastery because he lost both parents thus became an orphan. He was a quiet and shy child who rarely spoke but with Khru Bah and surroundings' help and compassion he opened his heart and now considers Khru Bah and nun Khun Ead as his father and mother. By acquiring a true family, Suk can help other children to overcome life's obstacles and as his "father" he also wants to become a monk someday. Another child named Yee is yet to become an apprentice, his mother wants Yee to follow Khru Bah's people because she cannot provide him with enough food. The fact that Yee once fell from a tree and needed a close attention from his mother makes her decision even more painful, but she understands that this is only way she can secure her child. In course of time Khru Bah is granting Yee a new name - Pan Sean, thus, saying that "Yee is now dead" and from now on he is one of the novices. Later is seen that Suk and Pan Sean became much closer friends and Suk helped Pan Sean on his first steps of his learning and in such way proved that his intention to become a monk will come someday. Afterwards, in one the many tribes around a border, Khru Brah notices a four-year-old boy named Boontam, who has a certain illness that disturbs his walking capability. Khru Bah notices something special about this child, he said that this boy has a good karma but most importantly he mentions that he has been praying for Buddha to be born here, in the Golden Triangle, to help him spreading a word along the border, Khru Bah believes that Boontam is possibly a reincarnation of Buddha. As a Thai monk, Khru Bah is adherent of Theravada branch of Buddhism, whose followers believe that people and also the Buddha can reincarnate, that is why he assumes that Boontam is possibly the reincarnated Buddha. Under Khru Bah'S care Boontam's health was significantly improved and spends his life back and forth between the monastery and village. Aside from taking those children under his care, Khru Bah teaches them useful and important life skills and lessons. The good example would be schooling them basics of animal husbandry with the horse, as Khru Bah said "The novices learn the close link between humans and animals. Taking care of a horse is like looking in a mirror" meaning that children can apply acquired skills and knowledge to take care for themselves. Khru Bah sometimes use light physical abuse like punching and hitting and justifies it by saying "If horse is stubborn - child hits the horse. If child is stubborn - I must hit them". This can be seen as something that a monk will not do, and it is true, but from different perspective in it can be perceived not as a monk and novice relationship but more as a father and son thus showing more deep and compassionate connection between them and still he tries to hold his temper while being responsible for several dozen children with different approach and mental state as well as harsh circumstances they turned up in. Overall, this documentary film carefully gives an a quick but nonetheless significant and important glimpse on the issues of people who live on borders in the Golden Triangle, especially focusing on children whose destiny could turn to be bonded with drug abuse, hunger, impoverishment if it was not for Khru Bah's unselfish and fully involved help, love and compassion. Also, this film provides a good example of how some of the Buddhist traditions can be taught to be used in practice thus confronting the typical stereotype about Buddhist monks and how they are recognized. This film could be recommended for people who wants to know how a religion can help people and try to solve some issues even at the smaller scale like the Golden Horse monastery and the villages that are under patronage of the monastery in the era when religion is highly criticized.

A movie directed by Mark Verkerk describes a life of a monk named Khru Bah who dedicated himself to teaching of children to basic knowledge which life demands. In addition, «Buddha's Lost Children» tells a story of every children becoming a monk. Thru Bah and his novices live in Northern Thailand, the Golden Horse monastery. A films shows a regular life of the monk and his teachings. Thru Bah is the one who spend 15 days and nights to find peace and calm of soul.

A death of his close friend followed by a vivid dream made him to be a monk and spread knowledge and experience with the ones who demands it. The film shows how children lost in poor family lives and who are living with no purpose met an opportunity to develop and experience a warm, inner and outer warm of the mind and body.

«Buddha's Lost Children» teaches people to good things. Here a monk and the children make a good to their environment: rebuild a temple, share with a knowledge to improve people, help materially to poor families. Also, close link between humans and people is represented through respect to horses.

This movie teaches to appreciate everything we have now. A monk's influence to the relationships between the children, their perceptions of life and love let every viewer to rethink about these things. Love is defined from the another side: tough love makes us even stronger to overpower weakness. Besides, appreciation of the current condition is also one of the teaching of the film because it emphasizes harsh and poor conditions of hill tribe people.

«Buddha's Lost Children» shares with not only monk's lives, but also teaches us that every difficulty is another opportunity to make a good. The film is definitely must watch, especially for families with children.

Cast: Phra Khru Bah Neua Chai Kositto, Pan Saen, Nehn Suk, Khun Ead,Pan Saen and Boontam Director: Mark Verkerk

Plot: "Buddha's lost children" is a story of a wandering monk Khru Bah and his disciples traveling along the borders of Thailand aiming to rebuild a temple 100 kilometres away. The borders on the road are full of poor villages, residents of which have problems with drug addiction. A former Thai boxer Khru Bah, who found his mission in monkhood aims to help such villagers to deal with their problems. His altruism is not limited to the villagers, since he also manages to spiritually educate and bring hope to orphans and children from poor families - his disciples for new life. This spellbinding narrative about a daily life of the monk and his small community during a year-long adventure, is definitely worth dedicating time to.

Review: The Dutch director Mark Verkerk rather than capturing a documentary about the Buddhism itself, focused on its narrow aspect - life of a small representative part of Buddhist sangha residing in the area of Golden Triangle in Thailand. It is worth noting that the director and his crew observed their daily activities of Khru Bah and his followers throughout a year and succeeded in portray their life in a realistic way.

The documentary focuses on three young disciples of Khru Bah, each with a different story of becoming a monk. Suk was a muted child with sad eyes, who finally became exemplary for his peers and who plans to pursue monkhood in the future. Pan Saen joined Khru Bah, since his mother had no means to feed him for, but grew into a stronger child with a good concentration. Boontam, the 4-year old who had problems with his legs and barely could walk, became the youngest member of Kru Bah's community and for his great heart and happy attitudes was ascribed traits of the potential Buddha by his teacher. All of these stories are different in certain ways, but what unites them is that they all grew into stronger personalities under the mentorship of Kru Bah.

The community of Khru Bah is not limited to him and his disciples. It is impossible to imagine a life of this community without a nun, Khun Ead, who is responsible for a variety of daily tasks, such as cooking and healthcare. Moreover, there is a strong interdependence between villagers and monks; since villagers earn merit once they give alms to the monks. Still, one of the episodes depicts that monks led by Kru Bah provide blankets and food for some poor villagers, standing in a long queue. This shows an altruistic component of Kru Bah's community.

One might be prejudiced that the Buddhist monks behave in a very peaceful manner. The documentary reveals, however, that Khru Bah places great importance on the discipline among his surrounding and can even apply physical strength to the ones, who break the order. This applies to villagers, who wanted to fight each other in one of the scenes, and also to his disciples who are stubborn and are unwilling to follow their master's directions. Such behavior might be shaped by his past as a boxer. It should be mentioned that Thai boxing is a necessary skill for his disciples as a means of self-defense. At certain moments, Khru Bah appears as an authoritative figure, but this only emphasizes his prestige among people. This illustrates a high degree of respect for monks within a whole Buddhist community.

Overall, the director and his crew made a fascinating job in showcasing life of a small Buddhist community. By demonstrating how multiple aspects of Sangha life intertwine with each other, they help a viewer to get a complete and realistic picture of the monks lives. Although, Kru Bah is far from being a usual monk, his life is an inspirational story about the strength of will, purity of intentions, mutual help and discipline.

Frankly speaking, at first I was somewhat skeptical about the Dutch film with the word "Buddha" in its title, however, after watching it, my opinion completely changed. It may not be the most precise representation of Buddhist monks' lifestyle, but it certainly gives us a good insight on it. The first thing that attracted my attention was the fact that events of this documentary take place on the border of Thailand, Burma and Laos- the area that is called the "Golden Triangle'. Since this region is infamous for its history of production and trade in opium, I was interested to see to what extent the film would be able to show the reality of situation faced by people living there. Though it was not the primary goal of the movie to cause sympathy, it certainly succeeded to provoke my emotions. Harsh living conditions of villagers were portrayed pretty accurately, but what affected me more were children and, of course, Khru Bah hilmself. As we are shown, some children initially did not want to go to the monastery, I myself even felt sorry for Pan Sean who had to leave his family. However, The Golden Horse monastery is more than a place where monks live and practice religion - it is primarily home for many people. As time passes, we can definitely see how the care children receive in the monastery begins to change them, they even begin to refer to Khru Bah as to their father. Considering the fact that relationships between monks in the monastery have to be neutral, it appeared somewhat controversial at the beginning. But now, after watching the documentary fully, I can say that this film's goal is not to simply represent certain aspect of religion- it is to represent humaneness and love. As Khru Bah said, this type of love is pretty tough, it's not weak. Through discipline he wants to make these children strong, that's why sometimes he has to be firm. That is probably one of the main reasons why his novices practice Thai boxing. This phenomenon also actually seemed quite confusing to me since I did not associate Buddhist monks with such type of sport. However, it indicates that documentary succeeded to once again break the stereotype that Buddhism is pacifist religion. I found the scene of rebuilding of the temple quite imposing, more particularly, I was impressed by Khun Ead. At first glance the fragile nun could efficiently suppress conflict that almost turned into a fight among young volunteers from the village. Even though Khru Bah first noticed the discord, it was Khun Ead who carried out "educational work" most part of the time. Overall, watching Suk, Pan Saen and other boys growing up, gaining experience and socializing was pleasurable and refreshing. At the beginning I had a feeling that this was going to be a very tough film that would show mostly difficulties that children and the monk has to overcome every day in order to survive. Indeed, this suggestion was not fully wrong, however, contrary to my expectations, at the end I found myself in a really good mood. Doubtlessly, people like Khru Bah should be depicted in media to show their good deeds and promote such kind of behavior among others. He and his novices reminded me that we should appreciate what we have and left me with the thought that happiness can be achieved even in such hard and sometimes dangerous conditions.

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.

Usually I do not expect documentary movies to affect me emotionally, but this film was a good surprise. The director made a great job showing us the insights of Buddhist culture by an example of life and work of a monk called Khru Bah. Boxer in the past, Khru Bah now dedicated his life in religion and helping orphan children by taking them in the monastery and teaching Buddhist religious traditions. I especially liked the way the director focused on children's past, revealing their stories. Most of Khru Bah's followers experienced difficulties in their lives - almost everyone either lost their parents or could no longer be raised and supported by them, but the monk's work gave these children a chance for a better future. Living in the Golden Horse monastery, these children are provided with basic self-care supplies and taught to follow Buddhist customs. Sure, it was not easy for them to adjust to a new place and get along with new people, but Khru Bah and nun's patience and wiliness to help soon gained children's trust. The director provides us with a good opportunity to know what a real life in the monastery looks like. Khru Bah is an example for his pupils to follow, and his actions, his way of solving different kinds of conflicts taking place affect children's view on life, showing them the importance of compassion and support. Thus, we could say that the monastery is like a new home for all these children, and Khru Bah is playing a role of the father, even giving them new names and being strict when the situation asks for it. The setting takes place in the Golden Triangle, which is a border territory in the Northern Thailand known for drug dealing. And again here is something I did not expect to see in the movie - it is a way Khru Bah emphasises the danger of drugs and importance of avoiding them. "How can your village be strong when your bodies are weak and addicted to drugs?", he asks from the citizens of one of the villages they visit. It can be seen that people respect him as they listen to his speech and advice. And when the monk with his pupils start their day visiting villages, the citizens make contributions in the form of food and other necessary stuff, as they believe that by doing this they would improve their karma. Also as Khru Bah and his pupils often move in dangerous regions it is important for children to be able to stand for themselves, so the monk teaches them how to do boxing using his own past experience. I think that this is an important scene to point out because it contradicts the general stereotype about Buddhism being a non-violent religion. Khru Bah shows that it is possible to follow Buddhist religious traditions and develop your physical strength at the same time. And the Buddha himself demonstrated after his experiencing of asceticism that a weak body is no good for the enlightenment. So Khru Bah emphasises the importance of both body purity and strength and clear mind. So the movie was both informative and interesting, and I personally enjoyed watching it. The work of Khru Bah and nun Khun Ead is very important, in my opinion, because they not only teach young children to follow Buddhist religious traditions but most importantly provide a good example of sympathy and compassion and give these children an opportunity for a good life.

The documentary "Buddha's Lost Children" directed by Mark Verkerk shows the life of the famous in Thailand Buddhist monk, Khru Bah Neua. During the last 15 years, he dedicates his life to orphaned and abandoned children, raising and giving them everything they would not get if they stayed in their villages. This film is about dedication, compassion and pure love, love to everything Khru Bah has and everything he does. The film demonstrates the basic Buddhist's canons and ideas about life. So Khru Bah teaches his disciples not to steal, not to lie, and more importantly, he teaches them to concentrate on their own minds and to have them in peace. When the new novice comes, the monk demands from him not only basic repetitions of the Sutras, but pure concentration on them. And judging by that, Khru Bah decides whether he will be a good disciple or not. When something bad happens, Khru Bah always proclaims: "That is because their hearts are not yet in peace". So for him, as for a Buddhist monk, the internal state and presence of internal harmony is the most important thing, and that is what he wants to teach his novices. According to the same principle, he calls the tattoo a test whether you can take your mind out of body or not. If it remains there, the tattoo will hurt. This was very interesting and new Buddhist viewpoint that I grabbed for myself. Another important aspect of this film is that it destroys the stereotype and misconceptions about Buddhism as the most peaceful religion, which does not permit any physical or mental pressure. Khru Bah says: "If the horse is stubborn, the child needs to beat it. If the child is stubborn, I need to beat him". So he shows them what is right and what is wrong, but as now they are incapable to distinguish between it, sometimes they need to be punished to reach that understanding. He shows them that life is suffering, and only through the dedication to teachings, concentration and peaceful heart, you will become a better person. What I personally liked the most about this film is the way it is shooted. Because it is so natural, there are not any artificial and high colored scenes. The film shows real lives, real emotions, real people, without any trials to make it more beautiful or more appealing to the eyes of viewers. And looking on that, you feel that you are travelling with them, you see with your own eyes how poor these people from villages are, you hear the cry of that little boy, you feel how kindly the monk talks with you. You feel immersed and affected, that is why the movie touches your heart, and for me, even makes me cry during some episodes. Overall, it is one of the best documentaries I have seen so far. The story itself is incredible, and sometimes it is very hard to believe that there are such people like Khru Bah, who are so generous, so kind, so caring. And I think this film should be must-watch for everyone independently of the interest in religions, because it teaches us that despite of any harsh conditions of life, it is still possible to be good and to do good to others in any way that you can. Until there are people like Khru Bah, the world is safe.