Agency:.Co-produced by NHK, Mistral Film of France and the NFB.

Script, Shinichi Nakazawa ; music, Toshiyuki Honda ; camera, Hideo Saito, Shuji Kawashita ; editor, Mitsunori Morimoto ; sound effects, Masayuki Onoe ; re-recording, Yoshinori Kawabata ; director, Hiroaki Mori, Yukari Hayashi ; producer, Atsunori Kawamura ; producer, Naoyuki Kibe ; consultant - narration, Douglas Penick ; director, Barrie McLean ; animation, Ishu Patel ; editor, Judith Merritt, David Verrall ; re-recording, Jean-Pierre Joutel ; producer, Barrie McLean, David Verrall.

Narrator, Leonard Cohen.

Recorded 1994.

The Tibetan Book of the Dead is a two-part series that explores ancient teachings on death and dying. It was filmed over a four-month period on location in the Himalayas where the original text still yields an essential influence over people's views of life and death. The Great Liberation, is a docudrama which, in the company of an old Buddhist lama and a 13-year-old novice monk, leads us into the very foundations of Buddhist philosophy--the search for compassion and truth. Pema Choden, the lama, and Tubten, the young monk, read from the texts of The Tibetan Book of the Dead as they conduct the 49 days of final rites for a deceased Himalayan villager. We must all face the death of somebody we love, as well as our own death. This film helps us to prepare for these inevitabilities.

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Film of Special Merit Award, 1994 Special Mention, 1994

Description based on online resource; title from title screen (National Film Board of Canada, viewed 2023-08-10).