'Tashi and the Monk' Delves Into Unique Indian Community

It was a familiar scene: 85 children waiting patiently for lunch outside their modest dining hall nestled into the remote foothills of the Indian Himalayas, where they live in a unique community called Jhamtse Gatsal: The Garden of Love and Compassion.But little Tashi Drolma was hungry—or at least completely disinterested in peace and serenity. She marched to the front of the cue, banged the door open and sat herself down at one of the tables. She was alone, yet satisfied.

Filmmakers Andrew Hinton and Johnny Burke realized it simultaneously, as they watched the action unfold. This was their girl.

“I thought, ‘Okay, she’s an interesting one. Let’s follow her and see what happens,” Mr. Hinton recalled on Monday during a telephone interview. “She’s a real live wire, and that’s what we needed.”

It was roughly a month into their stay at Jhamtse Gatsal—a community that rescues and educates orphaned and neglected children, founded by Buddhist monk Lobsang Phuntsok—that Tashi made herself known to the men. She was the youngest and newest arrival, following her alcoholic father’s abandonment after her mother’s death, and she immediately sought attention. Any shout, tantrum or fight that shattered the idyllic atmosphere at Jhamtse Gatsal could be traced back to Tashi.

“At one point, Johnny said to me, ‘There’s no film if it’s just a lot of people being happy. There’s no drama,’” Mr. Hinton said. “Being able to be there while she went through the process of acclimatization and assimilation, getting used to being around other kids and making friends for the first time ever, really, gave us the heart of our film.”

Their documentary, “Tashi and the Monk”—which will screen on Saturday at the Southampton Arts Center, as part of the Telluride Mountainfilm Festival—captures daily, uninhibited life at Jhamtse Gatsal over the course of three months starting in October 2013, accomplished by Mr. Hinton immersing himself in the community for three weeks before ever picking up his camera, he said. He stayed in the campus guesthouse, sleeping on a very tiny bed under many layers of clothing and blankets to keep warm, he said.

This was Mr. Hinton’s second journey to Jhamtse Gatsal. He first visited to shoot a piece for the Thiel Foundation and knew he had to return after meeting Lobsang Phuntsok.

Nearly a decade ago, the Buddhist monk, who trained under the guidance of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, left his life as a spiritual teacher in the United States and returned home to India to rescue unwanted children—a kind of suffering he understood all too well after being abandoned at birth. He has given them what he never had: a father.

“I cannot undo my life and go back to my childhood and really live my childhood fully. But one thing that now I know is that I could help to give these children their childhood that I missed in my life,” Phuntsok says in the film. “When I see they are laughing, screaming and playing, I feel I’m living my childhood. I’m lucky that we have 85 children now and I miss only one childhood, but I got the opportunity to live 85 childhoods.”

Poverty inundates the portion of the country his community overlooks. Countless families seek refuge for their children at Jhamtse Gatsal—1,000 at any given moment. The task weighs on him, Mr. Hinton said, which was painful to witness, while also fascinating.

“He realizes that giving these kids a chance can mean life or death. Not being able to say yes more often is emotionally exhausting,” the filmmaker said. “He’s using love and compassion as a great, powerful, healing force in his work. It’s one thing to hear about these ideas, theoretically. It’s another to see them put into practice.”

Since 2006, Phuntsok has watched the children grow into their own. His inaugural class is on the cusp of graduation, which will welcome in a new generation desperately in need, Mr. Hinton said. In the meantime, Phuntsok has Tashi to worry about.

“Tashi and Maling were fighting each other,” another child tattled to Phuntsok, as they all walked hand-in-hand across the mountainside.

“Now you guys are friends, right?” Phuntsok asked Tashi.

“No, I want to pinch her,” Maling interjected.

“Then I’ll kick you,” Tashi retorted.

“You like fighting, or you like to be friends?” Phuntsok asked.

“I like to be friends,” the children said.

Phontok nodded thoughtfully before announcing there may be more children attending Jhamtse Gatsal, meaning Tashi would become a big sister. This seemed to resonate with her, as she pulled up Phontok’s hat and put a sticker on his forehead.

“Give each other a hug,” he said.

Maling approached Tashi and wrapped his arms around her. He then picked her up and tossed her on the ground. They erupted in giggles.

“Maling, give her a proper hug,” the monk said. When he did, Tashi beat him to his own game as they both tumbled to the ground, laughing even harder.

“Tashi and the Monk” will screen on Saturday, September 12, during “The Indomitable Human Spirit” segment of the Telluride Mountainfilm Festival from 7:30 to 10 p.m. at the Southampton Arts Center. Director Andrew Hinton will attend a Filmmakers’ Reception from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Advance tickets are $10, or $12 at the door, and $75 including the reception, or $100 at the door. For more information, visit southamptoncenter.org.