Bhante Ngawang Tenphel (monk Gabriel) is an ordained monk in Tibetan Buddhism. He lives and study as the traditional syllabus for the training of monks in monastic and non-sectarian university (Rime, tib.) Dzongsar Chokyi Lodro Shedra in the Himalayas, in Chauntra, Himachal Pradesh, India.
Tenphel was born in 1981 in Porto Alegre, Brazil. At the age of 14, he found Buddhism through the Bodhisattva Center for Buddhist Studies (CEBB). By Lama Padma Samten, he was introduced to Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche, from whom he received his refuge in the Three Jewels and the name Pema Pawo.
In 2003, he moved to India where he was ordained monk by Kyabje Trulshik Rinpoche with the name Ngawang Tenphel. In 2004, after receiving the blessings and permission of Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche and Khenpo Kunga Wangchuk, moved to the monastic university Dzongsar Shedra where he continued training and studying as a monk. Since early 2009, he has been dedicated to closed retreats and spiritual pilgrimage following the instructions of H.H. Gyalwa Drukpa and Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche.
The documentary is born of his aspiration, as the monk realizes the benefits of the project Dharma Yatri and its expansion through the film to a larger number of people. Motivated to enhance and make it happen, the monk is this axis of vision of the project, in which everything else takes its foundation.
Melissa Flores was born in 1978 in Rio de Janeiro. She is a graduate in Communications from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro - UFRJ, and has been working for ten years with production and post-production for films and commercials.
Worked as a producer for RTVC (radio, tv and film) for the advertising agency Publicis Salles Norton, in Rio de Janeiro, from 1999 to 2002. She also was assistant director on several production companies in Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Curitiba, working with a large number of directors between 2002 and 2005.
Since 2005, Melissa works for the post-production department of Conspiração Filmes, in Rio de Janeiro, as a coordinator.
The frequent work in advertising agencies and production companies enabled the development of her cinematic perception, as well as a sharp aesthetic sense. Melissa has been studying Buddhism for eight years, and is a student of Brazilian Lama Padma Samten, who guides her study on the basis of Tibetan Buddhism of the Mahayana school.
Her field of research is Buddhist aesthetics, art, and culture, as well as the relationships and influences of this philosophy in the West.
Mihay is a composer, actor and director of short films, video art and documentaries. He graduated in arts at Uni-Rio and has worked as an actor since 1997. In 2007 and 2008 he signed the direction of the film: "Now, Bathroom, Kitchen and Hall", "Art for Sale", "Lightering", " Contains no Gluten” and the documentary "tep in Lapa "," Music in Madness and in Lucidity and "Legends and Mysteries of Sana”.
This year he is recording with producer Lee Ronaldo his first album with 12 compositions of his own at Studio Casa do Mato, RJ.
Guilherme Samel heard the Dharma for the first time in September 2000 at the Kopan Monastery in Kathmandu, Nepal, in a retreat from the FPMT foundation of Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche and Lama Thubten Yeshe, today Osel Hita.
He has led several groups in India, Nepal and Tibet by “Latitudes Travels of Knowledge”, which caused frequent contact with the Sangha, the Dharma and great masters. The impact of these encounters in his life was permanent and very special.
"Little by little, I approached these guys, and the wish to understand them and live what they live increases every day."
He has lived at CEBB and at the Middle Way Institute in Viamão, Brazil, where Lama Padma Samten offers an incredible opportunity to practice and be in contact with the Dharma from a method directly linked to the culture of peace, sustainability and universal responsibility.
Along with his good friend, the Monk Gabriel, he has created the project Dharma Yatri in order to live and share more experiences and learnings of the Dharma in the same places where many teachers of various traditions of wisdom and compassion lived and still live to this day.
Guilherme collects texts about some of his other interests, such as culture of peace, travel, and photography on blogterrapura.blogspot.com.
