KUNDUN

                                 KUNDUN  

                                                      Melissa Mathison

                                                      16 October 1992

                             Cast of Characters
                          (in order of appearance)

     Reting Rinpoche ... Regent of Tibet, served in the years between
           the death of the Thirteenth Dalai Lama and the discovery
           of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama.  A monk.
     Lama of Sera ... Keustang Rinpoche  A high lama.
     Lhamo Dhondrup ... The Fourteenth Dalai Lama.  Also known
           as Tenzin Gyatso.
     Lobsang Samten ... The Dalai Lama's immediate older brother.
     Tsering Dolma  ... The Dalai Lama's older sister.
     Mother ... The Dalai Lama's mother.
     Father ... The Dalai Lama's father.
     Chinese Governor ... Representative of China in Amdo Province
     Takster Rinpoche ... The Dalai Lam's oldest brother, abbot of
           Kumbum Monastery.
     Bodyguard ... A Khamba, monk bodyguard.
     The Attendants ... Masters of the Kitchen, the Robe and the
           Ritual.  All monks.
     Lord Chamberlain ... The official closest to the Dalai Lama.  A
           monk.
     Norbu Thundrup ... A sweeper who works at the Potala.
     The Yigstang and the Tsitang ... The Tibetan Government.  Monks
           and laymen.
     Taktra Rinpoche ... The Regent who replaced Reting Rinpoche.
           A monk.
     Ling Rinpoche ... A senior tutor, a monk.
     Kashag ... The Dalai Lama's personal cabinet of advisors.
     Nechung Oracle ... The monk medium for the deity, Droje Drakden.
     Lukhangwa and Lobsang Tashi ... The Prime Ministers
     Muslim Man, Tibetan Woman, Noble Boy ... People the Dalai Lama
           meets on his way to Yadung.
     General Chiang Chin-wu ... First representative of Communist
           China sent to Tibet.
     Mao Tse Tung ... Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party.
     Khamba Leaders ... Leaders of the Tibetan Resistance Movement.
     Ghurka Soldiers ... Indians who make up the welcoming party for
           the Dalai Lama.

     The Himalayas.

     A still photograph, a portrait, of a mountain;  the north
     face of Chomolungma - a peak also known as Mount Everest -
     twenty-nine thousand feet high.

     We hear a very young boy speak.

                                      BOY (VO)
                            Mama, my story.

     A woman speaks:

                                      WOMAN (VO)
                            Again?

                                      BOY (VO)
                            Tell me.

     Portrait of a mountain - Khangbochen - craggy peaks covered
     with snow, twenty-four thousand feet high.

                                      WOMAN (VO)
                            Your father had been very ill,
                            We thought he would die, and some
                            animals had died.

                                      BOY (VO)
                            Cow.

     Portrait of a mountain - Shishapangma - twenty-six thousand
     feet high.

                                      WOMAN (VO)
                            And a yak.  And chickens.  And we
                            had four years of bad crops, all
                            the farmers did.

     Portrait of a mountain - Anye Machin II - twenty thousand
     feet high and slightly obscured by clouds.

                                      WOMAN (VO)
                            In the night, I knew you were coming.

     Now, the foothills.  The still photograph of this barren
     mountain range comes to life as we see something moving.

     It is a small caravan - traveling this narrow mountain pass.

                                      WOMAN (VO)
                            At dawn, you were born.

     CLOSER on this caravan.  We can make out eight or ten men,
     walking, and on horseback, dressed in heavy, brocade coats,
     and large woolen hats, black braids trailing down their
     backs.  A yellow palanquin is carried by four large monks,
     wearing maroon robes.

     The caravan reaches the top of the mountain pass and turns -
     a sudden shift in direction - a switchback.  The travelers
     head downhill.

                                      BOY (VO)
                            Tell me.

     Now, we see the mens's destination.  A lake.  An incredibly
     blue, circular lake, sunk between snow-dusted mountains.  It
     is LHAMO I' LATSO - "the Oracle Lake" - and it shimmers in
     the sunlight.

     As the lake comes into view, a young man pushes back the
     curtain of the yellow palanquin and peers down at it.

     The man is dressed in royal robes.  He is young, twenty four
     years old.  His name is RETING RINPOCHE.  He is the Regent
     of Tibet.

     The color of the lake changes - from brilliant turquoise, to
     a deep, murky, unfathomable darkness.

                                      WOMAN (VO)
                            You were a beautiful baby.
                            So calm.
        
                                      BOY (VO)
                            No cried?

     The woman laughs.

                                      WOMAN (VO)
                            Maybe, just a little.

     The palanquin is set down on a flat rock overlooking the
     lake.  The water's color changes again, to a deep purple,
     then blue again, then red, then indigo.

                                      WOMAN (VO)
                            And that day, your father
                            got better.  He named you Lhamo.
                            "The Protector."

                                      BOY (VO)
                            I know.

     Silence.

     The noblemen and monks surround Reting as he steps out of
     the palanquin.

     One man stands out here, a monk, a high lama in fact, with a
     kind face and fantastic, mesmerizing eyes.  He is the LAMA
     OF SERA.

                                      WOMAN (VO)
                            Go to sleep, Lhamo.

     Reting stares at the lake.

     The water turns a light grey, and an image appears - obscure
     at first, then becoming more solid.  A vision.

     He sees a house - a small, stone, one-story, u-shaped house.

     The house has a flat, tile roof and an unusual, wooden rain
     gutter, with windows outlined in black and a prayer flag in
     the courtyard.  A spotted dog is in front of the house,
     barking, though we cannot hear him.  The vision becomes
     completely clear, for an instant - clear enough to see the
     face of a young boy at the window.

     CLOSE on Reting Rinpoche.  Looking.  Searching.

     Cut to:  a portrait of a mountain:  Kyeri - a majestic,
     glacier mountain - the "house mountain" of the village of
     Takster, Amdo Province, North Eastern Tibet.

     Sound returns as the wind whistles around this jagged,
     mountain peak and then the view moves down, below the tree
     line, and into the rhododendron forest and the farmlands,
     until it comes to rest on a small, stone, u-shaped house.  A
     house caught in the dawn's mist.

     CLOSE on the face of a sleeping child:  a boy, LHAMO
     DHONDRUP, age two and one-half years.  He is dreaming.  He
     is about to wake up.

     Today, his life will change.

     We stay on the boy's face until, slowly, his eyes open -
     beautiful, dark, eyes.

     INT.  TIBETAN PEASANT HOME, KITCHEN   DAWN (1937)

     The MOTHER walks past the boy, her woolen skirt swaying in
     the rosy light.  A seven year-old brother - LOBSANG SAMTEN -
     and a teenage sister - TSERING DOLMA - share Lhamo's kitchen
     mattress.  Lhamo looks at them, and then he turns to see the
     heavy felt boots of his FATHER, as the man walks through the
     room and out the door.  Lhamo finds the kind face of his
     MOTHER.  She is looking at him.

     EXT.  COURTYARD  DAWN

     The boy walks across the stone courtyard as we hear the
     sounds of this country morning:  the snorting of horses,
     clucking of hens, a command from the Father as the man feeds
     the animals.

     The boy scratches, he pees.  He sees his Mother on the roof.
     She is a silhouette against the dawn, as she feeds cedar and
     yak chips into the incense burner - sending white, curly
     smoke up, to circle the prayer flag and its clusters of
     printed mantras.

     We pull back as the spotted dog begins to bark.

     Lhamo's house is the house in the vision.

     INT.  KITCHEN  MORNING

     It is a good day.  There is cheese for breakfast.

     Lhamo's Father sits on a cushion at the head of a low table.
     Fresh bread appears, yogurt, roasted barley (tsampa).

     Lhamo pushes at his Father.

                                      LHAMO
                            Me.

                                      FATHER
                            No.  This must stop.

                                      LHAMO
                            Me.  Here.

                                      FATHER
                            I am the father.  You sit there.

                                      LHAMO
                            Me here.

                                      MOTHER
                            What is the harm?

                                      FATHER
                            He will grow up all wrong.
                            Only you can serve him,
                            only you can wash his bowl.
                            Too tidy, everything just so.
                            He must know his place.

                                      LOBSANG SAMTEN
                            He thinks he is king here.
                            No respect.

                                      MOTHER
                            What is the harm?

     The Father reluctantly gets up and gives his seat to Lhamo.
     Lhamo settles and waits for his Mother to hand him his bowl
     of tsampa.  He bestows a most beautiful smile on his family.

     EXT.  COURTYARD  DAY

     The Father is leaving the yard with a short string of horses
     when there is a sudden commotion.

     The CHINESE GOVERNOR is passing through this little village.

     He is a ferocious looking man, dressed in ornate brocade,
     his horse eguipped with tack that looks like armor.  He is
     surrounded by a dozen Chinese soldiers, all on huge horses,
     ruling the road, kicking up mud.

     Lhamo's Father stops.  He holds still.  He looks to the
     house.

     The Mother is holding the children against her in the
     doorway.  Quiet.  Watching.

     The Governor and his entourage move on.  When they are out
     of sight, Lhamo's Father makes his departure.