Religion and faith permeate all aspects of Tibetan life. Every home and every prominent outdoor site is covered with the signs and symbols of Buddhism. Older people are rarely seen without a prayer wheel spinning in one hand and a rosary working through the fingers of another. Even the most westernized young Tibetan will bow his head in the presence of the Dalai Lama.

Buddhist nuns debating

Through the actions of the characters, but also in the quiet, "interstitial" moments of the film, we aspired to weave this deep faith throughout Windhorse. It is a faith made all the more remarkable by the many attempts of the Chinese authorities to destroy it.

One of director Paul Wagner's hopes was to bring the city of Lhasa, the political and spiritual capital of Tibet, alive as a character in the film. Lhasa literally means "place of the gods," and Tibetans travel for miles on pilgrimage to visit this holy city.

Lhasa was named Tibet's capital by the country's first Buddhist king, Songtsen Gampo, who ruled in the seventh century. Songtsen Gampo also built the Jokhang, the bustling temple that sits at the heart of the city and houses Tibet's most important statue, the Jowo Rinpoche, which was brought to Tibet by Songtsen Gampo's Chinese bride, Princess Wencheng.

Windhorse constantly returns to the Jokhang and the blocks surrounding it: pilgrims prostrate themselves before the temple and spin prayer wheels along its walls; Dorjee and Amy join throngs of pilgrims circumambulating the Jokhang on the Barkhor, the half-mile road encircling the temple; shoppers buy traditional Tibetan goods and food at the stalls that line the Barkhor; Dorjee brings incense and a butter lamp to the Jowo Rinpoche, partly concealed behind an iron gate, to pray for his cousin Pema's recovery; and Pema, like hundreds of monks and nuns before her, protests the Chinese ban against photographs of the Dalai Lama on the Barkhor, perhaps inspired by this site of spiritual and cultural heritage.

Compassion for all beings lies at the heart of Tibetan Buddhism, and the public acts of faith performed at the Jokhang are ways of practicing this core belief. While circumambulating or prostrating at an important holy site, a Tibetan Buddhist recites mantras, or prayers, for the benefit of all beings. Spinning prayer wheels, lighting butter lamps or incense, flying prayer flags or tossing paper windhorses, as Dorjee and Dolkar do at the end of the film, are all ways of sending prayers of compassion out into the world and accumulating merit on the spiritual path.

Tibetans don't just go to holy sites to practice their faith. Almost every home has a small altar with butter lamps, statues of gods, and-when not banned by the Chinese authorities-photographs of the Dalai Lama. At the family's altar, Momo-la lights butter lamps and incense, spins her prayer wheel, and prays to the Dalai Lama. Pema does the same at the altar in her room at the nunnery.

Tibetan prayer wheel

The Dalai Lama is believed by Tibetans to be the incarnation of Chenrezig, the Buddha of compassion. Photographs of him on the family's altar or in Pema's monastery are a way of paying respect both to the remarkable person of the Dalai Lama, but also to the practice of compassion. Pema is called to protest when the Dalai Lama's photograph is banned not only because he is the political leader of Tibet, but because he is the incarnation of the country's most important deity and the highest symbol of its religion.

Monasteries and nunneries once dotted Tibet's landscape-an estimated 6,000 were destroyed by the Chinese. Drepung Monastery on the outskirts of Lhasa was the largest monastery of any religion in the world, housing fifteen thousand monks before the Chinese invasion. Many monasteries and nunneries have been rebuilt inside Tibet, and monastic culture thrives in the countries where Tibetans live in exile.

Tibetan Buddhism requires rigorous study, and we get a glimpse of this at Pema's nunnery. The nuns participate in group prayers, study and memorize texts on their own (when not reading English books instead!) and practice debate, where one nun stands and fires questions at another with a slicing clap of her hands. The nun being tested sits on the ground and answers as a way of deepening her understanding Buddhist philosophy.

From the simple act of spinning a prayer wheel to the complicated choreography of religious debate, scenes of faith and devotion are woven throughout Windhorse. Tibetan Buddhism, as the heart of Tibetan culture, has been greatly suppressed by the Chinese. Windhorse celebrates this unique expression of faith, and the fact that Tibetans continue to practice their religion despite occupation, oppression and exile.