Becoming Who I Was

900+ hours of film over 8 years documents an unparalleled story of unconditional love between a young ‘Chosen One’ in Ladakh and his aging teacher, in the barren land below the Great Himalayas.

Padma Angdu’s world turns upside down when the monastery where he belonged expels him. Although he is recognized as a Rinpoche (a great reincarnation) in Ladakh, the unfaltering love of his teacher is the only thing that holds him together. With added pressure to study and to become someone great, the young Rinpoche begins to rebel and questions his identity as he enters into adolescence. Without any news from the disciples of his former monastery in Tibet, amid the growing gossip in his community, the soon-to-be teenage Rinpoche and his aging teacher embark on an epic journey towards Tibet, in search of an answer.