A SMALL Dumfriesshire village has been the focus of world attention after it was chosen for the screening of a feature-length documentary film premiere about the founder of Europe’s first Tibetan Buddhist centre in Eskdalemuir.

The story of Akong Tulku Rinpoche, called A Remarkable Life, covering everything from his birth in Tibet in 1939 to his murder in China in 2013, was shown last week for the first time at the Samye Ling site he founded in the village, which was attended by the current abbot, Rinpoche’s younger brother Lama Yeshe Losal Rinpoche.

Other local screenings take place next month in Dumfries at the Robert Burns Film Theatre and Langholm’s Buccleuch Centre.

Samye Ling was the first Buddhist monastery to be founded in Europe and students later included David Bowie and Leonard Cohen.

It has now grown into a large complex for the study and teaching of Buddhism, with a vast temple at its heart.