Educational Media Reviews Online

Originally broadcast in Australia as part of Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Foreign Correspondent series, Marathon Monks is a brief profile of an unusual group of Buddhist monks who prepare for and undertake the Kaihogyo, a seven-year endurance ritual of prayer, pilgrimage, and perseverance.

The monks of the Tendai sect at Mount Hiei, near the ancient Japanese capital of Kyoto, have been conducting the Kaihogyo for more than a millennium and it is so grueling that only 46 monks have completed it in the last four centuries. Seeking personal enlightenment, the monks study and pray, but the film’s focus is on the physical hardships that they experience. During a 100-day period, they run and walk a daily 84-kilometer circuit around the sacred mountain in rope sandals (using 2–5 pairs per day). After only two hours of sleep, a rice ball, and a bowl of noodles, the monks average five miles per hour and are charged with ritual suicide if they fail to complete the day’s march. In comparison, most people walk around three miles per hour, running marathons are 42 kilometers long, and most days’ tasks aren’t shadowed by the threat of death. Another part of the experience is the Doiri, a nine-day ordeal of no food, water, or sleep, praying in a temple while flanked by other monks (to guard against sleeping and falling over). Considered living saints, the successful monks are revered during and after the Kaihogyo, becoming media superstars and national celebrities at the conclusion of their efforts.

Recommended for any library, the film flows well - perfectly suited by its documentary style - and could easily have run longer without losing a viewer’s attention. The video footage concentrates on the monks, but also includes some beautiful scenery; some uncommon camera angles are artfully used. All the dialogue was easy to understand and subtitles for the Japanese speakers were timed well. There are no graphics other than the subtitles, but maps would have helped to show Mount Hiei’s location and the routes of the pilgrimage; a textual listing of the Kaihogyo’s requirements would also have been nice. Oddly, there are no credits at the beginning or the end, leaving viewers to find limited information about the film on the Internet.