Great movie

i agree. the point of enlightenment (hence, the monk both telling him the fable and providing the humorous proof of its truth in the main character's life) is what the film is really about.
i see this need to know "what happened" again and again all over the imdb boards. some people just can't handle open-ended narratives.

gregory 072107

What I firmly believe is that Dondup (the main character) did is that he went to a festival, and I think so for several reasons:

1) He made conclusion from the monk's story that woman was very disrespectful of his husband, and since Hinduism and Buddhism are faiths that (almost at all) don't respect women, and cultures there are very patriarchal, he certainly wouldn't like for him to happen what happened to the old man.
He is to America what an old man is to a young woman. He has background, tradition, wisdom and deeper understanding of life in general than of those in America. He would end up there in somewhat similar fashion. Hence, why the end of the monk's story is, dreamlike. It could have happened or Tashi was just imagine it. There was still hope for Dondup to "return" to his country and the land he's from, that he so badly wanted to leave
So, he wanted to stay with daughter seeing and realizing that, besides her obvious clarity and wisdom, she chose to stay with her widowed father in village and be at his hand out of respect. In other words, she's not trickster as Deki was;

2) He fell in love with girl and she knew that she was going there with her father, therefore went there as well to meet her;

3) He started to appreciate and like the monk, because he both helped him to get closer to the girl and because of his cheerful nature. He made a trip for him and learned him a good lesson. Also, the monk was heading to festival himself so the "fun" was guaranteed;

4) At the end of the movie Dondup gave a conclusion to another story even before the monk was about to start to talk, and he gave it in ironic manner, like: "OK man, the fancy chick in expensive car didn't care at all about me, I'm going to America to pick the apples. Why should I do it when old man gave me his apples for free, and beautiful young girl gave me half of it by herself, she cooked and took care of me and I'm respected and kind of celebrity in the area because of my position. Why should I look for anything more?" I get the feeling like: "Been there, done that." All that with his smile;

5) He just connected with all the people he met on the road. Almost all of them were going to festival, so goodbye boredom and fancy useless crap, welcome fun in my own area! :)

In my opinion this movie is about respect. Respect based on different natures of people and appreciating them because of both their virtues and faults, and not based upon material wealth and amount of cash on their bank accounts or wallets.

I just sooo liked this movie! Full of symbolism and it was enormously relaxing for me after all the crap that is coming from Hollywood and other movies from, mostly, Western Europe that are so full of violence, useless sex and bad humor.

If you are into this kind of vibe, when it comes to movies, I suggest you to check out Urga, Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, Ashik Kerib, Milarepa, The Horse Thief, After the Rains... Also, Hero, The House of the Flying Daggers, Samaria, 99 Francs were great, but they are more well known.