Himalayas, Travel Documentary by Michael Palin

Click Here to buy this Michael Palin travel documentary on the Himalayas

Description of this video
Hot on the heels of his adventures in the Sahara, Michael Palin takes on the abode of snow and begins a 2000-mile journey across this mighty and majestic region of Asia. Encountering extremes of wealth and poverty, altitude and freezing cold, he once again brings his unique wit, charm and wisdom to each of 6 episodes. Along the way he encounters, among many others, the Dalai Lama, the Bhutanese Royal Family and the once feared head hunting tribe of the Konyak. While on his travels he passes through Afghanistan, across India to the feared Death Zone near the base of Mount Everest and then onto the Bhutanese capital before arriving in the Bay of Bengal.

Review by Cybamuse on Amazon.com
Palin seems to have been infected by the mountain air - he absolutely bounds with giddy dleight through this series!

Recently, Palin's most recent travel documentaries have been watched and received with great anticipation, but there is an air of 'tiredness' hanging over them - emphasised more by the fact Palin's first efforts, "Around the world in 80 days" and "Pole to Pole" are being regularly shown now on cable channels, reminding us of his infectious enthusiasm, delight in mixing with the local people and response to seeing new things. By the time he completed "Full Circle," it was clear the travel was beginning to burn him out - and "Full Circle" was a monumental volume of work!

But with Himalaya, I am pleased to say he is back in fine form, he seems to absolutely delight in meeting and chatting with the people of the Himalaya's. He joins in their celebrations, their lives. The editing is superb - the majestic and breathtaking beauty of the landscape a constant reminder to pack one's bags and go! Its also great to see him and his guide hooked up with wireless microphones so now there are shots of them strolling through market places and you get to see more of the people going about their daily business around them as opposed to earlier days when shots of Palin with his guide would have had to been close ups to accomodate the (hidden) microphone overhead. It all adds up to one slick and very entertaining program!

The music is also magical - why isn't it out on CD?!

This maybe the last travel documentary by Palin, but he went out on a magnificent high point - literally I guess! This is defintely the best thing he has been in since "Around the world in 80 days" and I can't imagine anyone not wanting to pack their bags and go and see these sights for themselves after this show! I truly envy Palin and the opportunity he has been given with these shows, but he makes up for that the best travel documentaries ever made - I applaud him and everyone in the making of Himalaya - fantastic!

The Sun Behind The Clouds

Click Here to Buy The Sun Behind the Clouds: Tibet's Struggle for Freedom on Amazon.com (See all Religion Documentaries)

MyHinduPage.org Review. For those who are following the current affairs of The Dalai Lama and the Tibetan dilemma, this documentary is important. While it briefly goes through China's occupation or rather invasion of Tibet in the 1950's it focuses on the struggle of The Dalai Lama and the Tibetan people in exile in Dharamsala, India and elsewhere for both greater autonomy for Tibetan people or outright freedom of Tibet from China. The film focuses on events surrounding the bloody riots that happened in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet in the run up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics. While China prepared for the first ever Olympic games in Asia and the world spot light was on it, Tibetans rose to protest the Chinese occupation in Tibet. The core of the film was on a peaceful march that the Tibetans in exile in Dharamsala, India organized to enter the Tibetan border from India to show solidarity to their brothers and sisters in Tibet during the protests. As the march progresses the complexity of the Tibetan struggle is revealed. Very well taken documentary, some amazing sceneries of the Himalayan foothills in Dharamsala and the Tibetan plateau. A must see for all who are follow The Dalai Lama and the Tibetan people in their cause.

Amazon.com Product Description
A provocative and potent look at The Dalai Lama's ceaseless struggle for justice and recognition for the Tibetan people, The Sun Behind the Clouds focuses on the pivotal and particularly tumultuous events of 2008. From Buddhist monks' protests in Lhasa on the 50th anniversary of the Chinese invasion and the four-month march of exiled Tibetans through India to the Tibetan border, to the Beijing Olympics and the raucous talks between the Dalai Lama's representatives and the Chinese government, the film uncovers the growing rifts between younger Tibetans and their most respected spiritual leader.

While His Holiness advocates for political autonomy within China rather than secession from it, a younger generation within Tibet has grown impatient and begun to chart a more confrontational course. Following The Dalai Lama's political life with unprecedented personal access, Tibetan filmmaker Tenzing Sonam and co-director Ritu Sarin bring an impassioned focus to the myriad complexities in finding a peaceful solution based on compromise and dialogue.

Dalai Lama Renaissance

Click Here to Buy Dalai Lama Renaissance (narrated by Harrison Ford) on Amazon.com (See all Self-Help Movies & TV)

MyHinduPage.org Reveiw. I think everyone on the planet must at least see or hear one talk by this profound mystic and leader The Dalai Lama. It makes me wonder how the Chinese government can even make a huge unimaginable leap in logic and call him a terrorist! I have always been moved and entertained by Dalai Lama's speeches, though personally I have not seen this one, I can tell this is worth the watch.

Review by Lena on Amazon.com
I saw "Dalai Lama Renaissance" in a theater when it had its theatrical release in the U.S., and I was very moved by this film, and can understand why it won 12 awards: It was both unexpectedly funny and profoundly moving, and presents an intimate experience with the Dalai Lama.

I have watched a few other films about and featuring the Dalai Lama, and I have seen him speak in person in an auditorium, but "Dalai Lama Renaissance" surprised me in that, like no other documentary film about the Dalai Lama that I had seen before, it really captures the intimate presence of the Dalai Lama. You feel that you are in the room with him as you watch this film. Perhaps it is the fact that the film is shot with 4 or 5 cameras (with many different angles), and perhaps it is also because the film so skillfully shows how the Dalai Lama, through his wisdom, humor and compassion, transforms the people who encounter him in this film. The characters in the film who meet the Dalai Lama are a vehicle for the audience to also experience their own personal journey.

When I began watching the film, because of the beautiful images and music, as well as the masterful storytelling and colorful characters, I soon began to feel that I was one of the participants in the film, and that I had stepped into the film and was a part of the journey to meet the Dalai Lama.

In "Dalai Lama Renaissance," you really see some of the characters go through a profound personal transformation (in the presence of the wise, personable and funny Dalai Lama), and (this has very rarely happened to me while watching a film) I myself felt myself going through an inner transformational journey of my own.

As the main characters in the film travel through India, I felt as if I were traveling through India. As the Westerners where discussing how to solve the world's problems and then their egos began to surface, I also felt something stir inside of me. And most importantly, when these Westerners began to experience an inner transformation in the powerful and inspiring presence of the Dalai Lama, I also felt something deep and powerful occur inside of me.

My dad was in the theater with me watching the film (he doesn't normally like any films other than Westerns and classic comedies), and I was struck by what he told me after "Dalai Lama Renaissance" was finished. He is as far away from Buddhism and spirituality as you can get, but he really liked the Dalai Lama, and was struck by how funny and common sense he was. I even think that the Dalai Lama got a little bit into my dad's skeptical heart :) But there was something that was even more striking: After watching the film, he at first was somewhat quiet. I looked over at him, and I saw emotion in his eyes. I asked him how he liked the film, and after a few moments, he told me that he saw himself in one of the cantankerous characters of the film. He said "I am him." At that moment, he told me that he realized that he had been living his life with a closed heart, and that he knew that he had to open his heart and love the people in his life.

I was almost speechless, but also grateful that one film could make such a powerful and positive impact on someone as skeptical as my father.

Needless to say, I am going to share the film with others in my life.

Here are some other quick thoughts about the film:

-I think that this film acts like a mirror, and will give every person the experience that they need to experience.

-It was both very funny and profoundly moving at the same time

-There were some remarkable quotes sprinkled throughout the film (at important "chapter" points) that really anchored the ideas of the film into your mind and heart.

-Aside from containing the documentary on the DVD, the filmmakers somehow were able to squeeze in 105 minutes of Special Features, including some very interesting behind-the-scenes interviews with the Dalai Lama, as well as the people who traveled to India to see and meet the Dalai Lama.

Kanthan Karunai (Tamil Movie on the myths surrounding Lord Murugan)

Click Here to Buy Kanthan Karunai (Tamil Film) on Amazon.com

Editorial Review
The story is of Lord Murugan, his birth to marriage and accepting the post of the head of the army of the heaven is portrayed. There are six abodes of lord Muruga in accordance to Tamil Mythology, the story behind each of the abode is portrayed chornologically in the movie --bollywoodeverywhere.com

MyHinduPage.org Review. This 1970's Tamil movie about the mythology of Lord Murugan's life is entertaining and enlightening. The film dialogue which is entirely in polished Tamil, is reflective of the prevailing Tamil culture from earlier in the 20th century. If you are Tamil or an ardent devotee of Lord Murugan (also known as Lord Kartikkeya) or if you are true-blue fan of Shivaji Ganesan you will want this movie in your classic collection. Songs are amazing and comic relief apt and high-minded.

Global Treasures Prambanan Java, Indonesia

Click Here to Buy Global Treasures Prambanan Java, Indonesia from Amazon.com

Synopsis on Amazon.com. Prambanan Indonesia's largest Hindu holy place is Prambanan, in Central Java, a religious treasure that dates back to the 9th century and originally included 232 temples. An earthquake struck and for many centuries the buildings lay buried beneath the ground until, in1918, archaeologists began to reconstruct the main temples. The individual sections of the Candi Lorojongrang were rebuilt like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, which made the reconstruction process particularly laborious, but in 1953 the rebuilding of the central temples was completed. The Candi Siva Temple rises 47 metres into the sky and is the tallest in Prambanan and contains four inner chambers that face the four points of the compass. The main Hindu god, Shiva, is depicted in the southern chamber, whilst the sculpture of his reborn wife, Durga, is located within the temple's northern chamber. Thankfully, due to the hard work and determination of many archaeologists, the symbolic meaning of the old Hindu god, Shiva, God of Destruction and Renewal, is well on its way to being fully realised. Global Treasures - History's Most Protected Monuments - Heritage is our legacy from the past, what we live today, and what we pass on to future generations. our cultural and natural heritage are both irreplaceable sources of life and inspiration. Places as unique and diverse as the wilds of East Africa's Serengeti, the Pyramids of Egypt, the Great Barrier Reef in Australia and the Baroque cathedrals of Latin America make up our world's heritage. Join us as we explore one of these protected monuments.

Peter Brook's The Mahabharata

Click Here to Buy Peter Brook's The Mahabharata on Amazon.com

Review by M. Lilliquist on Amazon.com
This excellent multinational production of the Mahabharata feels almost Shakespeaerean at times - the language so eloquent and poetic, the themes so profound and universal, the action so epic. Truly great literature brought to film.
Briefly, the Mahabharata is a tale of two rival sets of brothers, cousins to eachother, each born into royalty and with divinely guided paths in life. The result, however, is a great war, death, destruction, but a final glimmer of light preserved. Vishnu after Shiva.
Peter Brook's five-hour version of the Mahabharata is theatrical, philosophical, spare, poetic. It is rendered in gentle, nearly monochromatic hues and with often silent backgrounds, interspersed with periods of hauntingly beautiful music. The actors are gifted, if a bit too grand and mythic in their presentation. As in the written versions, the characters motives are seen to be, in turns, grounded and human, and unearthly and enlightened.
Such a powerful mix, and such a penetrating vision of life -- all from over three thousand years ago!
I highly recommend this film, anbd the special features of the DVD make it that much more valuable.

Chanakya - 8 DVD Set - Hindi

Click Here to Buy Chanakya - 8 DVD Set - Hindi on Amazon.com

Review by M. Goswami on Amazon.com
A brilliant production with great accuracy to history as far as possible. it has been one of the pioneering historical serials in the lines of benegal's bharat ek khoj-perhaps better. Discovery of India has a theme and foundation from nehru's book. Chankya's figure is so old that it almost has mythological aspect to it. but Dwivedi has presented in a fashion and accuracy that makes it authentic as well contemporary. beautiful dialogues in purest hindi, a compact and sterling acting by the cast, authentic settings and greatest accuracy to details- chankya stands monumentally tall as compared to cheaper though more popular serials of ramayana and mahabharta.

Integral Consciousness: Sri Aurobindo's Yoga and how Haridas Chaudhuri brought it to the West

Click Here to Buy Integral Consciousness: Sri Aurobindo's Yoga and how Haridas Chaudhuri brought it to the West on Amazon.com

Editorial Review by Amazon.com
Integral Consciousness is the story of a spiritual philosophy developed by one of the great sages of the 20th Century, Sri Aurobindo - and how his yoga was brought to the West by Dr. Haridas Chaudhuri.

The film includes a history of Integral Yoga, from Sri Aurobindo's origins as a revolutionary leader determined to free India from British rule, to his founding an ashram at Pondicherry and the beginnings of Auroville.

The story also tells of Dr. Chaudhuri's twenty-five years in America, bringing together east and west. The film presents pivotal figures in America including Alan Watts and Michael Murphy, and recounts the birth of the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS), the Esalen Institute, and the Cultural Integration Fellowship (CIF).

The second part of the film is a concise explication of Integral Yoga and key concepts like the Psychic Being, the Supermind, and Conscious Evolution. Archival material of Dr. Chaudhuri is featured as well as interviews with highly regarded luminaries including Debashish Banerji, Hilary Anderson, Michael Murphy, Aster Patel, Brant Cortright and Rama Jyoti Vernon.

This 55-minute film is the result of a grassroots effort by alumni of CIIS and CIF who wanted to preserve the legacy of Dr. Haridas Chaudhuri and spread the word about integral yoga. Highly respected documentary filmmaker Mark Kitchell (Berkeley in the Sixties) was engaged to write and direct the project.

Integral Consciousness was shot in Pondicherry and Auroville, India, and in San Francisco, California. Portions of the film were nationally televised in the United States in April 2009. Proceeds from this film are helping to make a new film, now in production, featuring the evolution of consciousness and conscious evolution.

This is the dawning of the Age of Integral Consciousness... And everyone should see this important and engaging film!

Review by JGarcia on Amazon.com
I really like this film... with sensitivity and maestry it unites interviews with great scholars on the history and philosophy of Integral Yoga by Sri Aurobindo.

The film is entertaining and educational.It is extremely useful for those who are familiar with the subject and those who are curious about the spiritual ideas of Sri Aurobindo.

Naked In Ashes

Click Here to Buy Naked In Ashes on Amazon.com (See all Religion Documentaries)

Editorial Review
Paula Fouce's beautiful, illuminating documentary "Naked in Ashes" takes the viewer into the profoundly spiritual world of India's yogis, who see their taking on the sins of humanity as a source of healing and redemption for others.... --Los Angeles Times

Review by Brian E. Erland on Amazon.com
The recently released film documentary `Naked In Ashes' directed by Paula Fouce is an absolutely breathtaking up close and personal look into the hearts and minds of the modern day Holy Men of India. Travel up and down the River Ganges and meet a variety of yogis, sadhus, gurus and sages as they dispense wisdom and forgiveness to mankind by performing austerities and rituals in an effort to combat the current dark age known as the Kali Yuga.

I simply cannot say enough good things about this amazing production. The urban and rural cinematography is gorgeous, the interviews are insightful and filled with wisdom, and the camera positioning is so close you feel as though you're on the spiritual journey as a participant, not a viewer.

An added and unexpected plus in this documentary are some pointed, timely, possibly prophetic comments concerning the political climate of the country, the ongoing impact of the Kali Yuga on present day spirituality and the envisioned decline of ascetic life in India in the next fifty years. These insights interspersed here and there amongst the wonderful spiritual teachings conveyed in this film make 'Naked In Ashes' a truly intelligent, accessible, unique and important documentary.

The film also contains a mesmerizing Indian soundtrack that adds intensity and wonder to the already exotic atmosphere.

My Highest Recommendation!

Mystic Tibet: An Outer, Inner and Secret Pilgrimage

Click Here to Buy Mystic Tibet: An Outer, Inner and Secret Pilgrimage on Amazon.com (See all Religion Documentaries)

Editorial Review
Mystic Tibet vividly captures the grandeur and mystery of this life-changing journey. One feels intimately a part of the experience, seeing these holy places and holy objects that seem to live and breathe, enduring the hardships and receiving the blessings right along with the pilgrims. This film is a visual and spiritual treat for the eye, the mind, and the heart. Its evocative soundtrack with music by Nawang Khechog and Mercedes Bahleda is as much a part of the film as the extraordinary landscapes, intricate icons, and devoted faces not to mention the heroic Italian pilgrim who finished the journey on crutches! --Mandala Magazine: A Tibetan Buddhist Journal

Review by Heruka "Be Kind" on Amazon.com
This DVD is super and shows what a trip to Tibet should be like. I hope that one day i get a chance to go to Tibet in the presence of a spiritual expert like Lama Zopa Rinpoche who can transform a sight seeing tour into a mystic journey.

Lama Zopa's explanation of all the holy places in the DVD was inspiring and the DVD really conveys the special quality of the places when viewed from a different angle. The soundtrack was fantastic and the sights will remain in my memory until I see them for real.

Kundun - Biography Movie of The Dalai Lama

Click Here to Buy Kundun DVD on Amazon.com (See all Indie & Art House Movies & TV)

Review by MyHinduPage.org. This movie is part biography of Nobel Laureate His Holiness The Dalai Lama, a man for whom I have utmost respect and admiration, and part modern history of the illegal invasion of Tibet by China. I enjoyed this movie for its artistically crafted biography of The Dalai Lama, the scenes of natural beauty and culture of Tibetan life and the horrific invasion of a peaceful country by an aggressive and brutal China. You will leave this movie feeling sorry for the Tibetan people and with great regard for the Dalai Lama and his struggle to preserve a nation and its people. The music score is also amazing.

Review by Toshifumi Fujiwara on Amazon.com
One of the beauties of KUNDUN comes from the way it preserves and recreates a culture that is now almost extinct, of a Tibet which is now almost completely destroyed. And it is a beautiful culture, where almost every detail is related with spiritual value, the very values that our contemporary culture is in the verge of completely losing them, yet still so essential to human life. To see this film is, first and foremost, like a meditation.
Dante Ferretti's design recreating faithfully the traditional costumes and building with a great reality, with Roger Deakins beautiful cinematography (which depth, nuances and richness of colors are so beautifully transferred on this DVD), as well as Philip Glass's music, make KUNDUN a visual poem. Also must be noted is Thelma Schoonmaker's complex editing which explores and reveals the complexity of the story and giving them a beautiful, almost musical rhythm. According to Mr. Scorsese, the climatic Sand-Mandhala montage sequence that cross-cut the Dalai Lama's exile to India and a religious ceremony was her idea, and it brings the film up to an incredible spiritual level. Yet, Scorsese does not show Tibet as an idyllic and idealized society. By using the young Dalai Lama's point of view as a narrative strategy throughout the film, by showing almost everything through his eyes, the film also glimpses at the complexity of the Tibetan society and its own problems; "I didn't know monks has guns" "Is there a prison in Potala" says the 12 years old Dalai Lama.

Violence, or human pain to be more exact, is also present in this film. An amazing nightmare sequence shows the Dalai Lama in the midle of thousands of dead monks. A typical Scorsese image? Well, in fact, it is a faithful recreation of a dream that the Dalai Lama himself has told the filmmakers. In this sense, KUNDUN is also a documentary as much as it is a beautifully created dramatic piece. A particulary poignant moment is when the Dalai Lama gives audience to his people, an old woman starts saying something in Tibetan, as if she was posessed by her traumatic experience. This scene, according to Mr.Scorsese, actually happened as they started to shoot the scene. They put a photo of the real Dalai Lama, and the woman started to talk like that. All the filmmakers did was to film her, and leave it as it is in the film, without even a translation. We can't tell what she says, but we understand the deep sorrow, the truth of her emotion. This is indeed one of the most emotional scene Scorsese, the ultimate filmmaker of emotiin, has ever presented us.

As different as it may seems on the surface level, KUNDUN also explores the familiar Scorsese themes, of the dilemma between religious spiritual values of human trying to be good, and the harsh reality of the world they live in and their own human vulnerabilities inside them; a conflict that has been always present in his films since WHO'S THAT KNOCKING ON MY DOOR and MEAN STREETS, the dilemma that drove Travis Bickle to a burst of bloody violence, the demon inside that Jake La Motta had to fight, the conflict of divinity versus humanity in Jesus.

But KUNDUN takes a different direction. Instead of being obsessed with his own dilemma that drives him near self-destruction (as did so many Scorsese heroes), the Dalai Lama goes beyond that to become the human incarnation of not divinity, but of ultimate compassion. It is amazing how, after witnessing so much violence and anger, he could reach such a state of peace in mind.

Most of the people in the film are non-actors; real Tibetans (the Dalai Lama's mother is played by one of his own niece), and though their performance are not as dramatic as De Niro, Keitel, Pesci, Dafoe, Day Lewis and Pfeifer et all, they bring a truthfulness to the screen.

Mr.Scorsese told me in an interview last year "It was almost like a prayer to make this movie. And my life has changed, to certain extent". I believe this film has the same effects, to certain extent, to us viewers as well.

The film also carries an important political-- Mr.Scorsese says he prefer the word "human"-- message: "Non-violence is the only revolutionary idea left to us", says Martin Scorsese.

Wheel of Time

Click Here to Buy Wheel of Time on Amazon.com

Amazon.com Editorial Review
As filmmaker and cultural anthropologist, Werner Herzog brings his unique powers of observation to Buddhist rituals in Wheel of Time. The documentary's title refers to the central symbol that forms the physical and spiritual hub of an intricately detailed sand mandala that is the centerpiece of the Kalachakra initiation, a Buddhist ceremony that attracts several hundred thousand monks and pilgrims to Bodh Gaya, India (the original site of the Buddha's enlightenment) in 2002. Through well-chosen images and his own sparse but effective narration, Herzog chronicles this spiritual conclave, incorporating brief interview clips with His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, a lively debate between high-level monks at the gathering, an interview with a Tibetan political prisoner who'd spent 37 years in jail, and a visit to the sacred Mount Kailash in Tibet, where the faithful endure a high-altitude 52-kilometer trek to worship on holy ground. Having recovered from illness that prevented his full participation in the Bodh Gaya ceremony, the Dalai Lama appears at another Buddhist ceremony in Graz, Austria, where another sand mandala symbolizes the deep significance of Buddhist inner peace. Herzog's fascination with these rituals is infectious, and with a powerful soundtrack of Tibetan music and Buddhist monks' chanting, Wheel of Time achieves its own quiet quality of grace. --Jeff Shannon

Review by Howard Schumann on Amazon.com
In 2002 Werner Herzog went to India to observe the festival of Kalachakra, the ritual that takes place every few years to allow Tibetan Buddhist monks to become ordained. An estimated 500,000 Buddhists attended the initiation at Bodh Gaya, the land where the Buddha is believed to have gained enlightenment. The resulting documentary, Wheel of Time, is not a typical Herzog film about manic eccentrics at odds with nature but an often sublime look at an endangered culture whose very way of life is threatened. Herzog admits that he knows little about Buddhism and we do not learn very much about it in the film, yet as we observe the rituals, the celebrations, and the devotion of Tibetan Buddhists we learn much about the richness of their tradition and their strength as a people.

The festival, which lasts ten days, arose out of the desire to create a strong positive bond for inner peace among a large number of people. The monks begin with chants, music, and mantra recitation to bless the site so that it will be conducive for creating the sand mandala. The magnificently beautiful mandala, which signifies the wheel of time, is carefully constructed at the start of the festival using fourteen different tints of colored sand, then dismantled at the end to dramatize the impermanence of all things. Once built, it is kept in a glass case for the duration of the proceedings so that it will not be disturbed. The most striking aspect of the film are the scenes showing the devotion of the participants. Using two interpreters, Herzog interviews a monk who took three and one-half years to reach the festival while doing prostrations on the 3000-mile journey.

The prostrations, which are similar to bowing and touching the ground, serve as a reminder that we cannot reach enlightenment without first dispelling arrogance and the affliction of pride. In this case, the monk has developed lesions on his hand and a wound on his forehead from touching the earth so many times, yet it hasn't dampened his spirit. Other Buddhists are shown trying to do 100,000 prostrations in six weeks in front of the tree under which the Buddha is supposed to have sat. Herzog introduces a moment of humor when he films a young child imitating the adults by doing his own prostrations but not quite getting the hang of it. In a sequence of rare beauty accompanied by transcendent Tibetan music, we see a Buddhist pilgrimage to worship at the foot of 22,000-foot Mount Kailash, a mountain that is considered in Buddhist and Hindu tradition to be the center of the universe.

The Dalai Lama explains wryly, however, that in reality each of us is truly the center of the universe. After waiting in long lines to witness the Dalai Lama conduct the main ceremony, the crowd is shocked into silence when he tells them that he is too ill to conduct the initiation and will have to wait until the next Kalachakra meeting in Graz, Austria in October. The Graz initiation ceremony is much smaller, however, being confined to a convention hall that can only fit 8000 people; however, everyone is grateful to see the Dalai Lama restored to health. In Austria, Herzog interviews a Tibetan monk who has just been released from a Chinese prison after serving a sentence of thirty-seven years for campaigning for a "Free Tibet". His ecstasy in greeting the Dalai Lama is ineffable. During the closing ceremony, the monks dismantle the Mandala, sweeping up the colored sands and the Dalai Lama releases the mixed sand to the river as a means of extending blessings to the world for peace and healing.

Herzog's mellifluous voice lends a measure of serenity to the proceedings and he seems to be a sympathetic if somewhat detached observer. While he makes every effort not to be intrusive, he cannot resist, however, staging a scene toward the end in which a bodyguard is seen presiding over an almost empty convention hall to illustrate the Buddhist concept of emptiness. Wheel of Time may not be Herzog's best work but it does contain moments of grace and images of spectacular beauty. Because of the destruction of their heritage, the Tibetans survive today mainly in the refugee camps of India. Any effort that promotes an understanding of their culture is very welcome and Wheel of Time provides us with an insight into an ancient tradition geared toward perfecting humanity through quieting the mind and cultivating compassion.