Dalai Lama Approves of Movie About Buddha

Posted on September 15, 2006

The news has been full of anger in the Middle East when a film maker or cartoonist shows an image of Mohammed. But the Dalai Lama takes a different view about Buddhism and movies. His Holiness would like to see Hollywood make a movie about the life of Buddha.

The Dalai Lama recently spent five days in California and made a suggesting to film makers according to The Hollywood Reporter. The Dalai Lama stood next to Sharon stone and told the crowd, "From Buddha's life story, maybe you'll get inspiration." The speech took place at a screening of the Tibet film, Milarepa.

The Dalai Lama also said, "Our intention is not the propagation of Buddhism, but helping the world. Hollywood has the power to affect the world through cinema and spread compassion."

The Dalai Lama was also recently awarded the Congressional Gold Medal by the U.S. House of Representatives.

We could swear that Kenau Reeves played Buddha in a film years ago. Aha -- a quick search of IMDB turns up Little Buddha, which was directed by Bernardo Bertolucci. We think the Dalai Lama had in mind a more linear treatment of Siddartha's early life before he became known as the Buddha.

We like the idea of a new film. And, as for Little Buddha: it's an interesting, funky and very unusual film. Keanu does a good job -- obviously, since we actually remembered a film from 1993.

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