A List of Films about Buddhism

by Danny Fisher

I’m going to be updating the links section of my blog in the next couple of weeks–making the right hand column a little smaller and less “busy.” So, as a result, you’re going to be seeing a lot of lists of links in the near future, like this one and my recent list of great Buddhist blogs (which I’m am continually updating, by the way).

Today’s list is of all the significant narrative films and documentaries I can think of that are specifically about Buddhism. This does not include films like The Matrix or Groundhog Day, which could be considered Buddish, but are not about Buddhism. Let me know if I’m missing anything!

[One note: I have tended to use titles in their original language. Thus, The Cup is listed as Phörpa; Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...and Spring as Bom Yeoreum Gaeul Gyeoul Geurigo Bom; Enlightenment Guaranteed as Erleuchtung Garantiert; and so on.]


  • À La Recherche de Kundun avec Martin Scorsese
  • Amongst White Clouds: Buddhist Hermit Masters of China’s Zhongnan Mountains
  • Angulimala
  • Angry Monk: Reflections on Tibet
  • Asoka
  • Bom Yeoreum Gaeul Gyeoul Geurigo Bom
  • Buddha’s Lost Children
  • Buddha Wild: The Monk in a Hut
  • Calling of the Dragon
  • Compassion and Wisdom: A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life
  • Compassion In Exile: The Story of the 14th Dalai Lama
  • Crazy Wisdom: The Life & Times of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche
  • Dalai Lama Renaissance
  • Dalmaya Nolja
  • Dao Ma Zei
  • Destroyer of Illusion: The Secret World of a Tibetan Lama
  • The Dhamma Brothers
  • Dharma River
  • Dharmaga Tongjoguro Kan Kkadalgun
  • Doing Time, Doing Vipassana
  • Dreaming Lhasa
  • Erleuchtung Garantiert
  • Fearless Mountain
  • Himalaya – L’enfance D’un Chef
  • How to Cook Your Life
  • Ice and Water
  • The Knowledge of Healing
  • Kundun
  • The Lion’s Roar
  • Little Buddha
  • Marga
  • Meditate and Destroy
  • Milarepa
  • Mountains and Rivers
  • Now I Know You: A Tribute to Taizan Maezumi Roshi
  • Peace Is Every Step: Meditation In Action: The Life and Work of Thich Nhat Hanh
  • Phörpa
  • Prajna Earth
  • Sacred Wildness: The Teachings of Rocks and Water
  • Samsara (2001)
  • Samsara (2009)
  • Satya: A Prayer for the Enemy
  • Seven Years in Tibet
  • Siddhartha
  • 10 Questions for the Dalai Lama
  • Tibet: A Buddhist Trilogy
  • Tibet: Cry of the Snow Lion
  • The Tibetan Book of the Dead (A Way of Life / The Great Liberation)
  • Travellers and Magicians
  • Vajra Sky Over Tibet
  • Watching the Rock Grow: History of Zen Mountain Monastery
  • Water Buddhas
  • The Water Way
  • Wheel of Time
  • Windhorse
  • Words of My Perfect Teacher
  • Xia Nu
  • Zen Buddhism: In Search of Self
  • A Zen Life-D.T. Suzuki
  • Zen Noir