Little Buddha

1993
PG
2h 3m

IMDb RATING

6.1/10

18K

YOUR RATING

Play trailer1:57

1 Video

99+ Photos

Drama

After the death of Lama Dorje, Tibetan Buddhist monks find three children - one American and two Nepalese - who may be the rebirth of their great teacher.After the death of Lama Dorje, Tibetan Buddhist monks find three children - one American and two Nepalese - who may be the rebirth of their great teacher.After the death of Lama Dorje, Tibetan Buddhist monks find three children - one American and two Nepalese - who may be the rebirth of their great teacher.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.1/10

18K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 2 wins & 3 nominations

Videos1

Trailer 1:57

Watch Little Buddha

Photos148

+ 142

More like this

6.7

6.5

7.7

6.8

6.5

7.6

6.2

6.6

Tragedy of a Ridiculous Man

6.7

A Walk in the Clouds

6.8

Last Tango in Paris

6.4

Luna

6.9

The Spider's Stratagem

Storyline

Edit

Did you know

Edit

Trivia
In January 1996, three years after this movie was released, a four-year-old boy from Seattle actually was chosen as the reincarnation of beloved Lama Deschund Rinpochet, and relocated to Nepal, to be groomed as a spiritual teacher.

Goofs
When Raju is playing with the Game Boy you can hear music from Tetris, but it's actually not turned on at all.

Quotes
Lama Norbu: [Narrating] One day Siddhartha heard an old musician on a passing boat speaking to his people.
Old Musician: If you tighten the string too much it will snap and if you leave it too slack, it won't play.
Lama Norbu: [continues narrating] Suddenly, Siddhartha realized that these simple words held the great truth, and that in all these years he had been following the wrong path.

Crazy credits
At the very end of the credits, there is a shot of a hand wiping away the sand of the mandala. (Mandalas are brushed away at some point after completion to symbolize Impermanence, one of the tenets of Buddhism).

Connections
Featured in Siskel & Ebert: The Cowboy Way/Beverly Hills Cop III/Renaissance Man/The Flintstones/Little Buddha (1994)

User reviews137

Review

Featured review

Nothing wrong with slow.

I certainly disagree with the commentary that calls this movie plotless. I agree that it's slow, but what's wrong with slow? Roger Ebert put the movie down by calling it 'Buddhist Sunday School.' True, the Buddha parts are simplistic, but then so is the original Buddha story. Slow, thoughtful, peaceful, subtly stimulating, and with a plot to end all plots-- the one-ness of all individuality. I much prefer this to the more recent Kundun, which tries to tell essentially the same story. In fact, Scorsese rips this movie off dreadfully, even to the same wiping out of the sand pattern at the end.