Science and faith enjoy an unlikely love-in as this documentary about the Buddhist leader combines animation, interviews and previously unseen archive footage, while revealing him to be a far-sighted and astute political operator on the world stage.
Exiled in 1959 when the Chinese army occupied his country, the political and spiritual leader of Tibet took refuge in India – and he cuts an attentive, polite, wily, charming and quite jolly figure.
A syrupy narration explains how his childhood interest in science has been the driving force for meetings with leading Nobel prize-winning scientists, and loose comparisons are drawn between Buddhist beliefs and scientific fields such as quantum physics, cognitive science and neuroscience.
I began watching with scepticism and ended with feelings of awe for the 85 year old.
His decades-long strategy of Buddhist and Western scientific co-operation is now bearing fruit as he uses research projects to build bridges to the Chinese scientific community.
It’s clearly a gateway to pressuring the Beijing authorities that it’s time they re-examined their policies towards his country.
Cert U. Producer Dawn Engle.
