Wisdom of Happiness

On 6 July 1935, Lhamo Dhöndup was born in the Tibetan village of Takster, a boy who would go on to lead a very special life. After the death of the thirteenth Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatso, in 1937, a long search for a successor ensued, eventually leading to the young Lhama, who, after extensive investigation, was determined to be the new reincarnation. On 22 February 1940, when he was not yet five years old, he was installed as the fourteenth Dalai Lama. The boy, who would henceforth be called Tenzin Gyatso, thus became the fourteenth spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, and he remains so to this day.

Swiss documentary filmmakers Barbara Miller and Philip Delaquis spoke at length with the now 90-year-old Dalai Lama for this film. He shares his views on happiness, inner harmony and (world) peace. With the help of archive footage, he also looks back on his childhood, his upbringing and his forced flight from Tibet after the Chinese occupied the country.