Wheel of Time (film)

Infobox Film
name = Wheel of Time


caption =
director = Werner Herzog
producer = Werner Herzog
writer = Werner Herzog
narrator = Werner Herzog
starring = The Dalai Lama Takna Jigme Zangpo
music =
released = 2003
runtime = 81 min.
language = English
imdb_id = 0331080

"Wheel of Time" is a 2003 documentary film by German director Werner Herzog about Tibetan Buddhism. The title refers to the Kalachakra sand mandala that provides a recurring image for the film.

The film documents the two Kalachakra initiations of 2002, presided over by the fourteenth Dalai Lama. The first, in Bodhgaya India, was disrupted by the Dalai Lama's illness. Later that same year, the event was held again, this time without disruption, in Graz Austria. The film's first location is the Bodhgaya, the site of the Mahabodhi Temple and the Bodhi tree. Herzog then turns to the pilgrimage at Mount Kailash. The film then focuses on the second gathering in Graz.

Herzog includes a personal interview with the Dalai Lama, as well as Tibetan former political prisoner Takna Jigme Zangpo, who served 37 years in a Chinese prison for his support of the International Tibet Independence Movement.