"Little Buddha" - A Summary and Review

Summary:Little Buddha starts with a Buddhist monk, Lama Norbu, going to Seattle in search of Jesse Conrad, a boy who Lama Norbu believes may be the reincarnation of Lama Norbus old teacher, Lama Dorje. Lama Norbu and his fellow monks find Jesse and his family, and after an awkward first meeting gives Jesse a book called Little Buddha, which is read to him over the course of the movie to teach him the history and basic points of Buddhism. We get to watch what is being read to Jesse, so there is a movie of Buddha inside a movie of Buddhism. Jesse starts making trips to the Monastery to learn more about the monks and their practice. During his time in the monastery, Lama Norbu reads parts of the book to Jesse. We learn about the birth of Siddhartha Gautama as a prince who was destined by the stars to be great. We learn how his father sheltered him from everything that had the potential to disturb him, and how he finally, when he was a teenager, discovered suffering, poverty, old age, and death. We learn about how he left the palace with a goal to end suffering, and how he became an ascetic. Finally, after hearing a man telling his music pupil about how the string of an instrument has to be in the middle ground between being to tight and snapping and being too loose to play, Siddhartha realizes that the path to enlightenment lies in the Middle Way, or whatever the middle ground is between any two extremes. Jesse is very interested in Buddhism, and Lama Norbu convinces Jesses dad, Dean Conrad, to let Jesse make a trip to meet the other candidates for being the reincarnation of Lama Dorje, and then go to Bhutan for the decision of who it actually is. Jesses mother objects, but gives in after a very emotional scene and Dean, Jesse and Lama Norbu all fly together to Katmandu, where Jesse finds Raju, an awesome little guy who happens to be the second candidate for being the reincarnation of Lama Dorje. Raju asks to play Jesses gameboy, and after Rajus brother steals the

Bibliography: Little Buddha, (Directed by Bernardo Bertolucci) 2004