Trailer: The Dalai Lama’s Gift
The Kalachakra: The Wheel of Time
A hidden ritual. A sacred promise. A transformed cornfield.
In 1981, His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama accepted a heartfelt invitation from Geshe Lhundup Sopa, a revered Tibetan master, to perform the Kalachakra (Wheel of Time) initiation in the United States for the first time, marking a pivotal moment in the transmission of Tibetan Buddhism to the West. This powerful tantric ritual—never before held outside India or Tibet—was to take place in the heart of rural Wisconsin.
With only a few months to prepare, Geshe Sopa’s students, the monks of Namgyal Monastery, and volunteers built America’s first Kalachakra Temple from the ground up, transforming an open cornfield into a site of extraordinary spiritual awakening. That July, the temple hosted the historic ceremony that introduced thousands to one of the most profound and complex rituals in Tibetan Buddhism.
Working closely with coproducer Sharpa Tulku, Geshe Sopa, and the monks of Namgyal Monastery, filmmaker Dr. Ed Bastian and his team documented every stage of the ceremony—from preparations in India to the construction of the Kalachakra Temple and the initiation itself. Additionally, interviews with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Geshe Sopa, and multiple initiates, many of whom would later emerge as influential Buddhist teachers, were filmed. These interviews include José I. Cabezón, Roger Jackson, Jan Willis, Vesna Wallace, and more. After the initiation, the original footage was entrusted to the Smithsonian Institution Film Archives for safekeeping.
Now, more than forty years later, that footage has been digitized and interwoven with contemporary interviews and the first-ever animation of the majestic three-dimensional mandala with the support of The Spiritual Paths Foundation. The resulting documentary revisits this landmark moment in time, inviting the viewer on a journey of devotion, resilience, and transformation, revealing a story of the power of one sacred encounter to ripple across generations.
While Ed and The Spiritual Paths Foundation have made The Dalai Lama’s Gift available free as an offering of peace and compassion, your generosity helps them to bring this film—and its message of awakening—to more people around the world. Please consider donating to the film’s foundation to help support this beautiful gift.
. 
“The Dalai Lama’s Gift is a marvelous invocation of a historic event. It serves
as an excellent introduction to the Kalachakra initiation and Tibetan
Buddhist philosophy. Overall, this is an exceptional work!”
Gaetano Kazuo Maida
International Buddhist Film Festival
Founder/Executive Producer
Learn More
DalaiLamaGift.org
Visit the film’s website—dalailamagift.org—to learn more about the story and individuals behind the documentary. Read about director Ed Bastian’s approach to making the film, meet the production team, and discover its collaborators.
Additionally, please consider donating to the film’s foundation to help support this beautiful gift in the world. Your support allows the film team to reach a wider audience by scheduling more screenings, distributing it as an educational resource in libraries, universities, and Buddhist centers, and engage in global outreach to share the film at festivals and cultural institutions to promote interfaith understanding and compassion.
