Featuring Garchen Rinpoche · Garchen Buddhist Institute
101 min · Free full film
A documentary portrait of Garchen Rinpoche, following his life in Tibet, his practice of compassion through hardship, and his teaching around the world. Shared freely by the Garchen Buddhist Institute.
The Nuns of Gebchak: Keepers of Tibet’s Secret Yogas
Hamid Sardar · SLICE
Documentary excerpt · from a 2018 film
A visit to Gebchak’s Buddhist nuns with Ani Rigsang, exploring their retreat lives, dream yoga and inner-heat practice. This excerpt from Tibet, the Path to Wisdom presents the community’s beliefs about liberation and the body of light.
A close, compassionate portrait of Ittetsu Nemoto, a Japanese Buddhist priest supporting people who have lost the will to live. The film also follows the strain this work puts on his health and family. Includes discussion of suicide and grief.
Filmmaker Edward A. Burger returns to his years among Buddhist hermits in China’s Zhongnan Mountains. Their conversations and daily routines reveal the work behind a life of solitude. This film reworks Amongst White Clouds with new interviews, narration and editing.
Full film shared by filmmaker Edward A. Burger; no subscription required.
Why included
Unusually close access to the hermits’ everyday lives, shaped by the filmmaker’s own years of practice. Presented by the California Film Institute with the Buddhist Film Foundation.
Swiss actress Sabine Timoteo spends three seasons at Antaiji, a Zen monastery in the Japanese mountains. Sitting meditation, cooking, physical work and shared meals carry the story, offering a patient view of what it means to enter an unfamiliar monastic community.
Apple TV lists available viewing options; payment and regional availability vary.
Why included
A strong choice for seeing the texture of ordinary Zen practice: sustained observation, seasonal change and daily work. Selected for DOK.fest Munich and distributed by Zeitgeist Films.
At Jhamtse Gatsal, a children’s community in the Indian Himalaya, former monk Lobsang Phuntsok helps five-year-old Tashi find a sense of belonging. A compact portrait of patient care, difficult emotions and a community built around compassion.
The community offers the full film free after entering a first name and email address. Newsletter signup is optional.
Why included
A moving, focused introduction to compassion in daily life. Winner of the 2016 Emmy for Outstanding Short Documentary and the 2014 IDA award for Best Short.
Buddhist nuns undertake an austere winter retreat on the Tibetan Plateau. With little explanatory narration, Jin Huaqing observes their devotion, mutual support and encounters with impermanence. A visually striking, demanding film about a world rarely seen at such close range.
Official distributor page with a trailer and screening information; this is not a free full-film link.
Why included
Selected for New Directors/New Films, presented by MoMA and Film at Lincoln Center; awarded a special jury prize for cinematography at Seattle in 2022. Best for viewers drawn to immersive observational cinema.
Filmed over eight years, this documentary follows Padma Angdu, a boy in Ladakh recognized as a tulku, and his devoted older caregiver, Rigzin Urgain. Their journey toward a distant monastery becomes an unusually tender story of trust, responsibility and separation.
Apple TV lists available viewing options; payment and regional availability vary.
Why included
The relationship between the boy and his caregiver gives this film its depth. Joint winner of the international jury’s Grand Prix in Berlinale Generation Kplus in 2017.
A portrait of Tibetan Buddhist life in Nepal, visiting Boudhanath, Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling and Nagi Gompa. Includes an extended interview with Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, translated by Erik Pema Kunsang.
An accessible introduction to the Buddha’s life and teaching, combining art, animation and conversations with contemporary Buddhists. A good first documentary for newcomers.
An unhurried immersion in Thich Nhat Hanh’s Plum Village community: walking, working, sitting and living together through the seasons. Narrated by Benedict Cumberbatch.
Follows men in an Alabama maximum-security prison undertaking a ten-day Vipassana course. Personal accounts explore the demands of meditation and its place in their lives.
Follows Tenzin Zopa’s search for a child believed to be the reincarnation of his teacher, Geshe Lama Konchog. A close look at devotion, loss and the Tibetan tulku tradition.
Werner Herzog observes Tibetan Buddhist pilgrimage and Kalachakra ceremonies, including the making of a sand mandala and conversations with the Dalai Lama.
Official channels with a sustained body of teaching and a clear institutional or lineage context.
YouTube channel
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche
Teaching archive
Archival talks by Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche on meditation, Buddhist practice and Shambhala teachings, including meditation instruction recorded at Naropa in 1974.
The official channel of Pure Land Farms, a center for Tibetan Buddhist practice, Sowa Rigpa and contemplative arts, with programs in the Yuthok Nyingthig tradition.
Video teachings and teacher-led channels with a particular meditation approach.
Video teaching
The Aphorisms of Chöd
Sunisa Manning · Tricycle
24 minutes · October 2026
Manning introduces Chöd through contemplative sayings traditionally associated with Padampa Sangye and Machig Labdrön. In her Nyingma/Dudjom presentation, meeting fear and examining self-protective habits become ways to cultivate compassion and loosen attachment. She suggests returning to these reminders during everyday difficulties, much as practitioners work with lojong slogans.
Video requires a Tricycle subscription; an edited transcript appears on the page. This introduction is distinct from formal, teacher-led Chöd ritual training.
Meditation explanations, practice questions and conversations. His official site also links a second channel, Shinzen Videos, for interviews and other material.
