2,500 years ago
Prince Siddharta Gautama
set out from his home in the foothills of the Himalayas
and embarked on a journey in search of the truth.
Many years later,
he arrived in the lowlands of the Ganges river
near the village of Bodh Gaya.
The scene must have been very similar to the one we see here.
He sat down under a tree and attained enlightenment.
Since then he has been known as the Buddha, The Enlightened One.
WHEEL OF TIME
A FILM BY WERNER HERZOG
KALACHAKRA INITIATION 2002 (BODH GAYA, INDIA / GRAZ, AUSTRIA)
WITH THE COLLABORATION OF HIS HOLINESS, THE XIV DALAI LAMA
For the Buddhist world, this is sacred ground.
Pilgrims flock here from across the world.
The modern-day village of Bodh Gaya
still has a bustling market, rickshaws and beggars.
The temple in the background,
called a stupa,
marks the spot where the Buddha sat in meditation.
His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, has called upon the Buddhist world
to gather here for the Kalachakra Initiation.
This ceremony takes place at a specially designated location,
at irregular intervals, around every two to three years.
Half a million pilgrims heeded the call.
No other religious event
is so eagerly anticipated by Buddhist followers.
At the base of the stupa stands the Bodhi Tree,
The Tree of Enlightenment.
It is the fifth-generation descendant of the original tree.
Monks have gathered under its branches
to prepare for the ceremonies.
Kalachakra literally means "wheel of time".
Kalachakra involves a complex initiation rite
which aims to activate the seed of enlightenment,
lying dormant in all living beings.
Butter lamps symbolize this enlightenment.
The central ritual revolves around the creation of a picture,
known as a Sand Mandala.
It depicts an inner landscape,
which represents the Wheel of Time.
It is viewed as a Buddha's dwelling, comprising more than 700 deities
or manifestations of Buddha nature.
The Sand Mandala is so complex
that we turned to the Dalai Lama for further explanation.
The Kalachakra Initiation is comprised of teachings,
prayers, the composition of a Sand Mandala,
and the initiation itself.
500,000 believers will assemble here over the next ten days and nights.
The pilgrims have travelled great distances
from Tibet, Nepal and Bhutan.
From the steppes of Mongolia. From Thailand and Sri Lanka.
They have journeyed thousands of kilometres by truck.
But many pilgrims from central Tibet completed their voyage on foot.
A number of these pilgrims
covered the entire journey in this way.
On the second day of festivities we met this monk.
He walked over 4,000 km, prostrating himself at every step,
all the way from the Amdo province,
far beyond the Tibet Autonomous Region.
He explains that his journey lasted over three and a half years.
He comes from such a remote region
that his dialect has to be translated twice.
Firstly into standard Tibetan, and then once again for us.
On his journey, he experienced hunger, thirst, heat and cold.
Word spread about his pilgrimage.
Sometimes nomads would approach him
and offer him water and something to eat.
He prefers not to make a fuss about his voyage.
Ganglions began to form on his hands
although he wore wooden clogs to protect them.
Touching the ground several million times
left a wound on his forehead which has yet to heal.
Would he like to comment on his journey?
"Yes," he replies, " I have learned of the magnitude of the earth."
"I measured it with my body, from head to toe.
Now I understand."
He battled on tirelessly
and now a deep serenity has descended upon him
having reached The Tree of Enlightenment.
The Sand Mandala will be created in a specially enclosed area.
The Mandala will be assembled on this surface.
Before work begins, the surface must be consecrated.
The teaching and prayer area is situated directly outside.
The area is presided over by high-ranking lamas.
The Dalai Lama should be conducting the teachings,
but he has fallen ill
and is unable to attend the first few days.
Back to the stupa, only a few hundred metres away.
Pilgrims flock to this pillar,
believing it to possess curative powers.
At the stupa, pilgrims circle the inner sanctum.
Others are immersed in prayer or meditation.
Work on the Sand Mandala has commenced.
The Dalai Lama would normally construct the initial lines.
However, he is still in bad health
and learned monks must proceed without him.
At the centre of the pattern lies the Wheel of Time.
Whole libraries exist on the Mandala's symbols
to help guide the monks through its intricate maze.
Facing The Tree of Enlightenment,
the faithful perform prostrations.
Their goal is to repeat this 100,000 times.
The fittest among them will manage this in about six weeks.
One of the learned monks has the privilege
of defending his doctoral thesis on Buddhist philosophy
in public under the Bodhi Tree.
He is the monk sitting on the right.
The debate unfolds in a manner typical of Tibetan monastic life.
The scholarly debate revolves around two aspects of reality.
The functional reality of our everyday life
and emptiness
which is viewed in Buddhist teachings
as the ultimate reality.
The debate is adjourned for lunch without reaching a conclusive outcome.
In the sprawling tent cities around Bodh Gaya,
monks are assigned various tasks in the kitchen.
The brethren each take it in turns to do particular chores.
As night falls,
the debate gets into full swing.
As the Sand Mandala symbolizes the blueprint of an inner universe,
the vision of a sacred cosmos,
we felt compelled
to visit the most sacred of all Buddhist sites,
Mount Kailash.
The holy mountain, located in Western Tibet,
is venerated in equal measure by both Buddhists and Hindus,
who consider it to be the seat of the deity Shiva.
Long before the existence of Buddhism,
followers of the Tibetan Bön religion venerated the mountain
and still do today.
The mountain and the Mandala
are both viewed as a Buddha's dwelling place.
In the shadow of Mount Kailash lies Lake Manasarovar,
also believed to be sacred
and viewed as the mountain's female consort.
The Tibetans christened the mount Kang Rinpoche,
"precious snow jewel".
All year long, pilgrims flock to the mountain.
Numbers soar dramatically during full moon at the end of May.
This day coincides with the birth of Buddha
and, at the same time,
marks the moment he attained enlightenment.
Every twelve years, during the Year of the Horse,
vast numbers of pilgrims gather here
to assemble on the holy land.
The pilgrims begin their prostrations
the moment Mount Kailash comes into view.
The pilgrims have travelled here without any Western comforts
perched on top of open trucks.
Using primitive bellows,
they kindle fires of dry yak dung
and make tea.
They add barley flour and rancid yak butter.
These are nearly the only provisions they have.
A tent city has emerged at the base of the mountain.
The tents are considered a luxury.
Most pilgrims will spend the freezing nights out in the open,
wrapped only in their overcoats.
The first day begins with the Saka Dawa festival.
The festival culminates with the erection of a tall mast
using ropes adorned with chains of prayer flags.
After the mast has been erected,
the pilgrims set off on the Kora,
or circumambulation of Mount Kailash.
Trekking around the entire base of the mountain
covers a distance of 52 km.
The Kora will take them three days
at an average altitude of well over 5,000 metres.
On the second day,
they will have to cross a pass at an altitude of 5,600 metres.
Each year, several pilgrims die from altitude sickness.
Many of the faithful come from the Indian lowlands
and are not adequately accustomed to the climate.
As it is the Year of the Horse, pilgrims are rewarded
with a twelvefold absolution from negative karma
which would have burdened their existence after reincarnation.
The pilgrims walk in a clockwise direction.
Followers of the B? N religion are easily recognizable.
They move in the opposite direction.
The central part of the Mandala
is evocative of the composition of Mount Kailash,
viewed by many believers
as the centre of the physical and spiritual universe.
We asked the Dalai Lama for his views on this theory.
These cauldrons are used to prepare the monks' afternoon tea.
Eager young monks battle for the honour
of being the first to serve
their group of high-ranking monks.
These are the preparations for the Long Life Ceremony.
Gifts will be distributed among the faithful.
The most coveted of these are the consecrated barley dumplings
which hold the promise of a long and happy life.
The enclosed area containing the Sand Mandala
is now open and on display to the general public.
It is protected by plexiglas,
as touching or breathing on the Mandala
could destroy it.
The Dalai Lama has yet to make a public appearance
and rumours are spreading about the severity of his illness.
Loud speakers announce
that His Holiness will address the pilgrims the following morning.
Hundreds of thousands of queues have been forming since 3 a.m.
Lines of pilgrims stretch for kilometres into the distance.
Pilgrims throw prayer shawls to the front
symbolizing their wish to be close to the Dalai Lama.
Speaking in Tibetan, the Dalai Lama explains
that due to his serious illness
he will be unable to preside over the ceremonies,
each of which lasts many hours.
He will be unable to perform the principal initiation rites.
He calls upon the pilgrims
to reconvene here in a year's time.
Preparations for the next Kalachakra, to be held in Graz in Austria,
have long been underway
and it will go ahead in the autumn as planned.
The Dalai Lama's news does not come as a surprise.
However, the pilgrims are shocked.
Most of them stay up the whole night holding a vigil,
praying for the Dalai Lama's recovery.
He seems about to add something.
However, tormented by the fact
that he has disappointed so many who have come so far,
he remains silent.
Graz in Austria
is home to a small but extremely active Buddhist community.
In cooperation with the City of Graz, it worked incredibly hard
to have the chance to host a Kalachakra Initiation.
The Dalai Lama has rarely agreed
to perform this important ceremony in the West.
He recently expressed concerns about believers who change religions
and cut themselves off from their cultural milieu.
But he does endorse efforts
to study and understand other religions.
Only in this way
can long-lasting peace ever be secured on this planet.
The initiation will take place in the recently opened convention hall
which can easily accommodate 8,000 people.
Despite being tired and evidently jet-lagged,
the Dalai Lama still radiates
his characteristic warmth and kindness.
Unsure of what he may do next,
he is a constant worry to his bodyguards.
He spontaneously sets off
to mingle with the crowd.
The Dalai Lama now performs the duties he was unable to fulfil in Bodh Gaya.
He lays down the first lines of the template for the Sand Mandala.
It will be an exact mathematical replica
of the design used in India.
The people assembled in the hall fall silent.
The Dalai Lama assumes his role
as he leads prayers, teachings
and presides over the composition of the Mandala.
The Dalai Lama takes his place on his throne
from which he will lead several days of instruction.
This man caught our attention
because he was invited to sit with the high-ranking lamas.
We learned that his name was Takna Jigme Sangpo.
A former schoolteacher,
this man spent many years as a political prisoner in Tibet.
He had only recently been released.
Two days ago,
he set eyes on the Dalai Lama for the first time in his life.
Before the initiation begins,
the Dalai Lama performs a number of rituals.
One of the first rituals is the oracle.
This determines the auspicious outcome of the Kalachakra Initiation.
The decisive factor in this ritual
is the direction in which the stick falls.
The only Western layperson
to have the privilege of taking part in this oracle
is Manfred Klell,
the chairman of Graz Buddhist Association.
Another preparatory ritual
is performed using kusha grass from India.
The faithful lay it under their pillows at night
and their dreams are stored in its blades.
Following other rituals,
the protective curtain is lifted and the Sand Mandala unveiled.
The Dalai Lama will now initiate the students
into this sacred landscape.
The assembled believers don red headbands
to symbolize the blindness of their minds thus far.
Some lay seeds on their heads
to represent the activation of their consciousness.
This is followed by many hours of meditation
and rituals to purify the mind
until the faithful have reached a higher state of consciousness.
The zenith of this purely spiritual event,
invisible to a camera lens, thus draws to a close.
All that remains is for the Dalai Lama to destroy the Sand Mandala.
As a symbol of the transitory nature of living creatures,
the Mandala sand is scattered into the Mur river
from where it will flow out as a blessing to the earth.
The Sand Mandala has been released into the world
and the Dalai Lama has left the country.
Yet a solitary bodyguard remains on duty,
evidently still waiting to be discharged.
Or is he meant to symbolize the Buddhist idea of emptiness:
He has no one to protect
and hardly anyone to protect them from.
Back in Bodh Gaya we meet a similar scene.
400,000 discarded cushions.
And one solitary monk.
Still immersed in prayer.
Is he praying for us?
Has he found enlightenment?
And then, like a nocturnal animal
emerging from the earth,
a thought creeps into my mind.
Is it possible that he is sitting on the spot
which marks the centre of the universe?