An international co-production of Italy, France and the United Kingdom, the film stars Chris Isaak, Bridget Fonda and Keanu Reeves as Prince Siddhartha (the Buddha before his enlightenment).

In ancient Nepal (Lumbini), a prince called Siddhartha turns his back on his comfortable and protected life, and sets out on a journey to solve the problem of universal suffering.

Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche appears near the end of the film, when Lama Norbu is shown meditating overnight, and as a consultant, supervised every gesture and ritual performed by Tibetan monks.

Jeremy Thomas later remembered making the film: It was an interest in the story of Siddhartha, and what Tibetan Buddhism meant in Western society after the expulsion from Tibet.

One of the themes Sakamoto had composed for the film[9] was refused by the director[10] and became the title track of the 1994 album Sweet Revenge, a facetious allusion to Bertolucci's decision.

The website's critics consensus reads: "Little Buddha's storytelling may be too childlike to best service its audacious plot, but Bernardo Bertolucci's direction and Vittorio Storaro's cinematography conspire to deliver a visually strong epic.

"[12] Roger Ebert gave the film only two stars, and called it "a slow-moving and pointless exercise by Bertolucci, whose The Last Emperor was a much superior telling of a similar story about a child who is chosen for great things.

"[13] Desson Howe of The Washington Post called the film "beguiling [and] unpretentious", adding that "Bertolucci intermixes high art with childlike wonder, blatant special effects with tacit spirituality.

"[14] Janet Maslin wrote in The New York Times: Little Buddha, a crazily mesmerizing pop artifact that ranks alongside Herman Hesse's novel Siddhartha in terms of extreme earnestness and quasi-religious entertainment value, finds Mr. Bertolucci working in an uncharacteristic vein.

For all its obvious seriousness, Little Buddha has a naïve, miracle-gazing intensity that turns it into Mr. Bertolucci's first Spielberg movie, complete with awestruck faces and intimations of higher knowledge.