Ring of the Buddha, a documentary by Nepal-lover and Swiss geologist Toni Hagen, premiered in Germany on 28 January to glowing reviews from both critics and the audience. Hagen travelled all over Nepal in the early 1950s just after Nepal opened her borders, making a detailed geological map of the Himalaya and charting out potential sites for hydropower plants. The documentary begins in 1999 with the 82-year-old explorer accompanying Chogye Trichen Rimpoche back to Nepal. The past and present are skilfully woven in a narrative that spans five decades of change in Nepal, filmed on location in the tarai, Jomsom, Janakpur, Kathmandu and the high Himalaya. Hagen is currently recuperating in a hospital in St Moritz after a bad bout of flu.