Bodh Gaya Prayer Festival
An international Buddhist chanting festival takes place each December at the Mahabodhi temple at Bodh Gaya, the place of the Buddha’s enlightenment and the foremost Buddhist pilgrimage site. Bodh Gaya was not blessed with beautiful light or color at this time, and I’ve struggled to like these images I made there during one of my [...]
Butter Sculptures
Torma are sculptures made of flour and butter used in rituals and as offerings in Tibetan Buddhism. They’re made for different purposes and symbolize different Buddhist concepts. After they’ve been “used” they’re placed outside and eaten by birds and animals.
The Ghats of Maheshwar
Maheshwar was another small revelation and I’ll certainly be going back. Named after Lord Shiva and mentioned in the Hindu epics the Ramayana and Mahabharata, Maheshwar is a small, peaceful pilgrimage town along the banks of the Narmada River. Since I haven’t had a very good or productive time at other Hindu pilgrimage sites in [...]
Ancient Buddhist Monuments at Sanchi
Sanchi, a small village in the state of Madhya Pradesh, is home to some of the world’s oldest and most spectacular Buddhist monuments. The Great Stupa at Sanchi is the site’s main structure and was erected by the Mauryan Emperor Ashoka in 250 BCE after his enthusiastic conversion to Buddhism. At its height the Maurya [...]
The Golden Temple {Round 2}
I love this place. Unfortunately I was sick on Diwali so couldn’t make it here then, but went last weekend and still had a great time. To be expected, it wasn’t the same explosion as last year. It was still packed, but no thousands of sadhus rocking the place to high heaven, and the food [...]
30 Meters of Turban
This man is a fully baptized Sikh whom I met at The Golden Temple. His turban is made of 30 meters of cloth and is decorated with the two primary symbols of Sikhism: the Khanda and the Ek-Onkar. Baptized (Khalsa) Sikhs like this man follow the famous five K’s: Kachera, Kara, Kirpan, Kanga and Kesh. [...]
Norbulingka Institute
The Norbulingka Institute near Dharamsala was established to preserve Tibetan culture and traditional arts. It has workshops for thanka painting and appliqué, woodworking, metal sculpture and textiles, and produces top-notch work, all done by Tibetan refugees. There’s a beautiful shop where the goods are sold, a Buddhist temple, a doll museum, a delicious cafe, a [...]
The Dalai Lama in Dharamsala
At the request of a Taiwanese Buddhist group, the Dalai Lama just gave a 4-day teaching in Dharamsala. Photography was not permitted at the teachings. (These photos are from Zanskar last year.) I bought a cheap FM radio to hear the English translation, and when it was even audible it was overlapped by a Taiwanese [...]
Sumda Chun
Yesterday I hired a car/driver and traveled with a Ladakhi friend/guide to visit two remote monasteries west of Leh: Sumda Chun and Mangyu. Along with Alchi, they form a trilogy of early Tibetan Buddhist temples dating from the 11th century. The artwork of these temples is totally unlike the other Buddhist temples in the region [...]
Kumbha Mela
Unfortunately I was at the end of my rope in India by the time I arrived in Haridwar for Kumbha Mela. Nevertheless, here are a few pictures. It’s not my best work, but still something to be seen. The naga baba with the two European babes is Shiv Raj Giri. I found a video of [...]
Shivratri Festival
Shivratri symbolizes the wedding day of Lord Shiva and Parvati and is an auspicious days for Hindus. In Kutch there was a Shivratri festival at a small village north of Bhuj. I took the bus, always an adventure in itself, and spent the day there. (The only other foreigners there were a guy from Japan [...]
Hampi
The ruins of the Vijayanagara Empire at Hampi are just spectacular. India at its best. Hampi on Wikipedia Hampi on UNESCO
Cochin, Kerala
Cochin (Kochi) is made up of a handful of islands and peninsulas including the main hub of Ernakulum and the historic areas of Fort Kochi and Mattancherry. Most of these images are from Fort Kochi, where you can still see and feel the Portuguese influence. Sometimes it feels like Cuba or Latin America too—the same [...]
Varkala Puja
Hindu puja (prayer) ceremonies led by priests are held every morning at Varkala beach on the Kerala coast. Families come to do this together. I don’t understand the significance of the rituals, but it was fascinating to watch. And the beach is gorgeous.
Debates at Sera Monastery, Bylakuppe
Bylakuppe is a small town in southern Karnataka that’s home to the largest Tibetan refugee settlement in India. Roughly 3,000 acres of jungle forest land was given to the Tibetans by the Indian government in 1959, and from that they’ve created a pretty nice settlement. Today approximately 14,000 Tibetans live in about 15 “camps” where [...]
Old Goa
This is my only good picture from Goa. It’s a baptismal font in one of the Portuguese churches of Old Goa.
Free Community Kitchen
The Langar at The Golden Temple is simply amazing. It serves free, delicious food to tens (or hundreds) of thousands of people a day, 24-hours a day. And the whole operation is run by volunteer labor. The free kitchen is a feature of all Sikh temples (gurdwaras), and doing volunteer work in the kitchens is [...]
Diwali Crowds
An estimated million or more people visited The Golden Temple at Amritsar on Diwali. I’d never photographed crowds like this before and really enjoyed the energy and the new visual challenges/opportunities it presented. At some point the masses just became an abstraction of movement and colors. The photo above was outside the ladies room.
Sadhus and Pilgrims
The Sikhs welcome all faiths to The Golden Temple. Anyone can eat and sleep there, as long as they show appropriate respect to their religion, which is easy to do (no drugs or alcohol, no shoes, and no uncovered heads inside the temple). Droves of Hindu sadhus and pilgrims were at the temple when I [...]
The Blind Sufi
Today Mr. Guru invited me to visit a highly respected local Sufi, Rahman Sahib, a descendant of a major Sufi saint who heals people from illnesses, advises them on all sorts of decisions (including the highest people in Srinagar), and happens to be blind. Despite that, he can apparently read people like a book. I [...]
Ladakh Festival
The Ladakh Festival is organized by the J&K government and brings together the various peoples and cultures of the region. Today was the first (and best) day. It started in the morning with a parade of people from different villages in traditional dress playing music, singing and dancing, and ended up at Leh Polo Grounds [...]
Good Day at Stondge
After the teachings I headed to Stondge (pronounced Ton-day) Gompa, which has to be the coolest monastery in all of Ladakh and Zanskar. It sits high atop a ridge in a surreally beautiful mountain range and has the most spectacular views of Zanskar I’ve seen. Like Karsha Monastery, Stondge belongs to the Gelugpa (yellow hat) [...]
Three Young Monks
These three young monks from Karsha Monastery are truly as charming and sweet as they look. Each has an older monk that acts as kind of a mentor or guardian to them. The monk above is mentored by Wangboo, the monk who put me up in his place at Karsha, and he was often around [...]
Dalai Lama in Zanskar
At dawn thousands of people were waiting for the Dalai Lama to arrive. There was always a little doubt about him actually coming, but then a spec of a helicopter appeared far down the valley and we all knew it was him. As the helicopter approached, people lined the road to his residence at the [...]
