Buddhist Masks
No wonder Picasso loved masks. I think he would have liked the Tibetan Buddhist ones too. The mask above is of Yamantaka, the Terminator of Death, who is the wrathful incarnation of Manjushri, the bodhisattva of Wisdom. According to legend, the Lord of Death, Yama, was about to destroy Tibet, but the people sought help [...]
Hemis Festival
The biggest and most commercial festival in Ladakh is not the best, but still worth checking out. Thousands of people, mostly tourists and photographers, attend Hemis Monastery’s annual summer festival. It’s unbearably packed, pushy and hot, but it’s still Ladakhi and for that worth the effort to visit. I couldn’t even see the masked dancing [...]
Fès Festival of World Sacred Music
One of the world’s top cultural and musical events, the annual Fès Festival of World Sacred Music brings together a wide range of performers, artists and intellectuals from around the globe for nine days in June in Morocco’s most historic city. The theme for the 17th festival was “Wisdoms of the World” and the musical [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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.
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 [...]
Sani Festival Portraits
Portraits of the monks of Bardan Monastery, who perform the festival at Sani.
Karsha Festival Rehearsal
The day before the festival began I went to check out the rehearsal. The dusk light and vibe were perfect and it felt good to be at Karsha again.
Lamayuru Festival
Lamayuru is one of my favorite places in Ladakh. It’s a beautiful village with an amazing monastery set in a totally surreal mountain landscape. I went to the monastery’s annual festival last weekend. Masked dances (chams) enacting themes from Tibetan mythology are the center stage of these festivals and the house is always packed. (Thankfully, [...]
A Great Little Day!
Today was a great little day for me. I stumbled onto a small festival where I was the only non-Ladakhi and the locals just brought me into the fold. The exact reason for the festival is still unclear to me, but monks and nuns from different monasteries were there to recite some Buddhist texts. The [...]
Tara Ceremony
Today Soma Gompa held the Tara Ceremony, a big puja and teaching by the Rinpoche of Phyang Monastery on Tara, female bodhisattvas in Tibetan Buddhism (White and Green Taras are most worshiped here). Monks from several monasteries were inside the gompa and the locals filled the outside. I’ve been to several of these pujas heavily [...]
Ladakh Prayer Festival: Day 5
The photo above is the gompa’s big prayer wheel. I met the monk at Lamayuru Monastery last year. He spends most of his time in a meditation room (6 years so far) and is the only long-haired and long-bearded monk I’ve seen here. I gave him the pictures I took of him last year, as [...]
Ladakh Prayer Festival: Day 4
Today I was exhausted but managed to make a couple good pictures of people around the festival in the morning, which are included here. Sometimes it’s hard to keep my stamina going. Maybe it’s the altitude, solitude, lack of protein or caffeine or something else. I don’t know, but some days I just want to [...]
Ladakh Prayer Festival: Day 3
Today’s festival included a big chanting march around town at midday, but my photographic interests were indoors as usual here. (I like soft, darker light.) The nuns are finally getting used to me and I’ve made friends with two nuns in their late 40s/early 50s. One has a cleft lip, speaks no English, and is [...]
Ladakh Prayer Festival: Day 2
Tea and lunch for the festival are made on the premises. I spent this morning in the indoor kitchen where the teas (butter and sweet) are made in huge cauldrons and then dispatched out in big kettles to be served to the monks, nuns and attendees. Everyone brings their own cups. The older monks and [...]
Ladakh Prayer Festival: Day 1
About 1,300 Ladakhi Buddhist monks and nuns have gathered here in Leh at Soma Gompa for a five-day prayer festival called Ladakh Monlam Chemo. The monks sit in the main shrine and the nuns occupy a separate space (which is third-rate in comparison). It runs from 8 – 4 and includes breakfast and lunch. I [...]
