Kyaiktiyo Pagoda (Golden Rock)
Kyaiktiyo (pronounced like Chai-tea-O) Pagoda is the third most sacred site of the “Golden Land” of Burma, after Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon and Mahamuni Temple in Mandalay. According to legend, a hair relic of the Buddha holds this massive boulder in its precarious position. Located in a beautiful jungle forest region in Burma’s southern Mon [...]
Walking Meditation
A number of monks and yogis do walking meditation at Shwedagon Pagoda. It’s extremely slow, deliberate walking in a state of meditation, and sometimes along a specific path and using prayer beads, like the yogi in this photo was doing. Yogis can be male or female, and they are not monastics but are on a [...]
Me & the Shan Women
Here’s a rare picture of me out in the world. These women are from the Pa-O tribe of Burma’s Shan state and had just returned from Bodh Gaya, the place of Buddha’s enlightenment in India. The white sashes symbolize their pilgrimage. The group included several monks and nuns and they were making a tour of [...]
Morning Alms
A familiar sight across Southeast Asia is the early morning alms round of the Buddhist monks. The monks walk door-to-door in the areas around their monasteries asking for their daily sustenance. Traditionally rice is given, and today people also give packaged noodles, juice, money, etc. The monks recite some text before the donors, who are [...]
Wanla Gompa
One of the four branches of Lamayuru monastery, Wanla Monastery dates to the time of Rinchen Zangpo (958-1055) and shares features with Lamayuru’s ancient Sengge-Gang temple and the temples at Alchi, Mangyu and Sumda Chun. All are located in the same general area west of Leh. Wanla gompa is set high on a hill overlooking [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Rishikesh
The last few months in India my health and productivity were waning from exhaustion. By the time I reached Rishikesh I was in very low gear and not engaging with people so much, except for with a few friends I was grateful to have around. Focus was going too… Definitely time to go home and [...]
Hampi
The ruins of the Vijayanagara Empire at Hampi are just spectacular. India at its best. Hampi on Wikipedia Hampi on UNESCO
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 [...]
