Monks distributing offering blessed by the Dalai Lama at Kalachakra Initiation, Tabo Monastery, Spiti. Photographer: Sutherland, Patrick
Scope & Content:
'Monks distributing offerings that have been blessed by the Dalai Lama at the 1996 Kalachakra Initiation at Tabo Monastery. The first monk is filling palms with sweets, raisins, nuts and broken biscuits, the second monk is playfully controlling the overzealous throng with thwacks from a stick' (...
Monk at the Kalachakra Initiation, Tabo Monastery, Spiti. Photographer: Sutherland, Patrick
Scope & Content:
Genre: Portrait Photography 'A monk at the Kalachakra Initiation performed by the Dalai Lama at Tabo Monastery in 1996, marking its thousandth anniversary. Tabo is one of the oldest Mahayana Buddhist monasteries still in active use' (Patrick Sutherland).
Public Works Department lorry ferrying monks to the Kunzum La, to bid farewell to the Dalai Lama. Photographer: Sutherland, Patrick
Scope & Content:
'A public works department lorry ferries monks to the Kunzum La, the mountain pass at the head of Spiti, where the Dalai Lama is presiding over an incense burning ceremony to mark his departure from the valley' (Patrick Sutherland).
Incense burning ceremony for the Dalai Lama on the Kunzum La, Spiti. Photographer: Sutherland, Patrick
Scope & Content:
'A mile above the shrine on the Kunzum La, the pass at the upper end of Spiti, the Dalai Lama and an entourage of monks perform an incense burning ceremony. Below the tent villagers tend bonfires of aromatic dwarf juniper gathered from the surrounding hillsides and wait to sing and perform folk ...
Monks at Key Monastery, Spiti, rehearsing for the annual cham or masked dance festival. Photographer: Sutherland, Patrick
Scope & Content:
'Monks at Key Monastery rehearsing for the annual cham or masked dance festival, an elaborate two-day rite of purification. Monks dressed in ancient brocade costumes and huge, often grotesque, wooden or papier maché masks enact events from the history of Tibetan Buddhism as well as the stages of...
Masked monks circumambulating Key Monastery, Spiti, at the end of the cham festival. Photographer: Sutherland, Patrick
Scope & Content:
'Masked monks circumambulating Key Monastery at the end of the cham, the annual monastic dance festival. The gods have come down to earth and villagers lie prostrate hoping to come under the protective power of the deities stepping over them' (Patrick Sutherland).
Three monks from Key monastery, Spiti, walking towards a roadside shrine at Rongtong, where they will perform a small religious ceremony. Photographer: Sutherland, Patrick