July 2025: To coincide with the 90th birthday of the Dalai Lama we're showing our photographic journey through Tibet, Bhutan, Nepal, Ladakh & Zanskar.
TIBET.
Probably the most famous Buddhist in the world is the Dalai Lama of Tibet. In fact Buddhism arrived late in Tibet, not until about a thousand years after the Buddha's death. In the eighth century King Trisong Detsen invited a scholarly Buddhist monk from India called Santarakshita to come to Tibet and establish a monastery at Samye.
The legends tell us that the rough people of Tibet and the hostility of the environment obstructed the construction of the monastery. Santarakshita advised the king he needed somebody else to achieve this, someone with greater powers than he, someone who could transform the barbarian Tibetans and the forces of nature.
He advised the king to call for Padmasambhava. Padmasambhava was a historic figure and is greatly revered throughout the Buddhist Himalaya; he is associated with the energy of transformation and the accounts of his life exist in both historical and mythical terms. His life is the stuff of legend; to some practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism he is the second Buddha.
Detail of a rupa or statue of Padmasambhava at Chemre monastery in Ladakh.
Not only was Padmasambhava exceptionally learned in the Buddha's teachings, he is associated with magical powers and the ability to connect not just with logical thought but with the deep psychic energy in people. It is these deeper energies that were required to establish Buddhism in Tibet. It is also these deep psychic forces that we need to transform for the Buddha's teachings to become an effective practice in the modern world in these times of great chaos and destruction.
Samye monastery still exists even though it has been destroyed and rebuilt many times; destroyed by Civil War, earthquake, several times by fire and in recent times during the Chinese cultural revolution of the 1960s.
Samye monastery, 2014
See these images and many more in our Photographs Collection.
Prior to Buddhism there was a pre-existing spiritual practice in Tibet called Bon, a shamanist, animist practice involving the forces of nature. Even today, travelling in Tibet and the Himalayas the forces of nature are very much alive. Intense heat and cold, powerful storms, terrible snow, landslides & earthquakes are a constant reminder of the power of these forces.
The land, and the elements of sky and weather, do seem to be alive with deep primitive and often terrifying energies. At night water freezes in cracks in the rocks and melts with the morning sun. The rocks seem to groan and rumble with movement; it's easy to feel that the forces of nature can be malevolent forces that need to be respected and appeased.
The main Buddhist teaching is that all things are impermanent, indeed that there are no absolute things, there is simply change. Padmasambhava advised the King that the Buddhist teachings would not last for more than 150 years in his country - and this came to happen. In central Tibet, the priests of the Bon religion reasserted themselves and many Buddhist monasteries were destroyed. Far away, in the far west of Tibet, in the kingdom of Guge, things were slightly different.
In 2014 we returned to Samye but our main journey was to Guge, where, in the 11th century, there was a revival of Buddhism, a second spreading that extended into Ladakh in India. That journey took us past Mt Kailash and we returned there to the join the pilgrimage around the mountain - the holiest mountain in Tibet and a place of pilgrimage for all Tibetans who can make the journey.
Mt Kailash in cloud
The Landscape of Western Tibet, distant mountains on the border with Ladakh, India
The citadel of Tsaparang, the Red & White Temples, and on the summit the King's Palace.
LADAKH & ZANSKAR.Some of the oldest monasteries in Ladakh have their origins in the great spread of teachings and monastery building that came out of 11th century Guge. It is suggested that almost a thousand years earlier some Buddhist emmisaries of the 3rd century BCE Indian KIng Ashoka may have visited Ladakh.
Lamayuru monastery in Ladakh, exterior & interior
Karsha monastery is in Zanskar on the southern edge of Ladakh. Some claims are that the oldest parts of the monastery complex come from the time of Padmasambhava, others from the 11th century. The building as we see it now is attributed to the 16th century.
To get to Ladakh and Zanskar you fly north from Delhi over the Greater Himalaya. Ladakh and Zanskar are defined as high altitude cold deserts. Summer is short, rainfall is minimal and winters are very cold with deep snow. The characteristic flat roofs are made from compressed mud and straw. When it snows people climb on the roof and shovel off the snow. One of our friends is now a teacher in a remote valley, they were still having snow in May.
This map helps you to how all these places fit together.
MUSTANG, NEPAL.
About 12 years ago we trekked through Upper Mustang to the old wall town of Lo Montang in Nepal. As you see on the map it's on the border with Tibet and has Tibetan culture. It's about 1000metres lower than Ladakh but the landscape is equally dramatic with colourful ochre & red rocks.
Stupas and white horse at Ghar monastery, said to have been built by Padmasambhava
Young monk at Luri gompa, Mustang
There are thousands of ancient Buddhist meditation caves in the soft rock of Upper Mustang; they date from the 12th century and many are beautifully decorated with exquisite images of Buddhas & Bodhisattvas.
12th century Avalokiteshvara painting, cave near Luri monastery, Upper Mustang. The pigments are the colours of the local rock.
BHUTAN.
Padmasambhava is also associated with Bhutan. In fact he is said to have flown to Tiger's Nest monastery on the back of a she-lion. Tiger's Nest is an extraordinary monastery in an improbable location, said to be a built around a cave where Padmasambhava meditated. Bhutan is full of extraordinary monasteries of exquisite beauty. The size, number and quality of the Buddhist statues and frescoes surpasses anything I've seen.
The landscape too is a delight; forested unlike the other locations and with beautiful panoramas of rice fields and ridges topped with the elegant vertical prayer flags placed so the wind carries the Buddhist prayers to the corners of the world. May all beings be happy.
Takstang Gompa, Tiger's Nest, Bhutan, 2024
