Bir Tibetan Settlement, India
Here’s a photograph from a series I took during a religious
ceremony at the Tibetan monastery in Bir. There was a large open
courtyard in the center of the monastery. This ceremony involves a
performance by ritual dancers (monks) who are guided by the
sounds and music played live by the monks. The picture above is a
moment captured behind the scenes before things would start. In
old Tibet, this event was a secret practice not open to the general
public. Things have changed since coming to India
I worked for the Department of Information and International
Relations in Dharamsala, Central Tibetan Secretariat, as a
volunteer, and I think had only been in India a month. My section
chief, Lobsang Tsultrim Jeshong, known as “Uncle”, had been
requested by the monastery to video tape the ceremony. So
Lobsang invited me to join and take photographs. Kelsam Namgyal,
or ‘Kenam’ was the other person in our visual section came to.
Once again, this shows the monks in the temple getting dressed
and ready before the performance. I was surprised later when the
actual performance began outside. People lined the perimeter
above and below surrounding the dancers. In the middle of it all, in
the very center were the three of us shooting film and photos. It
was beyond what I was prepared for. I felt physically and mentally,
the center of a mandala.
CYBEReTOWER™ LLC. All text and photographs above are copyrighted by the artist, David F
Shever, all rights reserved.
