August 2006. Most images shot with the 5D.

See through your own eyes and feel with your own heart.

If you enjoy these images or don't enjoy them, please leave a comment as I always like to know what you have to say.

Please vote if you like this gallery. I made a number of friends in Tibet and one reason I have so many willing pictures of people is becuase they wanted other people to see them and where they live.

**Give voice and destiny back to Tibetans**

***2008 A recent correspondence from a Tibetan: From a family member in Tibet:

"Tibetan monks shot to death by Chinese police. And worse yet, from our family sources in Tibet, I heard that the Chinese government has cut off food, water and electrcity of the monasteries. The monks are left to die of starvation. We also heard that many Tibetans including monks and nuns are committing suicide. Its so hard to be at peace of mind when I see innocent people dying every second." name withheld


Summer 2006:


In the summer of 2006 I had the opportunity to speak with a few monks in Tibet. Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, at one time had many monasteries, as did many other areas of Tibet. During and after the occupation of Tibet by China in 1959, many of the monasteries were razed either by shelling from tanks as they went through valleys or by explosive charges set by the Chinese. Tibetan deities were removed from most all monasteries and burned. The Winter Palace in Lhasa was one of the few monasteries spared this insult because Mao wanted it preserved. As a result of this monks tend to be less dispersed than in the past and because of attrition and the general requirement by China that monks be 18 or older before entering the practice and many of the extreme pressures on the monks, their numbers have dropped dramatically. In one of the main monasteries in Lhasa the number of monks had been maintained at approximately 9600 but after the 1959 occupation and control of the populace by Beijing, the number has dropped to 4400 and is falling. As it was put to me, a boy of 12 or 13 might be happy to join the monastery but when his attention starts to be drawn to girls, why would he want to be a monk?

It was in a quiet out of the way area in one of the main monasteries of Lhasa a monk spoke to me. His English was quite good. At one point he transitioned into Mandarin but when I understood little of what he said he spoke again in English. I felt at the time that he was testing me. He expressed that when monks left the monastery to bring back food or supplies they were often stopped. There are checkpoints outside that require them to state where they were going and exactly when they would be back and are normally given only a few hours to complete any tasks they might have. The penalty for violating this imposed time frame were greater scrutiny and surveillance or arrest. He also expressed that while life was difficult with the many constraints placed on them, inner peace and solitude was their salvation and knowing that the path to spiritual awareness is within and is something no one can disrupt if you hold fast to it.

There are monks that spend many hours in the plazas around Lhasa seeking donations, which support the monasteries. This practice has a long history and is part of the interlaced ladder of support within the Tibetan landscape.

When Tibet decided to proceed on a spiritual path, knowing that inner peace and spiritual awareness requires no war with neighbors, the once strong army Tibet had maintained was allowed to languish. Now there is a war of ideologies with that coming from Beijing backed by an army. While it is noble to seek spiritual awareness while being oppressed, how much more fulfilling would this be without the constant oppression of a people and their belief system. Now in 2008 Tibetan people have expressed that the suppression of their belief system over the last 4 to 5 decades must be resolved.

As people in minority communities that I spoke with in China in Hunan and neighboring provinces expressed, the central government has always sought to invalidate their specific needs and desires. There are 56 minority peoples in mainland China that comprise 6 percent of the population. What they have undergone for a few thousand years the Tibetans are seeing now. The main difference is that world news travels much faster now and it is more difficult to smother the truth. I hope that China can learn to live in peace with Tibetans allowing them to practice their belief system. It would seem to show a mature national outlook by the Chinese central government to be secure enough within their own ideology that freedom is not something to fear if what you offer is equality with compassion.




Please help with donations for emergency relief efforts in response to the Tibetan Earthquake of 2010 by donating to Machik: www.machik.org