It's been eight years now that I've been photographing the community and culture of the 300-or-so Tibetans who live in the Seattle area. It is a photographic project for which I can't imagine an "end point."
I feel as if I'm in a dream, walking around with my camera in an ancient and amazing, treasure-filled palace. Each door I open in the palace leads to a discovery, something beautiful or new to me, and almost always surprising.
I learned recently that one of my Lama friends at the Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Seattle has taken up painting. My friend, Tulku Yeshe Rinpoche, is already a respected poet and writer and I have read the English translations of a number of his books. His creativity is boundless.
Tulku la's paintings seem, to my eye at least, far beyond what one would expect from a "beginner." He allowed me to photograph him as he worked on a painting of the Potala Palace, for 300 years the home of the Dalai Lamas in Lhasa, Tibet. The current Dalai Lama fled Lhasa in 1959 and lives in exile in India. The Potala palace is now a museum and a World Heritage Site.
As I consider the photographs I'm posting today, I wonder whether Tulku la has the same dream that I have? ... that he, too is walking around in an incredible palace, full of neverending discoveries.
