Arrival of the Ministers – Along the right bank of the Kyichu (Kyi River) were several lingka (gardens or parks) with willow and poplar shade trees. The most beautiful were the Tsermalingka and Shugtrilingka. There were no fences or visible partitions between the...
The Game of Sho – Sho is a Tibetan game in which players throw dice to determine moves marked by a path of shells. Tibetans gamble with astounding enthusiasm, and they love to play sho at parties and picnics, on the streets and in the marketplace. We were invited to...
The Monk Dance – The Tibetan lunar year drew to a close with the Tse Gutor, am important performance of Tantric dances which purged the sins and obstacles of the past year. The ceremonies took place in the Deyang Shar, the great eastern courtyard of the Potala, on the...
The Western Gate – This immense gate was the only entrance to Lhasa when approached by the caravan route from the west. After nearly two years in flight from India—flight from a world at war—Peter Aufschnaiter and I entered the city through this gate. We had read that...
The Horn at Chagpori – A monk stands on the flat roof of Chagpori, one of the oldest traditional Tibetan Buddhist medical and astrology schools, and one of the most prominent landmarks in the Lhasa Valley. Many renowned Tibetan astrologers and doctors, including the...
Ngari Rinpoche – This is Tendzin Choegyal, the youngest brother of the Dalai Lama, at the age of three. Later he was recognized as Ngari Rinpoche, an incarnation of the spiritual leader of several monasteries in Ngari, a large region in western Tibet. Three days after...
The Largest Thangka – During the second month of the Tibetan lunar calendar, monks from Drepung, Sera, Ganden and neighboring monasteries came to Lhasa for the spectacular Serbang procession. When the "Golden Procession" arrived at the steps of the Potala, the blast...
The Dalai Lama's Flight, 1951 – The wind springs up early across the treeless, almost lifeless, Tibetan plateau. By midday it sweeps with gale force, carrying sand or snow, stinging and cutting travelers' faces. What light there is casts a bleak twilight pall over the...
Khampa Warriors – These Khampa warriors are from the toughest tribe in all Tibet. Khampas come from the mountainous, heavily forested Kham province in eastern Tibet. They are renowned for their bravery, marksmanship, horsemanship and fierce sense of independence....
The Holy Relics – This is the last picture of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama taken in free Tibet. The year was 1951, and the Chinese communist army had already invaded eastern Tibet and was threatening to advance on Lhasa. His Holiness was at Dungkar Gonpa (Dungkar...
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