All composed things are like a dream,
a phantom, a drop of dew, a flash of lightning.
That is how to meditate on them,
that is how to observe them.

Diamond Sutra

Chokling Gompa's 8 stupas representing the 8 acts of the Buddha.

Today's sunset over the Khyentse Labrang.
Shot with 3 bracketed shots and processed on Nik's HDR software. I usually use Photomatix but decided to give Niks a try. Works pretty well :)

Father & Son fishermen.

Raining roses at Bajnath Shiva Temple.
Dilgo Khyentse Yangsi conducting a Shiva fire puja.

Evening Colors

Just another person on the streets of Kolkata.

During the course of the Dam Ngak Dzo empowerments, the Dzongsar Shedra was graced by the visit of Sakya Dolma Phodrang Dungse Gyana Vajra Rinpoche and his family.

During their 2 week stay in Bir, Dungse Rinpoche's wife (Dagmo) Sonam Palkyi approached me when she found out that i took photos. She told me that she was planning on coming out with a musical CD and was desperately looking for a photographer to take the album's cover shots. I told her i would more than happy to help her with it, even though i had never taken photos for musical albums. To be frank, i seriously thought we would not be able to do it since we just could not find any free time during the empowerments, which typically lasted from 8 AM to 6 PM.

Anyway on the last day of their visit, i hurriedly took Dagmola to the Khyentse Labrang's Saraswati garden and did a rushed photoshoot that took just over 40 mins. We did it over the lunch break so we would not miss any of the empowerments. Anyway we ended up with some pretty cool shots. Some of them can be seen on my 'Home' and 'Portfolio' pages.

So this is the shot the CD producers ended up using. I think its very appropriate since I took this shot while she was looking up at Khyentse Rinpoche's Saraswati statue. Saraswati is, of course, known to be the Goddess of wisdom, art and music.

Oddiyana and I went for an evening walk to ILU road. As Oddiyana screamed with joy at every paraglider making their last landing of the day, this wolf like dog came and joined us to soak in the last rays of the sun.

A Himalyan walk

Before the craziness of the empowerments started in Spiti during the Pema Lingpa empowerments, Emily, Jamyang and I took a walk up the trail behind the Spiti Gompa to see the Guru Dorji Drolo Stupa that over looks the valley. It was so beautiful, but a different kind of beauty since the whole Spiti valley is above the tree line...it was barren, rocky, windy and dusty kind of beautiful! It must have been over 4500 m above sea level.

Believe it or not the little mud hut by the stupa is someone's retreat hut! Imagine his morning view!