A New Show of Photographs Unravels the World Inside a Buddhist Monastery in a Small Uttara Kannada Town, Says Jaideepsen

Buddhafest A new show of photographs unravels the world inside a Buddhist monastery in a small Uttara Kannada town, says JaideepSen. I n 1985. when Nicholas Vreeland was Did you take care to almost divest Woutdn't you say you were rather I sr, tn"'arodhist scholar Khyongla Rato these imafes, and the show, of any youngto have taken tothe Buddhist I Rinpoche advised him to move to Uttara form of pronounced prophesying? way of life in your mid-2Os? Kannada andjoin an order of monks. At I try not to get involved in any advocacy. ln 1979, I came to lndia with a view the time, Vreeland, having spent much of I simplytake pictures. I compose, camera [a Deardorff 5x7], hopingto do a his twenties in cities across Europe, had choosing a particular framing of what's series of portraits of holy men. I went up settled in New York to study Buddhism before me. Of course, I must choose to Dharamsala and found myself being with the Rinpoche. For over 25 years since, whatto photograph, whatto puta frame sent from one lama to another. I was the Vreeland has lived in the Rato Dratsang around. There is no right orwrong, it's a technician, the camera operator. I had to monastery in Mundgod, a smalltown in very personal thing. position the camera and set the correct Karnataka (dividing his time between here I try to remain open to what attracts exposure. lvisited Haridwar, Rishikesh and and The Tibet Centre in New York). or interests me, and tryto honour Amritsar as well, but found few people who An interest in photography, which led him whatever it ls that I aim my camera at. wished to be photographed. as a teenagerto work with the likes of lrving My composition -the structure of the Penn and Richard Avedon as an assistant, information within the frame - should be What was it about Mundgod that kept remained latentthrough most of histime at in harmonywith the subject matter, and you here al! these years? Mundgod - until a visit to Tibet in 2003. A should thereby suppott it. Of course, I bring I became a member of Rato because it was chance encounter with the Dalai Lama then my own sensitivities to the process, and the monastery that my teacher was from. led to a handful of portraits that Vreeland they are influenced by all the aspects of I began myformal studies of Buddhist soon came to be known for; he also edited who I am. But I don't do so consciously. philosophy at Rato, and continue to spend the religious leader's bookAn Open Heart l' m just taking pictures. as much time as I can here. Rato was very in 2001, and has, overthe lastfewyears, isolated atfirst. The monastery didn't have played a pivotal role in organisingthe Dalai It took you over 13 years to become a vehicle. A bus came through the Tibetan Lama'svisitstothe US. one amonElthe very few westerners settlement once ortwice a day, taking The collection of images that accorded the Ser fri Geshe DeEiree. us eitherto the town of Mundgod half an comprise Photos forRato, a new What exactly does it take to be hour away, or to our big city of H ubli, two exhibition atTasveer, took shape out bestowed with this honour? hours away. With internet connections and of a need for funds to construct a larger Each monastic university has a private vehicles, evefihing has changed. monastery, to house its growing community particular degree that it confers on a of monks. ln an email interview, Vreeland monk who has completed his formal How did the camera serve as a spoke about that fortuitous visit to Tibet, term of studies, of such aspects device of choice for you to keep, and and also about how he tended to see of Buddhism as philosophy, logic, photoglraph environs as austere as that things slightly differently from some of phenomenology, and monastic ethics. The of a monastery? the Rinpoche's other, more well-known Ser Tri Geshe Degree is conferred by Rato My greatest concern was that photography disciples, like Richard Gere. and the Ganden Shartse monasteries. would take up mytime and keep me from I photographs partly leading a simple monastic life. I first went atmosphere and energyto a photograph. for so long. I took to I journey, to the monastery without a camera, as all When you are photographing within your document the but also to simply of mine had been stolen from mY home own environment, you are trying to have create photographs alongthe waY. in New York, five years earlier. However, people relax and be themselves. ln the my brother felt it was essential that I own case of myfellow monks, we trust each What was it about Richard Gere's you a camera, and on my first visit back to other, and out ofthattrust have come photoglraphs that once said was America he gave me one. some direct and honest portraits. different from the way you would My fellow monks love it when I take the compose a picture? camera out of my trunk and photograph fhe world offashion photography' as When lookingforthe position from which place them. Tibetans would be happyto have you once witnessed itr has chan$ed to take my picture, I tend to look for a their lives documented, though l've never drastically since the time that you'd directly in front of my subject. I like to really done that. lugaround a view camera. photograph straight ahead. Richard tends I don't believe my photographs are to photograph from an angle. That's the You initially chose to focus more on intrusive orvoyeuristic. Whether lam using place where the image comes togetherfor the surroundings, and landscapes. a large wooden view camera on a tripod him. He's a fine photographer. I can't do Was it trying not to have People as ora discrete 35mm camera, ltryto be a what he does. subjects, especially after you'd spent participant in a relationship that hopefully time with lrvin$ Penn? reveals something relevant. How much of a success have the shows in providangl for the building Martine Franck [the Belgian photographer, I don't believe in stealing images. been, and second wife of Henri Cartier-Bressonl Working in a studio and using a large efforts at the monastery? pushed me to take pictures more seriously, format view camera helped me develop The exhibition was designed to be a grown from by doing my photographic "scales". I began the ability to respect and pafticipate in the fundraiser. The monastery has ljoined Rato bytaking a few photographs in my room situation I am photographing. But this is my the 12 monks we were when in 1985. We needed to build each day. I took pictures out my window, way of photographing, quite different from Dratsang each person who came into mY room, mY a photojournalist. For me, photography a new campus, and forthis we needed As I'm notverygood atasking desk, my bed. is more like poetry. The poet makes resources. people give money, it has been far It took some time before I felt confident no attemptto remove himself from the to to go out of my room and onto the situation he writes about. He composes easierto offer my photographs for sale. lf thankful for verandah. I had no desire to document knowing full wellthat it is his feeling for someone likes them, we are happy, and monastic life. I simplywished to take my a situation that enables him to convey their suppoft. Hopefully, they're little pictures - photographic sketches, you its essence. the monastery is helPed. mightsay. I'm nottellinga story, l'm not And if the exhibition makes People tryingto convey information to the world. At what point did you first realise that aware of another world that exists in I'm simply making a picture. you'd come upon a rare opportunity for Karnataka, where Tibetan monks are the photographer in you? working to preserve an extraordinary Howwould you comparethe monksas Accompanying Khyongla Rinpoche to his tradition, how wonderful! subjects, to say, fashion models? birthplace Iin Dagyab, Eastern Tibet, in The exhibitions we have held around the I never did much fashion photography 20031 was an extraordinary opportunity world have enabled us to complete the mY construction of the monastery. Though myself , though I assisted two of the to see where he came from. ManY of greatest fashion photographers of ou r fellow monks at Rato come from the same we were given the funds to build a temple, we not have money for the rest of the time IPenn and Avedon]. A model is province of Dagyab. For me, ourjourney did provided a professional and knows howto be was a pilgrimage. Rinpoche was returning campus. Most of that has been by photographed. Great models inspire to where he came from, and I was being the sale of photographs. a photographer, giving a particular introduced to a place I had heard about See Exhibitions in Art. $ru' { a.

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