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Twins of an era
Twins of an era Ed van der Elsken (1925-1990) was a street photographer. Wherever he was, in Amsterdam, Paris or Tokyo, he roamed the streets with his camera for days on end and took pictures of … people. Looking at his pictures at an exhibition of his work in 2017, the atmosphere of the 50s,…
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Gyantse Kumbum
Gyantse Kumbum The biggest and best preserved pyramidal multi-chapel monument of the kind in Tibet. It has more than 70 – dark – chapels inside, almost all decorated with murals and statues. We can look at the kumbum as a three-dimensional mandala: when you project the whole building on its ground-plan, it represents a visual…
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Gyantse Dzong
Gyantse Dzong The castle (dzong) of Gyantse of which the oldest parts date back to the 14th century, is towering above the city on the high clifs of the mountain. At the time Newari artists came from Nepal for carrying out the decoration of the buildings inside the fortress with murals that would influence later…
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The Tibetan plateau
The Tibetan plateau Lying north of the Himalayas, the Tibetan plateau has an average altitude of 4000 m. It is mostly dry and bare. Hardly any of the monsoon rains from India and Nepal manage to cross the barrier of the high Himalayan mountain ranges. So the average yearly rainfall in Tibet is only about…
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Pilgrims’ attraction
Pilgrims’ attraction During the three-day festival in July, when the giant thangka is displayed at Tashilhunpo Monastery, pilgrims come from far and wide. They climb the steps to the foot of the thangka wall, walk past it and descend again on the other side. To get a good view of the images on the thangka,…
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Tashilhunpo Thanka
Tashilhunpo Thanka Tashilhunpo in Shigatse is the largest monastery in Tibet and the seat of the Panchen Lamas. The complex comprises various monuments with golden roofs and a large number of chapels filled with statues and adorned with murals, thangkas and other treasures. For 362 days a year, this monastic town does not look exactly…
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Shekar Monastery
Shekar Monastery It may be in the middle of nowhere, but like most of the erstwhile 1000 monasteries in Tibet, this one too could not escape the destructive fury of the Cultural Revolution. Partly rebuilt, it has again become a centre of study and worship, nourished by the “White Crystal” (Shekar) inside. Photo of the…
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Timeless Tibet
Timeless Tibet A child coming down the village road. It could be 200 years ago but then Daguerre’s invention wasn’t there yet to deliver proof. It could be today from a smartphone sent instantly to your screen. It was, in fact, June 1996 captured by my camera on Kodak film. Photo of the week: Shekar,…
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Foot Bath Temple
Foot Bath Temple Robert James Waller and his ode to the beauty of Indian women: Orange saris and green saris, red and blue, and gold adorning their bodies, bracelets on their arms and combs in their hair. The women were graceful and seemed almost to float above the ground. Even as they wade through the…
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Worn down worshippers
Worn down worshippers Thousands, if not millions of feet must have stepped on the threshold of this place of worship, wearing down bit by bit the reliefs of worshippers sculpted on its surface. Touching signs of the passage of time. Photo of the week: Entrance of Vitthala temple complex, Hampi, Karnataka, India 2014
καιρός remembered
… the right moment, position chosen, shoot …
καιρός remembered 