The Fulfillment of Compassion

 

This is another picture of this lady who is a Buddhist nun whome I met as she was leaving an important ceremony in a Dharamsala in Leh, the capital of Ladakh in the Himalayan hills.

I often enjoy making close-up shots, sometime they allow me to frame an idea more than showing a detail.
Here I wanted to focus on a quarter of the face in order to attempt to distinguish the deepness of what this beautiful old lady had to give, videlicet hapiness, joy and the fulfillment of compassion.

The Little Sunshine of Ladakh

 

This lady is a Buddhist nun, I met her as she was leaving an important ceremony in a Dharamsala in Leh, the capital of Ladakh in the Himalayan hills.
She was among many other women and there was so much of happiness and youth in her.
She wanted to see the pictures I took and she made many jokes about herself and the other nuns and monks who where captured in my camera.
She couldn’t see well so she took her time trying to focus the little screen.
I think that she must be very old even though she still had an amazing energy.
Later it was not easy to leave her, she was really sweet and very touching.

I’ll try to keep this little sunshine in a corner of my mind for the rest of my life.

Thx to my 150 000 viewers…!!!

 

Once again I want to thank you all for your kind comments and mails as 10 000 more viewers saw my photostream.
This morning you are 150 320 Flickr viewers, 49 460 Ipernity viewers and 25 522 visitors at my Worpress photo-blog.

The tradition is to celebrate this uploading a picture with me.
This one was shot by Manish Gupta, mere bhai, in front of a Tibetan temple located in Leh, the capital of Ladakh in the Himalayan hills.
I was showing to this Buddhist nun and to the other lady who came to meet her son that she didn’t see since a long time, a few pictures that I took of them.
It was a happy moment, we shared many things and we almost forgot how cold it was.

Namaste and Thank you all (140 000 views)

 

This evening you are 140 012 Flickr viewers and 47 052 Ipernity viewers, I also had 18 780 visitors on my photo-blog on Worpress.
The tradition of having 10 000 more viewers here allows me to upload a picture of me.
This one was shot a few days ago at Hemis Gompa which is a Buddhist monastery in the Himalayan hills of Ladakh.

Thank you again to all of you for your kind comments and mails.
I really appreciate your support even if I can’t answer you as much as I would like because of the very bad internet connection here in Benaras and the many power cuts that we have to go through during summers.

Namaste all the way from Benaras where monsoon has reached tonight..

Serving the Country

 

Usually it is not allowed to take picture of militaries in duty in India.
However whenever I meet some soldiers they often accept that I make their portrait.
The Indian Army is the world’s second largest army in terms of military personnel, and the largest in terms of active manpower. 
It is a completely voluntary service, the military draft having never been imposed in India. 
The army has rich combat experience in diverse terrains, due to India’s diverse geography, and also has a distinguished history of serving in United Nations peacekeeping operations.
The Army deployed in Ladakh region is covering many operations in order to secure the borders of the country.
I met this soldier at Thiksey Gompa, a Buddist monastery near Leh.

A Ladakhi Schoolboy

 

As I was walking in streets of Leh, the capital of Ladah, I met this schoolboy who was playing with two of his friends.
Even though they were a little shy they accepted that I took a few portraits of them.
They were all happy to see what I did on my camera.
I can’t remember their names.

The Way to Happiness

 

“If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. 
If you want to be happy, practice compassion”. 
(The Dalai Lama)

“To love oneself is to love life. 
It is essential to understand that we make ourselves happy in making others happy”.
(Matthieu Ricard, Happiness / A Guide to Developing Life’s Most Important Skill)

This lady is a Buddhist nun, I met her as she was leaving an important ceremony in a Dharamsala in Leh, the capital of Ladakh.
She was among many other women and there was some much of happiness coming out from her expressions.
There is so much to learn from looking at people, words are not always necessarily.

A Beautiful Soul

I met Chemet Nameyail at Hemis Monastery which is a Tibetan Buddhist monastery (gompa) of the Drukpa Lineage, located in Hemis, Ladakh (within the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir). 
Situated 45 km from Leh, the monastery was established in 1672 by the Ladakhi king Senge Namgyal.

This young man is a monk, when I first saw him he was blowing into a spectacular Rag-Dung trumpet during a ceremony which was taking place in the inner courtyard of the monastery.
The loud engrossing sound has the amalgamation of mystery and produces meditative, imagination and healing power. 

Later we spoke of several things while he took us inside the building in order to visit a few temples and museum.
I did several pictures of him, sometimes it was difficult as he has a very solar personality and he has many expressions, he knew that I wanted him to smile and he gave me many smiles but I selected this portrait where he is very quiet, maybe this is his inner side.
I wish I could have spent more time with him, there was so much of happiness, contentment and felicity around him, I was happy to feel all this.
He might read those words as I gave him the link of this website and I want to thank him again for the time he gave us and to tell him that I am printing and sending him the pictures very soon.

The Memory of Beauty

By chance I went in a little shop nearby the hotel where I was staying in Leh, the capital of Ladakh and I met this young lady who was selling china tea cups.
I don’t drink tea but I selected something, in fact I could have bought everything, she was so lovely, like a Hong Kong movie star with a stunning natural beauty. 
I also took a few pictures of her little son and when she saw the images she was very shy even though I could feel some happiness on her face.
I’ll always keep the memory of her beauty somewhere in a corner of my mind.

The Gift

This man is the keeper of the two-story high image of the seated Buddha, which is the biggest metal statue in Ladakh, that King Deldon Namgyal got constructed in 1655, in the memory of his father.
This place is the castle of the first king of Ladakh and of successive dharmarajas.

When I took this picture he was standing in front of the sacred copper-gilt statue.
We were alone, it was before sunset, an amazing light was coming from a little window, he gifted me with this smile.
A frozen wind was blowing from outside.
I was showing him the portraits on my camera but I am not sure that he could see well.
When I left the temple he followed me and locked the door.