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1994 ~ Tibet

7:47 PM PDT on March 11, 2009

The Barkhor ~ Lhasa ~ Tibet

These photographs were taken in Tibet, 1994. Two good books about Tibet are In Exile from the Land of Snows: John F. Avedon, and The Open Road: Pico Iyer.

Rebuilding Ganden Monastery.

When the pillaging was done, dynamite was placed in the gutted buildings and their walls blown up. Field artillery was also used, so that within a three-year period the entire landscape of Tibet stood scarred by ruins resembling bombed cities. Because the buildings' walls were so thick, virtually none, not even Ganden- slated for total obliteration as the Gelugpa sect's most sacred monastery- could be completely razed, but stood as ghostly ever-present reminders of what had been. The desctruction of Tibet's monasteries came as a collective shock that all but the youngest Tibetans found incomprehensible. Whatever personal tragedy Tibetans had experienced paled in the face of what now seemed to be the end of civilization as they knew it. - "In Exile From The Land of Snows"

Herding goats with a sling.

Terdrum. Once visited by Padmasambhava who brought forth a healing hot springs with his lightning bolt.

Chushi Gangdruk

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