TIBET: Culture on the Edge
Phil Borges
Rizzoli New York; 208 pp.; $45
Photographer Phil Borges returns to land he showcased in his book Tibetan Portrait to profile some of the people living in one of the most fragile ecosystems on Earth. The book is filled with hundreds of colorful photos of ordinary Tibetans and the environments they live in, along with stories of how they live their lives.
Seven-year-old Trinley Dolkar, shown here in the Yangpachen Valley, will be starting at a boarding school seven hours away next year. © Phil Borges
After fifteen years away from Tibet, Borges says he was struck by how much the region had changed. During that time, modern infrastructure, as well as a flood of Chinese tourists, have entered the region, offering new economic opportunities but also threatening the traditional herding lifestyle that Tibetans have lived for centuries. New laws require that all Tibetan children attend school, so many are sent to faraway boarding schools and only rarely see their families. In addition, climate change has accelerated, Borges notes, melting the Tibetan glaciers that provide fresh water to people throughout Asia and turning once-fertile land into desert.
Rinch, 19, was on a four-month pilgrimage with four other monks, chanting and meditating twelve hours a day for rain, a good harvest, and tall grass for the animals. © Phil Borges
In the face of all these hardships, Borges observes, Tibetan people remain incredibly devoted to their Buddhist practice.
“The Tibetan Buddhists believe that there is no greater vehicle than compassion and forgiveness to counteract the suffering caused by the self-grasping attitude,” Borges writes. “This attitude is slowly dissolved over lifetimes by the daily cultivation of compassion. Devotion to this daily practice is seen everywhere.”
Beautiful photos!