For those of you familiar with Phil Borges various photographic projects, you will know him to have an uncanny ability to capture portraits that linger with the viewer. His subjects meet us eye-to-eye and provide a glimpse of cultures and peoples many North Americans will never have first hand experiences with. By pairing these striking portraits with personal stories Borges brings them that much closer to us, helping to build awareness of cultures on the edge of extinction.
In TIBET: Culture on the Edge, Borges brings the same sensitivity and feeling not only to his first colour portraits but also to the Tibetan landscape. While some of the panoramic works in the series are peopled, the focus lies on a terrain that is rapidly changing. Through Borges sensitive images we encounter a country that is beautiful, rich in culture and at dire risk of disappearing.
Nomad Camp on Yellow River
Thankor Grasslands, 11,100 feet
Sichuan Province
19.5 x 38.5 inches framed (12 x 32 inch image)
Tibetan nomads have lived for centuries in wide open spaces like this camp on the Thankor grasslands near the Yellow River. Unfortunately, because of the changing climate hundreds of thousands of nomads are being moved into resettlement camps.
The Tibetan Plateau is heating up twice as fast as the world average. As a consequence tens of thousands of acres of grasslands like this are turning desert and hundreds of lakes are drying up.
Desertification
19.5 x 38.5 inches framed (12 x 32 inch image)
The Tibetan Plateau is heating up twice as fast as the world average. As a consequence tens of thousands of acres of grasslands like this are turning desert and hundreds of lakes are drying up.
Chiu Monastery
Lake Manasarovar, 15,000 feet
Ngari Prefecture (TAR)
19.5 x 38.5 inches framed (12 x 32 inch image)
These mani walls and stupas at the Chiu Monastery sit between Lake Manasarovar and Mount Kailash and are the starting point for the kora around the lake. Thousands of religious pilgrims from all over Asia make what is often a once-in-a-lifetime journehy to circumambulate both the lake and the mountain. Drinking the lake’s water and especially bathing in it is believed to cleanse the “five poisons” in people’s spirit – greed, anger, silliness, idleness, and envy.
Princess Wencheng Kora
19.5 x 38.5 inches framed (12 x 32 inch image)
Although this monk is walking the magnificient Kora (path around the Princess Wencheng Temple,) I saw many pilgrims prostrating over the entire two mile path. The princess was a niece of the emperor of China’s Tang Dynasty. She left in 640 for Tibet to marry the thirty-third kind of Tibet in a marriage of state as part of a peace treaty with China. Princess Wencheng, who was a Buddhist was instrumental in bringing Buddhism to Tibet. She was said to have spent a month here on her long journey from China to Lhasa.
Stupas near Samye monastery on the flooded Yarlung River
11,900 feet
Shannan Prefecture (TAR)
19.5 x 38.5 inches framed (12 x 32 inch image)
Built in 700 AD, Samye was Tibet’s very first monastery and the place where Buddhism was established in Tibet. Padmasambhava, who is credited with bringing Buddhism to Tibet, is said to have preformed a ritual dance on the grounds of Samye that appeased the local mountain god spirits and allowed the monastery to be built. Thus began the replacement of Bonpo, Tibet’s animistic (nature worship) pre-Buddhist religion.
Chimpu Retreat Caves
Near Samye Monastery, 14,400 feet
Shannan Prefecture (TAR)
19.5 x 38.5 inches framed (12 x 32 inch image)
A nun on a 700-mile pilgrimage from Sichuan Province carried her supply of tsampa (barley flour) up to her cave where she plans to spend the next year meditating. I was told grains and beans are appreciated as gifts for the meditators to add a bit of excitement to their routine meal of tsampa. There are 108 meditation caves in this U-shaped valley that forms the Chimpu cave complex. It is said that Padmasambhava (the monk from India who brought Buddhism to Tibet) came here in 700 AD to initiate his disciples.
Stupas and prayer flags near Yushu
Qinghai Province
19.5 x 38.5 inches framed (12 x 32 inch image)
Stupas, or chortens, were originally created as burial mounds. Although burial stupas are still reserved for high lamas, most stupas just contain sacred relics and text. Since the stupa is a symbol of the enlightened, or Buddha Mind, the person who contributes to the construction of one, who sacrifices something of his time or wealth, is generously giving to others. Building a stupa, or contributing in any way toward one, is considered an integral part of the spiritual life. Consequently stupas are seen everywhere in Tibet.
For pricing and availability of these and other works by Phil Borges please contact us at or .
Additional information on Tibet and ways that you can help is included on the websites listed below. Proceeds from our October 20th Artist Lecture with Phil Borges along with 10% of all photographs sold at the event will go towards the Tibetan Nuns Project.
Canada Tibet Committee http://www.tibet.ca/
Tibetan Nuns Project www.tnp.org
The Bridge Fund
Tibet Healing Fund
Tibet Fund www.tibetfund.org
Tibet Aid www.tibetaid.org
Shem Women’s Group
Related Items
- TIBET: Culture on the Edge, online exhibit
- Video preview of Phil Borges’ new book TIBET: Culture on the Edge
- Phil Borges on Studio 4 with Fanny Kiefer
- Books by Phil Borges
- Phil Borges’ Exhibitions
