A land lost in prayer

My Photo scholarship 2011 entry

China | Monday, September 5, 2011 | 5 photos

I am an amateur photographer still in college looking to make a career out of capturing the beauty of the world. Over the summer, I was accepted into a study abroad program which involved traveling and backpacking across the Tibetan plateau. I was accompanied by a professor and guide who taught me the culture and practices of Tibetan people from an anthropological perspective. I was most fascinated with dynamic religious zeal that seemed to be ingrained into every Tibetan. I began thinking of the effects that this passion for religion has on Tibet as a whole. While photographing across Tibet, I tried to tell a story of a land that for so long has put religion ahead of all other aspects of life. Because of this, the region is frozen in a time long ago when it was acceptable for religion to dominate a culture and have little side effects on other aspects of the society. In contemporary times, this dedication to religion results in a delayed ability to develop and innovate which are two skills that any maturing country must have. The photographic story begins with an image of a man riding a motorcycle with a dead pig on the back. This was taken in Chengdu, outside of Tibet in China and represents a society with less religion and more drive to develop. Next is a picture of a woman praying outside of a temple in Lhasa. Oftentimes men and women pray for hours on end doing prostrations in front of temples such as this one across the Tibetan plateau. Following this is an image of a woman and her children loading yak feces into a wheelbarrow to use as fuel for a fire. The woman in the next picture just spent 3 months digging for caterpillar fungus in a tent. Finally, the last image questions if the importance of development outweighs the value of pure happiness in a society.