In a mountainous region in northern Kham, Eastern Tibet, monks of Talok monastery practice Cham dances that are performed during the annual summer festival. In the Cham dances spectators see either the reenactment of sacred historical events or the continual transformation of volatile psychic forces. In Tantric Buddhism these shadow energies are not suppressed or rejected but turned to the service of wisdom and compassion. Kham, Eastern Tibet

2007, Santa Fe, New Mexico, www:VerveFineArts.com Native Graces. A retrospective photographic exhibition 40 pigment prints.

On 100% archival Mueso silver rag paper. Printed at Santa Fe Editions, Santa Fe, New Mexico/ Gary Mankus.
14X20 inch image size on 17X22 inch paper size
20X30 inch image size on 24X 36 inch paper size

Or, on Kodak professional matt paper with 100 year archival quality made on Noritsu LPS 24 pro Japanese Kodak printer in Kathmandu, Nepal
16X20 inch paper size
20X30 inch paper size

(Shipping of the prints are done in a PVC tube)

Please contact tkelly@photo.wlink.com.np for Price inquiry and further information.

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Thomas Kelly > Pagalinanda demonstrates the Naga practice of ‘penis yoga’ in his den
near the cremation grounds of Pashupatinath. This practice is based on the
complete transcendence of sexual impulses, and involves a preliminary period
of self-imposed celibacy for nine years. After this, the yogi is truly initiated
during a ritual in which certain nerves of the penis are broken, thus enabling
him to “lift” rocks weighting over one hundred pounds. However, the initiation
ceremony for this practice makes it highly unlikely he well ever have another
erection.

Pashupatinath, Kathmandu, Nepal

Thomas Kelly > Forehead designs, called tilakas, show a sadhu's religious and sectarian
affiliations and range from a simple daub of color to complex designs
involving the entire face. The application of a tilaka is usually done at the
start of each day after bathing as a way to sanctify the body and prepare it to receive the divine. Pashupatinath, Nepal.

Thomas Kelly > Traditional Hindu religious texts limit the role of a sadhu or sannyasi to the
highest caste--Brahmins-- only after proscribed stages of scholarship, family
life, and contemplative life. Many non-Brahmins take up the life of a sadhu
and many do not wait to the end of their lives. These young boys perhaps chose
the life of a sadhu over that of a lower caste member of society, or a family
tragedy may have forced them into this role. Regardless, they are better provided for and have more opportunity than many of the poor and homeless in South Asia.

Pashupatinath, Kathmandu, Nepal

Thomas Kelly > A solitary nun circumambulates Mount Kailas, revered by Tibetans as the
axis of the world. The ancient practice of parikrama, or kora, is less one of
defining a perimeter than one of dissolving all sense of boundary. Connecting
to the holy site through intimate circumambulations, kora draws one ever
inward toward a sacred center. While Buddhists circumambulate clockwise, followers of Bon-Tibet’s indigenous religious tradition-circle counterclockwise. When asked why, a Bonpo pilgrim replied, “I’m not following the Buddha, I’m going to meet him.”

Mount Kailas, Western Tibet

Thomas Kelly > In a mountainous region in northern Kham, Eastern Tibet, monks of Talok monastery practice Cham dances that are performed during the annual
summer festival. In the Cham dances spectators see either the reenactment
of sacred historical events or the continual transformation of volatile psychic
forces. In Tantric Buddhism these shadow energies are not suppressed or
rejected but turned to the service of wisdom and compassion.

Kham, Eastern Tibet

Thomas Kelly > At the Paiyul summer festival in eastern Tibet, Khampa horsemen charge
down the field at full gallop. “A wise man and a swift horse make themselves
famous when they are displayed outside; a woman and a antique turquoise
are honored when hidden at home.” -Ancient Tibetan proverb

Paiyul, Eastern Tibet

Thomas Kelly > Dolma blows on dried yak manure cakes to heat up
Tibetan salt-butter tea.

Chang Tang Plateau, Central Tibet

Thomas Kelly > Yogi.Chodpa. Derge Vajrayana is the tantric mahasiddha, who lives fearlessly in terrifying places like remote jungles and charnel grounds. Perched on a cliff, a Yogi chodpa practitioner, blows a thigh-bone trumpet scavenged from the funeral grounds, invoking spirits to dismember her body and sever all notions of self-cherishing. Performed in wild and haunted places, the practice of Chod liberates the yogin from cyclic existence by vanquishing the fear that stems from identification with the ego and the physical body. By summoning what is most dreaded and openly offering that to which we are most attached, new levels of awareness open within ourselves and others.

As Lama Nima says: Ò Chod reveals the intrinsic purity of all phenomena and emptiness. Just as fear magnifies its objects, so too does fearlessness bring confidence and joyÉ In Tantra there is nothing to renounce, rather we must relate to all things openly and directlyÉStriving for enlightenment, we should be like an eagle soaring off a high cliff attached to nothing, leaving nothing behind.Ó

Thomas Kelly > Wedding preparations inside the dharamsala (public resthouse used as
the bride’s ceremonial hall). Great concentration is needed for the task
of plaiting 108 wedding ceremony braids. Female wedding attendants
use straw for brushes to apply oil to the hair. Many of these Limi girls
will never have the chance to marry in this polyandrous society. Many
will bear children out of wedlock.

Humla, Nepal

Thomas Kelly > Like an actress caught off –stage, a wedding guest sips Tibetan salt-butter
tea from a hand-carved wooden tea cup. Smudges of butter, acting as a
blessing, adorn the tea cup . Light from the roof cutout cascades into the
smoky dharamsala. Curling incense dances among the shadows of the finely
dressed guests .

Limi, Humla, Nepal

Thomas Kelly > Sarasoti, an exhausted but proud Nepalese Chhetrini, pauses from pounding
grains. In addition to cowry shell and beaded necklaces collected while on
trading trips in India, silver coins from British-ruled India, fashioned by kamis,
the blacksmith caste of Humla, adorn her chest.

Humla. Nepal

Thomas Kelly > A masked performer leaps in the air at Mani, springtime festival. Man is no more than the temporary dwelling place of a divine presence to whom he lends his body
so that the god might repeat his wonders. The performer does not actually become the god he portrays, but rather the god’s instrument for good and evil. For the Humla villagers, the masked dancers frighten away the negative spirits.

Humla, Nepal

Thomas Kelly > Bhotia children delight in spring’s gift,
fragrant peach blossoms.

Bargaau, Humla, Nepal

Thomas Kelly > Tibetan greeting and farewell: exchanging energies with
the touch of the head, master, with open hands, receives his
disciple, who holds his hands in a gesture of offering.

Humla. Nepal

Thomas Kelly > From the 12th to the 17th century, the cult of the “Buddha of Fixed Light,”
Dipankara Buddha, achieved great popularity. Born on an island (dvipa)
to a miraculous display of lamps (dipa), Dipankara Buddha was one of the
many predecessors of Gautama Buddha. In fact, it was he who foretold
Gautama’s coming. Every three years in Patan, Dipankara Buddha’s
are taken out of their shrines, paraded through the streets while devotees
gather to worship and make offerings .

Patan, Nepal

In a mountainous region in northern Kham, Eastern Tibet, monks of Talok monastery practice Cham dances that are performed during the annual
summer festival. In the Cham dances spectators see either the reenactment
of sacred historical events or the continual transformation of volatile psychic
forces. In Tantric Buddhism these shadow energies are not suppressed or
rejected but turned to the service of wisdom and compassion.

Kham, Eastern Tibet