Taken during the first return visit I made to Tibet, thirty-three years after my parents fled to India. The monks had been waiting since before dawn for word of His Holiness. Light came in from the high windows of the courtyard one at a time as the morning moved on; the robes darkened and then lit again. I remember the silence of the waiting most — hundreds of people breathing together without a word.
This image was later included in my 2009 feature in Elizabeth Avedon’s photography journal and has been printed in two exhibitions. The Kodachrome slide is among the earliest in my archive from the Tibetan homeland, and remains one of the images I return to most often.
© Sonam Zoksang. All rights reserved. For editorial, scholarly, or exhibition inquiries, see Inquiries.