Adventures with Evan Part I.

Today, Evan and I went on an adventure. I like to think that I'm Finn, and he's Jake. If you get that reference, you're awesome. It was definitely more adventurous than going out to shoot with Rabbi E.B. David, so I had to properly document it, and of course, write a blog post about it.

A couple weeks ago, I decided to get serious about taking my photography out of my comfort zone. As much as I love street portraits, I needed a break. I also wanted to explore some different cultures, and get some more variety in my portfolio. The first monastery I talked to didn't have a single English-speaking faculty member, so that was out. Then the next few I found were just a bunch of 40-year-old white guys "finding themselves," driving to their meditation centers in their red Prius, still proudly rocking the Obama/Biden '08 sticker. Yuck.

Finally, I found Sakya. It's a good mix of tradition and modern culture. The people respond to email, and speak clear English, but they pride themselves in strong Tibetan traditions.

When I got there, I nervously recorded my final thoughts before entering the temple, muttering to the camera, "I hope the monks aren't a bunch of white guys," right as a Caucasian monk walked right past me. Haha. Yeah. Just my luck.

Evan and I sat through at least a few hours of prayer recitation and meditation, which eventually became quite torturous. One of the passages was to be repeated at least 500 TIMES. At that point, I was looking for the way out, but luckily, they just said the phrase over and over again as fast as possible, and it only took a couple minutes.

Finally, the ceremony was over, and I was allowed to take photos. His Holiness Jigdal Dagchen Sakya Rinpoche (HHJD) requested that I take a group photo of him and the rest of the monks. After that, I was allowed to take a few photos of HHJD himself. And when I say a few, I literally mean a few. I took four pictures of him before he said, "Okay," and his monks carried him away.

HHJD Sakya.

I was kinda shocked at first, that I'd sat through around three hours of a service to take four pictures, and Evan and I reluctantly started packing up the equipment. But about halfway through packing up, the rest of the monks came back out and looked disappointed. The executive assistant followed and asked, "Oh, no photos for the rest of the monks?"

Evan and I looked at each other, and I said, "Of course! I didn't know they were coming back." We pulled out the equipment, set up the strobe again, and started shooting.

It was much easier to photograph the monks because they were content to let me take as many as I need. Ironically, I still didn't take a whole lot. I took a total of 34 photos today. But I got what I needed.

Tulku Yeshi.

Tulku was super nice, and reacted very well to the photos I showed him on the LCD screen. His glasses were glaring pretty badly against the flash, and he kindly removed them for me. I think I got my favorite shots of the day with him.

Khenpo Jampal.
This guy was also very kind. He actually requested more photos than I was planning on taking. After I got this shot, I was pretty much done, but he asked for a few more, so I took more, and emailed them to the monastery for his benefit.

All in all, it was a great adventure. Sorry, I didn't write that much about the actual adventuring, but that's what the video is for! Make sure to watch it.

Being a Christian, I can't say I agree with anything taught in Buddhism, other than the core values of kindness and compassion. Buddhism is all about finding yourself, while Christianity is all about losing yourself, and finding Jesus. I felt that most of the people attending the temple were there for therapeutic purposes — to relax from their busy work lives. Though it's a beautiful place, finding a religion [as a trend] isn't exactly what I'd recommend.

However, the people at Sakya Tibetan Buddhist Monastery were extremely kind to me. Haha, well, at least the Asian people. Some of the Americans there seemed a little peeved at my presence, especially the "staff photographer." Apparently, the monks, and especially HHJD Sakya typically refuse to pose for anyone, but I was allowed to take photos for as long as I wanted to, and more. Whoops. Shrug. :)

I guess that's it for Adventures with Evan Part I. Make sure to watch the video, because I spent like half an hour putting it together. I'm going to start trying to put together the time and resources to do a big video series soon, but it's a long shot. I don't have anything else planned though, so I really want to make it happen.

Thanks for reading, everyone, and God bless.

J Rogers

PS — I wish I could say that "recommend" going to Sakya Monastery to take photos, but they don't really like to have people there for that. I'm honestly not all that sure why they allowed me to photograph there, but I'm very grateful that they did.