The Summer Solstice

Journey for Peace

Photographed by Manuel Bauer and published on the occasion of the Dalai Lama’s 70th birthday, this work includes essays by photographer Matthieu Ricard, and conversations with the Dalai Lama by journalist Christian Schmidt. Photographer Manuel Bauer has photographed the Dalai Lama for years. The privileged access granted him by His Holiness and his entourage have enabled Bauer to offer us these powerful images, oscillating between the spiritual and the personal, the public and the intimate, the epic and the anecdotal. About the Swiss-born photographer the Dalai Lama says: “Manuel Bauer is more than simply a professional: he is a close friend of mine. He also knows a great deal about Tibet, about the Tibetan community, and he has spent years making himself familiar with our culture. He understands Tibet comprehensively, as he does the exile community; and he knows me very well too. It is this knowledge that allows his pictures to say so much about their subjects.” Bauer paints a unique and irreplaceable portrait of one of the most remarkable figures in recent history.

And the book contains numerous quotes from and interviews with the Dalai Lama, plus a full timeline about Tibet’s yesterday and today. “From the early morning until late into the night, and even in our dreams, we experience all kinds of perceptions. We go from being relaxed to being anxious, we feel sometimes anger, sometimes desire, sometimes compassion. Those are transitory states of mind that come and go, from moment to moment. But there must indeed be something that is aware of all this, a continuity of cognition that keeps on experiencing it even after we fall asleep. Yet that something is usually hidden to us, as if behind a curtain. So we need to remove that curtain.” “Promoting science is very important. After all, it is looking for the same thing as Buddhism: the truth! I am more and more convinced that Buddhist monks, too, should study modern science. They could use science to help understand the nature of atoms and quarks, which would in turn help them to grasp the physical aspects of the Buddhist definition of the transitory nature of all things. That is very important.

On the other hand, modern science is not very advanced in the understanding of consciousness, although consciousness, or awareness, is a major physical aspect.”