Navigating Monsoons, Hubli, India
Photograph © Nicholas Vreeland
Photograph © Nicholas Vreeland
(please double-click to enlarge!)
Lodi Gardens, Delhi, India
Photograph © Nicholas Vreeland
Lodi Gardens, Delhi, India
Photograph © Nicholas Vreeland
Nicholas Vreeland is a Buddhist monk who loves photography. He's had a long history on that front acquiring skills assisting Irving Penn and Richard Avedon, and from his friends Henri Cartier-Bresson and wife Martine Franck - before and after becoming a Buddhist monk. He is now a rather famous monk, having several titles. He is also known as Ven. Geshe Thupten Lhundup, a fully ordained Tibetan Buddhist monk, who is now the abbot of Rato Dratsang.
In May of 2012, the Dalai Lama gave Nicholas, then Director of The Tibet Center in New York, a daunting new assignment. He was enthroned as the new Abbot of Rato Monastery in southern India, one of the most important monasteries in Tibetan Buddhism. He is the first Westerner to hold the position as Khen Rinpoche.
Nicholas Vreeland, Bodhgaya, India 1986
Photograph © Elizabeth Paul Avedon
Nicholas Vreeland (above as a novice monk) leaving to receive his full ordination bestowed by H.H. 14th Dalai Lama, early morning, December 1986, The Ashoka Hotel, Bodhgaya, India. Accompanied by Jamyang Chojor of Tibet, nephew of Khyongla Rato Rinpoche. Photograph © Elizabeth Paul Avedon.
Nicholas Vreeland, Broadway, NY 2012
Photograph © Elizabeth Paul Avedon
Nicholas Vreeland on his way to his solo photography exhibition at the Leica Gallery, Broadway, New York, 2012.
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