As a mark to celebrate the 90th birthday of His Holiness The Dalai Lama, Vijay Kranti, a senior journalist, Tibetologist, photographer and a long term close associate of the Tibetan leader put up a unique photo-exhibition of some of his exclusive, interesting and historic portraits and camera-studies of Dalai Lama at the AIFACS art gallery in New Delhi from his personal archive. He has taken these photos over five decades during his numerous one-to-one interview sessions and travels with the Dalai Lama in India and some other countries as his personal photographer. Interestingly, a parallel exhibition of another set of Vijay’s photos of the Nobel Peace prize winning monk statesman is also on show at Freiburg in Germany these days.
The photo-exhibition titled “My 50-Years With Dalai Lama” that was held from July 4 to 10 was inaugurated by Balbir Punj who also is a famous journalist, columnist, author and a former member of the Upper House of Indian Parliament. The inaugural function was attended by dignitaries such as Wilson Chang, Counselor at the Taiwan Economic and Cultural Centre; Jigme Jugney, the Representative of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in New Delhi and Rev. Acharya Yeshi Phuntsok, former Deputy leader of the Tibetan Parliament. A good number of capital’s Tibetans also attended in their colourful Tibetan costumes.
In his inaugural speech, Punj underlined close historic and cultural relations between India and Tibet. Besides underlining the importance of a free Tibet’s importance for the security and prosperity of India he criticised Chinese President Xi Jinping’s obsession about usurping the institution of Dalai Lama and his next incarnation. Jugney admired the wholehearted commitment and contribution of Kranti as a journalist and photographer towards raising awareness of Indian people about the Tibetan issue.
Kranti stands out as an Indian journalist and photographer for his lifelong association with the Tibetan issue and its biggest symbol the Dalai Lama. His 53 year-long photo documentation of Tibetan life, culture and activities is monumental as it is internationally considered as the largest and aesthetically rich one-man photographic study on this subject. His work also includes photo studies of life inside Chinese occupied Tibet where he has been able to make many daring travels. In the past his photo-exhibitions have been on show in many prestigious art galleries of India, Germany , Austria, Australia, Switzerland and Spain.
The selection of photos for this exhibition made it a special event as it aesthetically depicts some important and historic moments related to the Dalai Lama. One photo that stood out for its historic importance is the one that showed Indira Gandhi, former Prime Minister of India, standing as an ordinary member among the crowd while Dalai Lama is addressing a large gathering at the inaugural function of Tibet House of New Delhi on 23rd January 1979. “I was stunned as I saw Mrs. Gandhi quietly made her way through the crowd and stopped just next to me to have a good view of the Dalai Lama. Those were the days when she was out of power. But her decision to quietly join such an event was a special moment. The distance between her and my camera was too short for the focus. So I had to make efforts to push myself back to get the necessary focal space,” Kranti explained the backstory of the capture. The photo journalist has preserved his film negatives and transparencies quite methodically and religiously since 1972 when he met the Dalai Lama first time for a news magazine interview.
Another photo (Sep 1980) depicted the Dalai Lama enthusiastically playing on the traditional drums of a Beda family of Ladakh while Kushak Bakula Rinpoche, the top ranking Buddhist Guru of Ladakh and a large crowd of onlookers are watching him with awe. In Ladakh where the musician community of the Bedas has been suffering discrimination at the hands of the Buddhist clergy, Dalai Lama made it a point to visit a Beda family where he not only had food with the family and played on their drum, but also gave a stinging lecture to the Buddhist clergy about giving a respectable treatment to the Bedas.
Yet another photo showed the Dalai Lama receiving Guard of Honour from a contingent of soldiers of the Indo Tibetan Border Police near Leh. Kranti’s photos of Dalai Lama riding a yak in the Zanskar valley of Ladakh; deeply engaged in reading a news magazine at his Dharamshala home; and some of his silhouettes and light and shade camera studies of the Tibetan leader have won him acclaim at international level.
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