Dalai Lama

One of my most memorable moments as a photographer didn’t happen with a camera in hand. It came in the form of a phone call.

I have a vivid recollection of the moment it came. Some things get shoved into memory and they’re there to stay. I was captioning photos in my office when an editor that I work with at ZUMA Press called asking, “How’d you like to cover the Dalai Llama’s visit?” After a moment’s pause to gather my composure, I shouted, “Are you crazy? (that’s the composed me) Of course I do!”  Needless to say, I got the assignment.

As it happens, the Dalai Llama was traveling to Denver to participate in the Peace Jam with nine other Nobel Peace Prize Laureates and more than 3,000 youth from 31 countries. He would then travel to the Shambhala Mountain Center outside of Red Feather Lakes to bless The Great Stupa of Dharmakaya. It’s the largest Buddhist monument in the United States and holds the cremated skull of Vidyadhara Chšgyam Trungpa Rinpoche, the founder of more than 150 meditation centers worldwide.

I ended up spending three days with the Dalai Lama and a slew of Secret Service Agents; a pretty amazing time!

This entry was posted on Monday, November 1st, 2010 at 7:49 am. It is filed under Feature Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.