This Thursday, the documentary filmmaker and photographer inaugurated a series of black-and-white photographs taken between 2011 and 2014 at the Museum of Asian Arts, titled “Journeys with Young Monks.” She narrated the way of life of these young individuals in various Nepalese monasteries. Her delight in their company and fascination for their world were evident.
“I revisit these children with great happiness.” In front of about thirty people, Isabelle Garcia-Chopin repeatedly emphasized the deep connections she forged during her travels in Nepal. Whenever she visits the monasteries, there is no fear of being rejected. “The door is always open. As soon as I arrive, the children welcome me,” she says with a smile. And when she departs? At the end of her first stay in 2011, a young monk prostrated in front of her. The documentarian had to leave “with tears in her eyes.”
And she does not hold back her joy; she shares it through the images hung on the wall. Of course, her relationship with these aspiring monks was not built in a day. It developed through “words, but also through glances or by playing with them,” the photographer states. The result? The Buddhist community accepts her, both young and old. To the extent that they assure her she is “at home once there. When the cook sees me arrive, he makes me food,” she shares as an anecdote. A second family, another life, and a favorite. A special fondness developed between Isabelle Garcia-Chopin and Rinpotchรฉ Tharig Tulku, who was 12 years old during the first trip in 2011. The public can admire the boy’s childish face, with a mantra covering his mouth.
Another World
Light-years separate Buddhist and Western cultures. The author of the photographs provides the example of cell phones, which the monks have only been using “for the past five or six years.” They live in the rhythm of fairly intense studies. Several photographs show the daily work at the monasteries: languages and teachings of Buddha are on the program. The children recite all in chorus the inscriptions on the mantras, their writing medium. In an image, a disciple even beads with sweat, his eyes fixed on the paper. “A real cacophony,” admits Isabelle Garcia-Chopin to describe the sound environment at that moment.
Prayers are at the heart of Buddhist learning. They take place in the temples that the photographer admires. “I feel like it’s magic when I enter, an energy that gives me goosebumps,” she confides next to one of these buildings seen from the inside, with the monks in full supplication. And what about entertainment? “Everything is conducive to amusement for them, imagination is important,” she explains. At times, they read magazines; at other times, they play football, “with a ball, a plastic cap… but always in groups.” Because these children stay in groups of at least two or three. And fundamental values emerge from this: “solidarity, fraternity, well-being.” A communion captured by a photograph, during a meal, where they have fun, laugh, or hop around.
She will have the opportunity to see them again soon: Isabelle Garcia-Chopin plans to return there as early as next autumn.
Photo credit: jfgornet
