NONFICTION - Sept. 15, 1996

TIBETAN PORTRAIT: The Power of Compassion. Photographs by Phil Borges. Text by the Dalai Lama, Jeffrey Hopkins and Elie Wiesel (Rizzoli: $39.95, 96 pp.) . In 1950 the Chinese Communists overthrew the government of neighboring Tibet and, we learn in the text accompanying these photographs, proceeded to decimate the population. More than 1.2 million Tibetans died under the Chinese, who directed their most virulent brutality against Tibet’s Buddhist culture; in a country that once had 6,200 monasteries, only 11 remain.

It’s easy to dismiss this as just another sad story taking place in a distant land, but with the West actively pursuing rapidly developing new markets in China, there’s the implication that the U.S. condones China’s occupation of Tibet. This has led the country to become a cause celebre in the U.S., with such high-profile spokespersons as Richard Gere, Allen Ginsberg and Uma Thurman. Their interest in Tibet, however, more likely stems from the fact that Tibet’s Buddhist culture is an extraordinarily beautiful one based on a belief in unconditional compassion; this is what compelled Seattle-based photographer Borges to visit the Far East in 1994 to photograph the Tibetan people.

Borges’ travels took him to Dharamsala, India, where the government of Tibet, led by the Dalai Lama, has been based since being forced out of its homeland. “Almost everyone I approached had histories involving imprisonment, torture and the death of family and friends,” recalls Borges, who was raised in the Bay Area, where he abandoned his job as an orthodontist in 1987 to devote himself to photographing endangered cultures. He then visited the high plateaus of Ladakh, a disputed border region where he photographed Tibetan nomads who “had never seen themselves in a mirror, let alone in a photograph,” recalls Borges, whose pictures go on view Sept. 27 at the G. Ray Hawkins Gallery in Santa Monica.

Positioning his subjects so the dramatic landscapes of the region serve as a backdrop, Borges worked with 40 pounds of battery-powered lighting equipment. The effect of studio lighting on figures posed against a mountainside is eerie and well-suited to the ethereal power of the Tibetans--these are, after all, people whose spiritual beliefs enable them to endure extreme physical hardships. Indeed, a point made repeatedly in the books’ text is how the Tibetans’ spiritual grounding allows them to remain light-hearted. When Borges had an opportunity to photograph the Dalai Lama in 1994, he nervously extended his hand, only to have the high priest brush it aside and tickle him in the ribs.