Prayer Bead – Western Tibet

Touched by the first shaft of morning sunlight high up in the Himalayas, this elderly woman sits in the biting temperature of 10 degrees. Completely blind, she prays and passes the beads of her mala through her sacred hands all day. Whether by choice or circumstance, this woman was one of the few who never married and therefore had no children to care for her as an elder. Buddhist people are attentive and responsible for one another and so this woman is loved well and cared for by her entire community. Her lived in face, full of character and cracks, speaks of a life which has been led with purpose and that now possesses the tales embedded in its appearance.