The Dalai Lama's Secret Temple

by Ian A. Baker and Thomas Laird (Photographer)

A Series of mysterious paintings on the walls of the Lukhang's private chapel in Tibet by unknown artists, which are comparable in quality and ambition to the Sistine chapel in Rome, are reproduced for the first time in this extraordinary publication. At the heart of this book are 150 colour photographs of the Lukhang temple and its murals, brilliantly taken in the most challenging conditions by photographer Thomas Laird. Introduced by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, whose further commentary on specific images enriches this work immeasurably, the book is further embellished by lively ink brush drawings by contemporary Tibetan masters.

About the Author:

IAN A. BAKER studied fine arts, literature and comparative religion at Oxford and Columbia Universities and has written extensively on the art and culture of Tibet and the Himalayas. He lives in Kathmandu, Nepal and has been a student of Tibetan Buddhism for than twenty years.THOMAS LAIRD is wiidely published photographer and writer, based in Nepal for the past twenty-eight years, who specializes in the art, culture and history of Himalayan people.