BOOKS
PILGRIMS
By Lena Herzog
With an essay by Werner Herzog
Published in 2002 by Periplus Publishing London Ltd.
PILGRIMS covers two auspicious for Buddhism events that took place in 2002.
Kalachakra was scheduled to take place in Bodh Gaya, India, in January. Although the ritual was cancelled half a million pilgrims from all over the world descended to the village to pray.
Several months later, in the middle of May, a Sakadawa festival took place near Mount Kailash in Western Tibet. It marked the birth and the death of Buddha, which occurred on the same day. As 2002 was a year of the Horse, the year Buddha was born and the year he died, the May of 2002 was ever more auspicious. The festival was followed by a three-day pilgrimage around the mountain. Tens of thousands: young and old, sick and healthy, walked by day amidst rock and sand and snow and slept by night in the open.
Contents:
Introduction (essay by Werner Herzog)
Photography by Lena Herzog