The Gyuto Monks of Tibet


It was a case of being in the right place at the right time.

I had just dropped Nicole off at work, and was walking around Fremantle with my camera in hand, when I came across the monks in the Fremantle Town Hall.

They were in the middle of chanting, so I walked in slowly and had a look at the sand mandala that they had been creating.

I noticed there was an upper level of seating, from where I could get a good photo of the mandala from above. I headed up there and got a photo.

When I was walking down the stairs, a lady came up to me and asked “are you our photographer?”. I replied, “I could be, why?” She said that their photographer was unable to make it down, and that they needed photos of one of the monks for the UK Sunday Times Magazine. I happy said that I could take some photos for her.

The monk pictured in the portraits was introduced to me as Yeshe, I assume he is some sort of leader in their group, though I didn’t ask a lot of questions, it was just really nice meeting and photographing someone so at peace.

Here is what I took.

All photos © Jordan Shields, please contact for usage requests.