Giuseppe Ripa: Tibet

Tibet is no longer "the only mystery the nineteenth century left for the twentieth century to explore," but it remains astonishing. Tibet depicts this country's untamed natural beauty and documents the customs of its proud people, who are struggling to maintain their Buddhist practices and cultural traditions under persecution by Chinese authorities. Tibetan civilization, with its uncommon spirituality, offers an inspiring antithesis to contemporary consumerism, and Giuseppe Ripa's images argue convincingly that these remarkable people, who write prayers on flags so that the wind may recite them, deserve a different fate than the repression they have endured for over half a century. Ripa, born in Ragusa, Italy in 1962, has been traveling the globe with camera in hand since the 1980s. His study of religious and spiritual sites around the world, Anima Mundi was published by Charta in 2005.