PATRICK SUTHERLAND

Patrick Sutherland took a degree in anthropology at Durham University before studying documentary photography at Newport. His first long term project Wetland: Life in the Somerset Levels was published by Michael Joseph in 1986, went on to win a small literary award and was exhibited at the National Museum of Photography at Bradford. He has received numerous public documentary commissions and freelanced regularly for British newspapers and magazines. In 1990 he won a World Press Award for his pictures of intensive farming commissioned by the Impressions Gallery in York and published in the Independent Magazine. Patrick currently runs the postgraduate course in photojournalism at the London College of Printing. He is married with three children and lives in Norwich.

Women making deep fried breads for a wedding ceremony in Kibber. Every family in the village will be invited to the village hall to receive a handout of food and drink: bread, rice, beer, and tsalma (cooked barley dough).

Woman making chapattis in Bhur. The social center of every house is a metal box stove which mainly burns dried dung.

A family plowing their field with yaks in Kibber. Yaks are the classic Tibetan draught animal and thrive at high altitude. They are frequently crossed with cows because the female offspring, the dzomo, is both a good milker and hardy at high altitude.

Tsewang Rigzin, head Buchen Lama of the village of Sagnam, performing traditional Spiti theatre in Pin Valley. Throughout the winter three or four parties of Buchen travel the valleys performing their theatre, a mixture of religious chants, traditional Buddhist stories, repartee and showmanship including sword dancing and body piercing.

These photographs were taken between 1993 and 1998, during four long journeys in Spiti. The project began as collaboration with two Buddhist monks, Graham Woodhouse an old school friend of mine from Sheffield, and Tashi Namgyal a monk from Key Monastery in Spiti. On my first visit we traveled the length of the valley together, staying with families, witnessing all aspects of life from complex Buddhist rituals to daily domestic chores. Tashi introduced us to a network of his friends, relatives and contacts in Spiti. This took us deep inside the community and provided the foundation for the whole work. Graham traveled with me on many of the subsequent journeys, acting as both linguistic and cultural translator. What started as a short trip taking promotional pictures for the Rinchen Zangpo Society for Spiti Development, Tashi’s fledging educational project, became a personal obsession to document Spiti. In all I spent nearly six months living and photography in the valley.

The people of Spiti welcomed me into their houses, took me into their lives and assisted me with my research. They invited me to weddings, birthday parties and funerals, into the houses of women who had just given birth and the houses of men who were dying. They nursed me and worried about me on the many occasions when I was ill or suffered altitude sickness. On each subsequent journey I was welcomed back like a close relative and urged to stay. Each time I arrived with photographs from the previous trip. These pictures have a dark side to them, revealing the passing of time, the speed of change and highlighting the many people I photographed who have since died. To be given such intimate access to this remarkable community has been a rare privilege. I hope I have done it justice.

A percentage of all profits from this book will go to the Rinchen Zangpo Society for Spiti Development which is working to preserve traditional Spiti culture and to provide the children of the valley with a decent standard of modern education.

From the book

First Published by Network Photographers - ISBN 0-9536756-3-7

December 2000

REPRODUCED BY KIND PERMISSION OF THE AUTHOR

MUSIC ACCOMPANYING THIS PAGE IS FROM THE SPITI VALLEY AND RECORDED BY PATRICK SUTHERLAND