Through a lens, religiously

The topic of Buddhism is very close to photographer Vijay Kranti's heart.

It isn't often that one sees two or three good theme-based shows in the otherwise sleepy art gallery of Delhi's Ravindra Bhawan.

But things were somewhat different between March 11-17 when there were two exhibitions with Buddha as the central theme. While the ground floor has a sculpture show on Buddha the second floor had 200-odd photo exhibits on a similar subject.

While the sculpture show featured Buddha in various moods, the photo exhibition was on Buddhism and the Dalai Lama, who is revered as an incarnation of Buddha by the Himalayan Buddhist communities. And according to Vijay Kranti, the photographer, it was pure co-incidence that Buddha was the chosen subject by both the organisers.

For Kranti, a former journalist, the topic of Buddhism lies very close to his heart. It all began in 1972 when he was working with Saptahik Hindustan, a Hindi weekly. He was asked to go to Dharamsala to interview the Dalai Lama, report on the Tibetan community and also click pictures.

"My editor said that I had to do the photographer's job as well, and I would be paid only for the printed pictures accepted by the magazine. I borrowed a camera and began my journey," says Kranti. Today he has a collection of over a lakh pictures on the same subject.

What was interesting about his pictures is that the socio-cultural lives of Indian Buddhists have been depicted.

On the one hand there are monks making intricate designs of mandalas using different colours and a cone (these mandalas are made for different pujas for inviting deities and are destroyed after the puja as a mark of tribute to deities for coming).

On the other hand, Kranti has pictures of monks riding motorcycles in the monastry of Sera in Karnataka. The transition has been documented well.

However, what was more exciting was a 6x4 feet blowup of a mass payer in Sarnath covering thousands of monks praying together, some swinging while others are still, and justifiably titled Waves of Devotion. Another blowup titled Script of Life makes a beautiful picture of a 90-something lady whose every wrinkle is pronounced.

Kranti has tried to combine aesthetics with depiction of Himalayan Buddhist culture. There are also pictures of their utensils, living style, interiors, children, apart from the monastries, their rituals and the Dalai Lama himself.

But Kranti certainly could have done with less colour and more black and white pictures and with human faces. Some pictures like the praying flags are banal and looked more like a kite competition. Though human expressions are captured, those on objects far outnumbered them.

This is because he wanted to show the revival of the Tibetan refugee community after the Dalai Lama came to Dharamsala following his exile in 1959.

"Before that the refugee community was far too neglected. This community reveres the Dalai Lama as an incarnation of Buddha as Avlokiteshwara (Buddha of compassion). Having born and grown in a refugee camp myself, I find myself very close to the topic," says Kranti.

A self-trained photographer, Kranti uses the oven to remove moisture from transparencies, muslin to preserve them and shoe boxes to store them. Not only are his subjects different but also his style of maintaining his art.