As she crosses Asia on her own, the path of a 30-year-old French
girl accidentally crosses that of a unique religious community,
tiny and composed exclusively of women. They live in Puntsokling:
one of the ten totally destitute Buddhist nunnery of Zanskar, a
valley on the edge of the Himalayas in northwestern India, still
isolated from the rest of the country by its inhospitable
geography. This meeting at the end of the world will change the
course of her existence and, without a doubt, that of the nuns. A
revelation and a long human as well as spiritual journey. Caroline
Riegel's book is a two-sided journey. Through the story she tells
us, we discover both the charm of a unique "tribe" with astonishing
sorority (a journey into the intimate) and the masterful beauty of
their territory (a journey into the landscapes). But humans are
inseparable from the environment in which they live. Here, the
harshness of the elements did not generate that of the characters
but their dazzling vitality. The hostile environment strengthened
hearts, embracing in one movement the spirituality and
uncompromising beauty of Nature. Devoid of the superfluous, these
Sowers rub shoulders with the essence of the soul, the awareness of
Happiness. Caroline Riegel's photographs demonstrate the closeness
that she has created with her "subjects", giving photographic work
the power to reveal the Other and to make him access the universal.
The still image gives them a voice and opens up intercultural and
intergenerational dialogue. Caroline Riegel is not just a simple
spectator, her photography is not sidelined, it does not freeze the
Other. On the contrary, it is the source of life, and testifies to
the flourishing of bodies, faces and souls. Her camera is a tool
she uses to testify to the uniqueness of this extraordinary
community to as many people as possible. Caroline Riegel delivers a
luminous tribute, in images and words, to these women who have
found, in the heart of the Zanskar mountains, far from the modern
world, a balance of life. Faced with destitution: joy. Faced with
loneliness: solidarity. In the face of autarky: authenticity. In
the same way that Matthieu Ricard - the preface's author - speaks
of wonder to the world, the smile of The Sowers of Joy testifies to
their singular gaze on what surrounds them, on the meaning of
existence, on simplicity of life. In the great tradition of books
by traveling photographers, The Sowers of Joy is both an ode to
Nature, a unique encounter with otherness, an openness to the
world, a quest for meaning, a tribute humanist, a family album
where love, respect and benevolence burst out on every page.
Photographer Caroline Riegel has lived day after day with these
nuns from afar. His photographs are snapshots of simple gestures in
a mostly agrarian community, where each activity gives its rhythm
to the unfolding of the days, according to the seasons. Often
ancestral practices, carried by a Buddhist culture almost 1000
years old.
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