Going Digital: Double the Megapixels

With Nikon just having introduced two new cameras to their lineup it is a good moment to describe my experience with the immediate predecessor of the D500. In 2009 my Nikon D70 began to behave oddly. Most pictures were overexposed and the camera would lock-up. Luckily it was a known issue and Nikon repaired the…

A Buddhist Sunday – Everybody Dance Now…

For special occasions, usually for Losar (ལོ་གསར་ – Tibetan New Year) or the Tshechu festival in Bhutan (ཚེས་བཅུ་ – Tshechu – literally Day Ten, celebrated on the tenth day of a lunar month), the lamas (བླ་མ་ bla ma – Tibetan Buddhist teachers or Gurus) perform a set of sacred dances. The monks dance dressed in…

A Buddhist Sunday – Punakha Dzong and Lopön Tsechu Rinpoche

Punakha Dzong was built in the early 17th century, making it the one of the oldest Dzongs in Bhutan. As with any other Dzong (རྫོང་) it houses government administrative offices and a monastery. A Dzong is shaped as a fortress with a very high wall surrounding it and a tower in the middle of the courtyard….

A Buddhist Sunday – The Tiger’s Nest (སྟག་ཚང་)

In 2010 I had the opportunity to visit Bhutan. Like every other visitor we visited the Taktsang or Tiger’s Nest (སྟག་ཚང་) near Paro (སྤ་རོ་). The monastery sits precariously on the side of a cliff at an altitude of 3,120 meters, 900 meters above the valley. You cannot reach the monastery by car, so it is…