Sunday

Royal Wedding Celebration in Orissa, India

The peace stupa at Bhubaneswar. Photo by www.MarvinRossPhotography.com

In the fall of 2006 I found myself talking with Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche about his upcoming wedding in Orissa, India, at the seat of his father-in-law’s lineage in India.  The Sakyong asked if I was going; at the time I didn’t think that I would.

I asked him if there were going to be other still photographers at the wedding and Rinpoche said that he didn’t think so.  It didn’t take long for me to process this “request”.

After a few milliseconds of scanning my memory of my previous trips to India I came up with … Why not? I am always anxious to dig out my passport and explore my cultural cocoon. So, in mid-February 2007, I boarded a series of airplanes bound for Bhubaneswar, Orissa, India to photograph the wedding of Khandro Tseyang and Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche.

Lady Jane Ward and President Richard Reoch www.MarvinRossPhotography.com

After three days of touring historic Buddhist sites around Bhubaneswar with the other pilgrims on the tour, we boarded a morning bus for an eight-hour ride to Rigon Thupten Mindrolling, seat of His Eminence Namkha Drimed Rinpoche in India.

We arrived the early evening of the 19th, got settled into our rooms and awoke to the start of a three-day Tibetan wedding celebration.

Please click here to view a slideshow of this event on my website, www.MarvinRossPhotography.com.

To think of this as a traditional western wedding celebration is a slight misnomer.  Within Tibetan culture it is about offering.  It is the direct offering that occurred initially with everyone presenting khatas and other gifts.  There was the chang (Tibetan beer made from barley or rice and presented in small bows as an offering, and then drunk) and for three days everyone had an opportunity to offer song and dance.