This is really exciting 
I’m heading up to Leh, Ladakh the day after tomorrow to photograph a local Tibetan Buddhist wedding for my book. I’ve been looking for a Buddhist wedding for a while now and finally found a good contact in Ladakh who arranged for me to come and shoot.
I will go on the 3rd, rest and let myself get used to the thin air for a couple of days, after all it is located at a height of over 3,500m, and then shoot the wedding on the 5th and 6th of October. I can’t wait! Ladakh was the first place I visited in India on my very first time here in 1996 and I haven’t been there since.
It is not the tourist season now and I expect the temperatures to be rather cold but I’m sure I will manage. I have this really funny cap that I got in Dharamsala a few years back so I will be able to keep mu head warm. stay tuned for the pictures as soon as I return by the end of the week. . . (written on 01.10.208)
So i’m back from Ladakh where I finally manged to photograph a local wedding for my book, and what a surprise it was. Turns out that the couple have been together for more than ten years and have two children already, a nine year old daughter, and a four year old son. This, i am told, is not an unusual thing in Ladakh, as a wedding is a much simpler event than it is in other places. A couple does not need a third person, a priest or a Lama, to be married, it is simply their own decision. they let the parents know that they have decided and then if they want they can have a small party of close relatives and some blessings. Later on, and this could be a month, a year, or more after they have decided, the pressure starts coming from the neighbors and family that actually want to bless the couple. then they have a ‘Bagston’ which is a wedding in the local language. The Bagston is a social event and not a religious one. The couple wear the traditional Ladakhi outfit and all the village people come to celebrate and witness their union by putting the sacred scarf, the ‘Kathak’ on the couple and the parents as a symbol of blessing.
Lots and lots of salt butter tea and local food, some traditional dance and ‘Chang’ the local barley alcohol, and a very cool and relaxed day. nothing loud and fancy like a wedding in any other place I’ve ever been.
It all started in the late morning and went on till the afternoon when the guests have left to return to their homes in the village. everyone had returned in the evening for another round of the same thing and a chance for the people that did not give the ‘Katakh’ to do it now.
The presents were mainly butter, sugar, wool, and other useful gifts that are carefully registered so that they could be returned with interest when an event is celebrated with the giver’s family. this is a way to collect the village ‘loan’ to the young couple to help them start a new life. later on when they are financially stronger they will return this loan little by little to all the people that came to their Bagston.
The couples children where present naturally, and this was a combined ‘Bagston’ and ‘Ldun’, which is the celebration for the new child. Never mond that he is already four years old
Here are a few pictures that I have selected. more will come in my book next year.
enjoy
