c. 1996 Religion News Service

(RNS)-When Seattle photographer Phil Borges focused his camera’s eye on the people of Tibet, he perceived many things. Suffering. A deep stillness. A capacity for laughter to coexist with tears.

But above all else, engraved in Borges’ mind and in the photos he made is the Buddhist principle of compassion.

Compassion is at the heart of Buddhist practice. And Borges believes it remains the essence of Tibetan culture, even after more than four decades of religious persecution by the Chinese government.

In his 1994 travels to Tibet and to Dharmsala, India, where the Dalai Lama lives in exile with a large Tibetan refugee community, Borges discovered that nearly everyone he photographed had either themselves suffered persecution or had family members who were imprisoned, tortured or put to death. “I found people very generous and forgiving,”he said.”Often the refugees I spoke with said `I no longer have anger for the Chinese.’ I heard it enough that I began to recognize the Tibetan phrase before I heard the translation.” Borges’ remarkable sepia-toned portraits will be on display June 4-7 in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda. The exhibition will then travel to museums and galleries in Newark, N.J., London, Denver, New York, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Chicago and Vancouver, B.C.

The timing of the Capitol Rotunda exhibition is purposeful. June 4 marks the anniversary of the 1989 massacre of pro-democracy demonstrators in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. That week the Senate is preparing to debate whether to grant”most favored nation”trading status to China.

Recent events in Tibet have given an ironic twist to Borges’ photographs, newly published in a book,”Tibetan Portrait: The Power of Compassion,”(Rizzoli) with text by the Dalai Lama.

Earlier this year, the Chinese government forbade Buddhist temples to display photographs of the Dalai Lama, whom Tibetan Buddhists believe is the incarnation of the Buddha of Infinite Compassion.

Later, the Dalai Lama’s photo was banned from Tibetan homes and schools and Tibetan children have been forbidden to wear around their wrists and necks the red cords known as”sung-du,”which signify the protection of the Buddha.

The crackdown sparked protests in Buddhist temples, according to news reports. Chinese officials responded to stone-throwing monks with gunfire and scores of monks and nuns were arrested. Drepung Monastery, a center for Buddhist scholarship since the 15th century has been shut down, as have several other temples.

Borges, who was raised a Mormon, does not consider himself a practicing Buddhist. But he counts himself as”interested”in Buddhist philosophy-especially the idea that compassion is the antidote for the ignorance and selfishness that is the root of suffering. He casts his travels in Tibet and Northern India as a series of lessons on spiritual discipline.

Visiting Dharmsala, he remembers listening astonished to the Dalai Lama instructing an audience of several hundred Tibetan refugees that they should regard the Chinese not as enemies, but as”precious jewels,”because of the opportunity persecution provides to deepen patience, understanding and compassion.”I remember thinking, `What good is patience and tolerance if the very people who are practicing it are being systematically wiped out?'”he recalled.”I am now beginning to understand why they believe it is wise to treat enemies as precious jewels,”he said.”For the Tibetan Buddhist, peace of mind is a fundamental lifetime goal. They are taught to value contentment, fulfillment and mental peace above all else, since one’s state of mind is believed to be the only possession that survives from one lifetime to the next.” And while Tibetan Buddhists believe that there is no greater vehicle than compassion to combat suffering, the recent protests by monks and nuns-and a sporadic series of bombings in the Tibetan capital, reportedly orchestrated by Tibetan independence groups-are evidence that the Tibetan people are far from passive in their response to the Chinese.”Their internal struggle as human beings is to try to reconcile the non-violent principles of their most cherished beliefs with the rage that can arise when harmed,”Borges said.”It is an extreme test of their commitment to compassion, to their religion and culture.”

MJP END CONNELL