Young monks in traditional robes with shaven heads, devoted to meditation, material renunciation and a monastic life are passionate about football?
Yes, this is the life of monks based in China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Nepal, India and Burma which has been captured by European photographer and journalist Jaime León. During his two year stay in China, Jaime traveled to other Asian countries and realised the high level of religiosity in monks.
“In Europe, mostly people are atheist and don’t care about religion too much. When I saw monks preaching Buddhism, I became curious about them,” says Jaime, who then decided to capture the lives of red, saffron and pink robed monks in 25 photographs but left them untitled and open to interpretation.
The task turned out to be rather challenging since his ‘subject’ woke up early. Jaime recalls, “It was difficult for me to shoot because monks wake up early and I couldn’t get up before 5.30am!”
Thus the expert photographer who has captured cyclone Nargis in Burma, 26/11 and the end of civil war in Sri Lanka, felt it difficult to cope with change in sleep patterns!
But what appealed him was “The sight of teenage monks playing football in a monastery on Inle Lake in Burma. They fought for every ball, pushed and kicked each other, with little regret. After the game one monk pointed to Cristiano Ronaldo’s image on a magazine cover and asked me, ‘Do you know him?’
When I replied in the affirmative, he asked, ‘Do you know him in person?, ‘No’, I admitted and the monk footballer was a little disappointed,” Jaime shared. A photograph where monks play football, has a huge shadow of a pagoda, symbolic of dominance of religion in their normal lives.
The exhibition comprises shots of monks at different places such as the Bangkok airport where they are patiently waiting for their flight; in a coffee shop in Mandalay, where a group of young monks read newspapers and discuss current issues; in Dharamsala, where religious men take to the streets to protest the Chinese occupation of Tibet and at Luang Prabang, where monks walk in a row through the city at dawn, to collect the alms offered to the elderly.
Jaime says, “I like to shoot things in their natural surroundings because the place of residence is the key to understanding their lives.” He also discovered the hardships they face, “In Laos, most young men are shaved and sent to the monastery to avail free food, education and shelter. In places like Dharmsala, monks protest to safeguard their land and culture.”
The image of a young boy getting his head shorn off is almost ‘brutal’ while the reflection of protesting monks in the door pane of a barber’s shop is rather intriguing.
While the photograph where a young monk in pink lights lamp inside the Pagoda is peaceful, Jamie confesses, “The last photograph of the collection where a young monk in red robes is staring into the camera, is my favourite. It is like a painting!”
The exhibition is on at Instituto Cervantes till August 31