Regarding Bhutan

Before I went to Bhutan, I thought my trip was about witnessing the Bhutanese people’s transition from an agrarian Buddhist culture to a 21st century Buddhist culture. I certainly saw red-robed monks with cell phones, farmers hauling fodder on their backs for their cows and prayer flags attached to phone towers. I also watched people wear traditional ghos and kiras, while others wear hoodies and jeans. But ultimately, I realized what I wanted to see in Bhutan was the ordinary and the universal. Regarding Bhutan is a photographic collection of people going about their lives – kids with money looking for treat down at the store, a shopkeeper waiting to go home, a monk teasing a younger monk. My trip became about seeing new people in a new place with a different culture and searching for something familiar.