Riders from Dzongsar valley receiving their spiritual master in grand style. The scenes are like something from another age. A hundred or so riders arrive, sitting proudly on their mounts and dressed in festive costume – baggy trousers in white silk, brown woolen coats and scarlet turbans. They are brandishing standards and banners that float in the wind as they gallop towards the tents, dispersing the clouds of scented white smoke rising from the many fires of juniper branches which the crowd has lit. They are coming to welcome a great lama who is returning to Tibet. August 2004.