About the Image Gallery

Lama Yeshe, Yucca Valley, California, 1977. Photo by Carol Royce-Wilder, retouching by David Zinn.

The LYWA Image Gallery is a large collection of images from many different donors and organizations who contributed their original negatives, slides, and photos (or sometimes scans on CD) to be entered into the database. The Image Archive is an attempt to collect and organize photos of Lama Thubten Yeshe and Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche as they gave teachings and founded many practice centers and compassionate organizations worldwide. 

An enormous number of photos, both formal and informal, were taken over the years of Lama and Rinpoche giving teachings, accompanying the great Lamas of the Gelugpa lineage, interacting with their students, and traveling all over the world. There are also many photos of their students and the extraordinary efforts they made to establish the numerous centers which have come to be known collectively as the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT). 

Because the archive is still being assembled (images being restored, retouched and catalogued, duplicate images being removed), it's hard to say exactly what the final count of relevant images will be. Preliminary estimates would have it at around 15,000-20,000 images. We will be updating the online LYWA Image Gallery regularly, and making the collection available in stages to browse or search using keywords, with the hopes that one day the entire collection will be available to all in a searchable format. 

All of the images are copyright of the individual photographer and can be reproduced with permission of the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive. Please contact us if you would like to use any of these images for publication in print or online, or if you would like to order a high-quality version of a print for personal use.

Also if you have any information about any of these photos that you would like to share concerning the date, photographer, event (or any relevant anecdote for that matter), please send an email to [email protected] 

Thank you so much!
David Zinn
Digital Imaging Specialist for Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive
[email protected]

Visit the LYWA Image Gallery