Dhanushkha Amarasekara, Sri Lanka
The Eye of the Beholder

“A tree that can fill the span
Of a man's arms Grows from a downy tip;
A terrace nine stories high
Rises from handfuls of earth;
A journey of a thousand miles
Starts from beneath one's feet.”
- Lao Tzu

This body of work is a series of images produced in Patna, India, in 2006. The subject matter is inspired by my own spiritual journey and interest towards the Buddhist way of life, in which mental freedom is something very important in its philosophy, and how it can have quite a dramatic effect on one's life. As an Islander, a woman, and an artist, I have strived to take my first steps in achieving a series of images that evoke the spirit of the philosophy. It is also a way of discovering a country by capturing experiences on how the country lives and breathes the contemporary stories, tales and legends of Buddhist philosophy.

The images are a documentation of my journey… a documentation of people and their journeys in their effort to achieve a solitary life, in their search for freedom from all that is worldly.

It is a documentation of a photographer being the voyeur of their journeys, as much as a documentation of her own journey. It is also a documentation of an almost untouched culture still preserved in the pockets and places of Buddhist interest in India.