Inside The Dalai Lama’s Erotic Chapel
On an island in a pond behind the Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet sits the Lukhang Temple, or “Temple to the Serpent Spirits,†a secret meditation space created by the Dalai Lama in the 17th century. For hundreds of years, this temple was closed to anyone but the Dalai Lama himself. Vibrant murals covered its walls, depicting yogis in impossible-looking poses, gurus and kings, crystals surrounded by rainbows, and the vagina that gave birth to the world. Used to initiate Dalai Lamas into yogic and tantric practices in the Dzogchen school of Tibetan Buddhism, very few got to see these murals. Now, though, images of these long-hidden murals are accessible the world over, thanks to American photographer Thomas Laird, who in the spring of 1986 was the first to ever shoot inside this sacred chamber.
