Artist: DJ Furth

Edition: 1/1

Altan lama lives alone in his yurt and is the guardian of a sacred spring outside of Ulan-Use, Buryatia.

When we arrived and without us even introducing ourselves, Altan Lama immediately sensed that we had been to a place of death. We were shocked as we had been to a Buryat cemetery earlier in the day. In order to cleanse us, he performed a 30 minute ritual after which point he was willing to speak with us for our interview and film together.

When asked about his living in isolation, he told us, “Due to silence we can reach emptiness. And reaching emptiness is the most important thing in Buddhism.”

In response to questions about the role of lamas in society, he explained, “A human being suffers when he is born, he suffers when he is sick, suffers when he gets old, suffers when he dies. We free humankind from their suffering.”