Samuel Zuder

In 2012, Samuel Zuder (born 1965) set out to photograph one of the most sacred places in the world. According to legend, the 12th-century yogi Milarepa was the only one to have scaled it, although thousands of pilgrims have circumambulated it: Mount Kailash, in the middle of the rocky desert of Tibet’s Changthang plateau, known as the “Jewel of Snow” due to its unusually symmetrical form. Venerated by four religions--Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Bön--the site is positively magnetic, promising happiness and enlightenment. With a large-format analogue camera, over a period of several weeks, Zuder accompanied pilgrims on their approximately 33-mile-long pilgrimage around Mount Kailash, which they regard as the origin of the world. Zuder captured the silent grandeur of the site, reflected not only in his striking photographs of the landscape, but also in the faces of the people traveling this path.