The father of Tashi; Peter Mannox, served as chief photographer for the Karma Kagyu Trust throughout the 1970s-1990s, accumulating an extensive photographic archive of eminent Tibetan Buddhist teachers. His career highlights included two visits to Rumtek monastery in Sikkim during 1978-1980, where he documented H.H. 16th Karmapa and His spiritual sons, as well as other eminent Kagyu Lamas.
The superb high quality of Peter’s photographs is attributed to his 1951 MPP 4″x5″ plate camera, which produced prints of excellent exposure, focus and detail.
His photographic archive includes a notably famous image such as the miracle photograph – where the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa appeared to disappear translucent on his throne.
Unfortunately, colour negatives were lost when Birmingham Post & Mail’s photographic laboratories closed during the transition to digital photography. Fortunately, surviving black-and-white negatives were preserved by Peter and later entrusted to his son Tashi, who undertook restoration through high-resolution scanning and digital retouching. Future plans are underway to publish the collection as a book.
As a teenage boy, Tashi often accompanied his father on photographic expeditions, where he witnessed many extraordinary unforgettable spectacles – such as beholding the 16th Karmapa performing the Vajra Crown ceremony, as the black and white photograph above so vividly portrays.