Sacred Landscape in Tibet and the Himalaya – David Zurick

This illustrated talk explores the intersection of faith and geography in the Himalayan region. It draws upon Zurick’s many decades of work as a geographer and photographer in the mountains, and centers on his recently completed 10-year series of photographs of sacred landscapes and pilgrims. Maps and pictures to be shown will convey key components of nature, place, networks, and change, which together compose a mental cartography rooted in ritual and religious experience.

The purpose of his talk is to visually evoke a sacred mountain world where the
human spirit is in synchronicity with divine and natural forces, and to explore how the idea of sacred geography upholds both timeless beauty and the inevitably of landscape change.

Zurick received his PhD in geography from the University of Hawaii and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the East-West Center, Honolulu.