Matthieu Ricard has lived and worked in the Himalayan region for forty years. He resides at Shechen Tenni Dargyeling Monastery in Nepal.

Born in France in 1946 as the son of French philosopher Jean-Francois Revel and artist Yahne Le Toumelin, he grew up among the personalities and ideas of Paris’ intellectual circles. In 1972, after completing his doctoral thesis in biochmistry at the Institute Pasteur, he decided to forsake his scientific career and concentrate on Tibetan Buddhist studies. Since then, he has lived and studied in India, Bhutan and Nepal with some of the greatest living teachers of that tradition, Kangyur Rinpoche and Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. Matthieu is a Buddhist monk and, since 1989, he has acted as the French interpreter for His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

The dialogue with his father, Jean-Francois Revel, The Monk and the Philosopher, was a best seller in Europe and is translated into twenty-one languages. His other books include: The Quantum and the Lotus,  Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life’s Most Important Skill,  and Why Meditate?.

For nearly four decades, he has been photographing the spiritual masters, the landscapes and the people of the Himalayas. He is the author and photographer of Buddhist Himalayas, Journey to Enlightenment, Tibet: An Inner Journey, Monk Dancers of Tibet, Motionless Journey, and Bhutan, Land of Peace. He also translated several books from Tibetan into English and French, including The Life of Shabkar, The Autobiography of a Tibetan Yogin (Snow Lion).

Henri Cartier-Bresson has said of his work, “Matthieu’s spiritual life and his camera are one and from this springs these images, fleeting and eternal.”

He is a  member of the Mind and Life Institute, which is dedicated to collaborative research between scientists and Buddhist scholars and meditators. He is involved in the research on the effect of mind training and meditation on the brain at various Universities in the USA and Europe.

Through his writings and photographs, Matthieu Ricard infuses the dialogue between Tibetan Buddhism – its culture, people and religion – and the West with understanding, intelligence and compassion.

He is the French interpreter for His Holiness the Dalai Lama. When he is not traveling, he lives at Shechen Monastery in Nepal and at Shechen’s  Retreat Center.

Please see http://www.matthieuricard.org to explore his photography and work.