A ‘People’ Needs a History
I wish I had a photograph of the first time I sat with Sangharakshita (Bhante) exploring his personal photo collection in his Padmaloka study back in the 1980s. Such a photograph would show a great pile of photos, negatives and transparencies, spread on the tartan wool carpet, some loose, others in bulging manila envelopes or old albums or transparent sleeves, and on one side Bhante sifting through, passing image after image to me, notepad in hand, writing down any information that might help the eventual archival process. At least, that’s my memory of the occasion – but the lack of a photographic record means the event is gradually fading away.
By that time the Clear Vision Trust was well established, having produced a number of video documentaries, interviews and lectures. Now Bhante wanted to ensure that his hundreds of photographs, dating from his childhood to the present, were safely preserved and appropriately archived, so he turned to Clear Vision. Over the years that followed, I would occasionally meet with Bhante and sometimes a little heap of photos sat on his table ready to be viewed and passed over to me. Often they were his travel pictures and perhaps of little archival significance but he enjoyed taking photographs and would readily explore the artistic merits or otherwise of his attempts to capture a moment or scene. Sometimes the photographs were valuable discoveries from the past and he would recall the occasion or characters, there immortalised in black and white.
Once, when I was sitting with Bhante at Madhyamaloka, talking over a number of photographs, he explained why the archive was so important for the Order and Movement. He said that we are a ‘people’ and a ‘people’ need a ‘history’. A recorded history provides an identity and cohesion.
The Clear Vision image archive quickly expanded beyond Bhante’s personal collection. The Order Office passed on its entire collection of FWBO images, many of which feature Bhante. I also received Dhardo Rimpoche’s own collection of black and white negatives, and a number of photographic collections from Triratna centres and individual Order members. The archive now holds over 10,000 images, whether negatives, transparencies or prints. They are stored in boxes in the Clear Vision Trust Office on the third floor of the Manchester Buddhist Centre.
Over the years, despite a lack of funding, Clear Vision has made efforts to store, protect, catalogue, database, scan, reproduce and make available the images. Those shared have proved an invaluable resource in publications, research and personal practice – but the work is far from complete.
Uddiyana has now come to the rescue and partnered with Clear Vision to provide the funding needed to complete the next stage of this precious legacy project.
Over the next year or two we will scan, repair, catalogue, and database each and every image. Every digitised image will be backed up on two separate hard drives and uploaded to the cloud. The original physical copies and one set of hard drives will be moved to Adhisthana. A new online Triratna Picture Library is being created where thousands of images, including as complete a collection as possible of images of Bhante, will be made available in curated albums. We also plan to create an off-line image viewing facility at Adhisthana in the Sangharakshita Library.
This photographic archive and Picture Library is an incredibly rich and valuable part of Bhante’s legacy, bringing to life his own story and that of Triratna. Though the archival work itself can be experienced as tedious and seemingly endless, one is freshly inspired stumbling unexpectedly across an old colour photo from the 1950s of Bhante and Lama Govinda that is patiently waiting to be restored; or a handwritten note on a photo of Bhante at Singapore Docks that reads, ‘To mother with love’; or black-and-white pictures of our senior Order members as fresh faced young things. Seeing them one’s inspiration returns and one is reminded of Bhante’s own enthusiasm for this very special project.
Dharmachari Mokshapriya