When we hear the words ‘global warming’, many of us can only imagine charts and diagrams of rising temperatures and water levels, like something out of a David Suzuki commercial, or the film ‘An Inconvenient Truth.’ For Wallenstein resident Geoffrey Maher, who recently returned from a visit to Mount Everest in Nepal, a far more vivid picture comes to mind.
When Maher visited Tibet and Nepal in the late ‘80s, he saw and photographed an enormous glacier. Upon his 2010 return to that same spot he saw bare ground where the ice had been, the formation had melted significantly.
“After 20 years, the difference in the glaciers is amazing,” said the semi-retired medical professional and avid photographer. “How much has melted is incredible. I stared for about 45 minutes just looking at it and thinking of the ramifications of what is going on.”
In addition to the physical changes in the landscape, there have been changes in the Tibetan cultural demographic, a phenomenon equally unsettling to Maher.
“The changes are immense. They are huge. The country is losing its culture, and fast.”
The changes come in the wake of the takeover of Tibet by China back in the 1950s, with the repercussions still playing out today.
Through discussions with people he met through travels, Maher learned that Tibet and China have had a long relationship fraught with difficulty. At times, the two nations have worked closely together. At other times, they have been at war.
Between the years of 1959 and 1961, more than 6,000 of Tibet’s monasteries were demolished. Three years of bitter fighting left 86,000 Tibetans dead. In the days after the 1959 incident, the Chinese government revoked most aspects of Tibet’s autonomy, and initiated resettlement and land distribution across the country.
“We noticed that the country is being ruled with an iron fist,” said Maher. “At countless times we were stopped and searched. Anything that had anything to do with the Dalai Lama was taken away.”
So to do his part in documenting the changes to the landscape, as well as what culture still remains, Maher resorted to one of his favourite pastimes: photography. Before going on his trip, he solicited donations from a number of people in the Toronto area and was given close to 40 cameras to take with him.
“While I was in Nepal I gave a group of kids their own camera each and passed on what I know about photography,” he said.
Maher’s interest in photography as a means of documenting history is in his genes. His father was a pilot and reconnaissance photographer in World War II before starting up a photography business in Toronto. There was a darkroom in Maher’s home where he and his family would develop their film.
“I was always documenting,” he said. “Photography is what felt natural to me, so I stuck with it.”
He encouraged the kids to take pictures of the things that might not be around when they grow up; namely,
Buddha monastery fronts which can be up to 1,000 years old but are being destroyed.
“The kids started by taking the same pictures that kids from all over the world would take pictures of – their families, their dogs. But I am hoping that through their documentation, they save a bit of their history.”
While in the area, Maher also attempted to climb the east face of Mount Everest. Over 60 and dependant on a pacemaker, Maher impressed his friends, family and himself by making it 700 metres from the top before having to turn around. Before leaving for Nepal, he practiced by going for long walks daily as well as stair climbs, but it was the altitude that cut their trip short.
“It’s the fatigue that got to us. At that height, there is hardly any oxygen,” he said of the 6,000-metre altitude. (For comparison, the altitude in Elmira is 295 metres above sea level.)
“But the trip was all about the photography for me. Documenting the land and the culture as it is now is so important.”
