October 17th, 2007. It was a sunny day in Washington DC as hundreds gathered on the south lawn of the US Capitol hoping to get a glimpse of Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso, better known to the world as the 14th Dalai Lama.
They began arriving early in the day, staking out positions on the lawn as if it were some festival concert. Some in traditional Buddhist robes, some carrying handmade signs urging support for a free Tibet; they crowded along the capitol steps and watched a jumbotron feed of the Congressional Gold Medal ceremony taking place inside the Capitol Rotunda.
I did not watch the jumbotron because I was inside photographing the ceremony. Of the hundred plus pictures I took that day, one stood out immediately:
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