44 - Matthieu RICARD (Born in 1946)

Matthieu RICARD (Born in 1946) Drouk-kar Tsho, the “Karuna Girl,” age 13, Eastern Tibet, 2013 Art print, UltraChrome HDX pigment inks, Epson Premium glossy paper, mounted on 2mm Dibond 90 x 60 cm Label on the back of the mounting. This exhibition print may show slight marks or imperfections. Proceeds from the sale of this print benefit the Karuna Shechen Association and its relief programs for victims of the August 26, 2026, floods in Nepal. A few years later, I wanted to see our “Karuna girl” again and asked her uncle if he could find her. She came down from the high-altitude pastures where she spent the summer with her nomadic parents. In the more recent portrait, taken in 2013, she was 13 years old. Her name is Drouk-kar Tsho. In Tibetan, drouk-kar (“six stars”) is a poetic term for a beautiful turquoise, and tsho means ocean. So, her name could be translated as “Beautiful Ocean of Turquoises.” Eight years later, she exuded the same simplicity and radiance as the little girl I had met in 2005. I showed her the photo and thanked her for becoming, through her smile, the ambassador for our humanitarian projects. “This photo has been seen by tens of thousands of people around the world,” I told her. She looked at me kindly, but my words meant nothing to her—why would thousands of people have looked at her photo? Thank you to Drouk-kar Tsho for offering her gracious smile, a symbol of so many children in need throughout the Himalayas! A few years later, I wanted to see our “Karuna girl” again and asked her uncle if he could find her. She came down from the high-altitude pastures where she had spent the summer with her nomadic parents. In the most recent portrait, taken in 2013, she was 13 years old. Her name is Drouk-kar Tsho. In Tibetan, drouk-kar (“six stars”) poetically refers to a beautiful turquoise, and tsho means ocean. So her name could be translated as “Beautiful ocean of turquoise.” Eight years later, she exuded the same simplicity and radiance as the little girl I met in 2005. I showed her the picture and thanked her for becoming, through her smile, the ambassador of our humanitarian projects. “This photo has been seen by tens of thousands of people around the world,” I confided to her. She looked at me kindly, but my words meant nothing to her—why would thousands of people look at her picture? Thank you to Drouk-kar Tsho for offering her gracious smile, a symbol of so many children in need across the Himalayas!