Racing against the millions of tourists who would soon be arriving in the Tibet Autonomous Region via the new Lhasa Express railway, I spent the early summer of 2006 drifting across the plateau on foot, bus and donkey.
　　My journey started with a 4X4 expedition across the remote tundra of eastern Tibet’s Kham region, where I spotted remote Buddhist monasteries and black tent settlements of nomadic drokpa shepherds. At Rongchu Gorge, a landslide literally tore the road from the mountain face, forcing me on an arduous four-hour hike in the dark and pouring rain. And at Mount Kailash, Asia’s most sacred mountain, my path to purity almost ended in breathless fatality atop the Drolma-La pass, had not a Ngari pilgrim woman literally carried me the remainder of the spiritual circuit.
　　These images capture something of the peerless beauty and character of the people I came across during my journey in Tibet: China’s final wilderness.
　　


　　


　　Buddhist worshiper shields herself from the blazing-hot votive candles at a small temple in old lhasa
　　


　　Female bddhist monk spinning her "manI" prayer wheel at the sacred doors oF jokhang temple, the spiritual heart of lhasa
　　


　　Tibetan tassel-adorned door of a temple at mount kailash
　　


　　One of the many highaltitude passes in kham, east tibet
　　


　　Tibetan girl in kham, east tibet, with auspiciously numbered 108 hair braids
　　


　　A woman prostrates herself before the potala palace In lhasa
　　


　　Well-dressed khampa men enjoy a smoke and a beer in the outpost town of markham in eastern tibet
　　


　　Daughter of tibetan pilgrims wearIng a pendant of the 10th panchen lama, choekyi gyaltsen