Following an interest in Buddhism and admiration for the 14th Dalai Lama I traveled to India in 1999, to the seat of the Tibetan Government in Exile in Dharmasala, HP. The refugee community was first established in 1959, when the 14th Dalai Lama fled Tibet with some 100,000 Tibetans following a failed uprising against Chinese occupation. Existing as a separate nation for over 600 years, the Himalayan kingdom was forcibly integrated into neighboring China in 1950 after the Chinese invasion.

During my first visit to India I worked as a Volunteer within the Tibetan Refugee Reception Centre in Dharmasala. The centre supports newly arrived Tibetan refugees, who continue to flee Tibet through neighboring Nepal. The Refugee migration drew international attention during December 1999, when one of the most senior religious figures in Tibetan Buddhism, the 17th Karmapa, arrived in Dharmasala. Approximately 3,000 Tibetans enter Nepal each year to escape conditions in Tibet, according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.

In June 1998, the European Union issued a report based on the trip of its ambassadorial delegation to Tibet in early May 1998. The report was highly critical of the Government's control of religious freedom and stated that "the delegation was in no doubt that the authorities in the TAR exercise extremely tight control over the principal elements of Tibetan religion and culture." Some 6,000 monasteries and shrines have been destroyed in efforts to stifle Tibetan nationalism and political opposition.

Seeking to better understand and highlight the issue of religious freedom in Tibet I visited Lhasa in late 2004, traveling to Ganden monastery to document the lives of the Buddhist population. The monastery has become well known for its open opposition to Chinese control since pro Dalai Lama demonstrations in May 1996, following the abduction of 11th Panchen Lama. Following the Chinese clampdown, the monasteries population fell from 700 to 500. In the following years a nationwide a system ‘patriotic education campaigns’ have been introduced in Buddhist Monasteries, disrupting religious activity in many monasteries. Despite government efforts to control monasteries, for the monks that remain antigovernment sentiment nonetheless remains strong. The following year I co-ordinated a series of exhibitions to promote the issue of the religious freedom in Tibet whilst undertaking my Masters study in the UK.