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Mikel Dunham is an author, artist and photographer. In the 1980s, Dunham worked in New York City where he created three-dimensional constructions of wood, glass, mirror, photographs and acrylic media. The Alexander F. Milliken Gallery, Inc. represented his work. mounting numerous solo exhibitions in Soho, as well as group installations in the US and abroad.

The late 80s Dunham became the last student of the late thangka master, Pema Wangyal of Dolpo. He spent the next four years learning how to mix mineral pigments, line-brush in 22-carat gold and paint Tibetan iconography. This led to Dunham’s commission to paint the murals for a Tibetan monastery in Sarnath, India...one of eight major pilgrimage sites for Buddhists. Dunham then became artistic director for a much larger Tibetan mural project...a three-year commitment...in upstate New York at Pema Samye Ling Monastery.

In 2000, the Vajrakilaya Foundation selected Dunham to travel to Tibet and photograph Samye, Tibet’s first monastery. Samye: A Pilgrimage to the Birthplace of Tibetan Buddhism (2004, Jodere Group), is the result of that assignment, a photography book interspersed with the history of Bon, the aboriginal religion of Tibet, and the three men most responsible for transforming Tibet into a tantric Buddhist nation: King Trisong Detsen, Padmasambhava and Shantarakshita. The foreword to Samye is written by H. H. the Dalai Lama.

Books and articles

In addition to Samye, Dunham has written two murder mysteries: Stilled Life, in 1989 and Casting for Murder, in 1992.

In 2005, Dunham published Buddha’s Warriors: The Story of the CIA-Backed Tibetan Freedom Fighters, the Chinese Invasion, and the Ultimate Fall of Tibet. Buddha’s Warriors is a political Tibetan history based on seven years of interviews with and the CIA Task Team who secretly trained the growing Tibetan resistance movement in the late 1950s and early 60s. (Foreword by H. H. the Dalai Lama.) Buddha's Warriors has been translated into French under the title Les Guerriers de Bouddha. The Japanese translation was published in 2007, the Indian/Pakistani edition came out in 2008, the Tibetan translation was published in 2009 and the Chinese and Czech translations are due to be published in the fall of 2010.

In 2008, Le gout du Tibet was published in France, an anthology of articles about Tibetan culture, religion and political history. Other authors included in the book are H.H. the Dalai Lama, Sogyal Rinpoche, Pema Chodron, Henrich Harrier, Alexandra David-Neel, Milarepa and Antonin Artaud, among others.

In the last year he has written articles for Harvard South Asian Journal, Tricycle Magazine, and a four-part report on child prostitute trafficking in Asia for Tehelka.

Dunham currently spends much of his time in Nepal researching his next book, a socio-political history of Nepal, while also playing an active role in human rights issues. He was selected as an international observer during the 2008 April elections in Nepal. Continual updates of the political situation in Nepal and Tibet are posted on his website: [1]

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