The exhibition was born out of a meeting between Nguyen Manh Duy, founder of OM Himalaya, and photographer Lhakpa Sonam Sherpa in Kathmandu, Nepal, in early 2025.

More than a visual showcase, “Himalaya: The Pure Land” is designed as a journey guiding audiences into the serene and healing energy of the Himalayan snow ranges.

Through his lens, Lhakpa Sonam Sherpa brings to Vietnam not only panoramic landscapes of the Himalayas, but also a rare photographic archive capturing life and culture at the foothills of Mount Everest, known as the “Roof of the World.”

His works portray the grandeur, vastness and mystical beauty of nature, drawn from a lifelong photographic legacy and a deep-rooted connection to his homeland. This marks the first time Vietnamese audiences can experience the Himalayas through the perspective of a native Sherpa photographer.

Lhakpa Sonam Sherpa is also the founder of the Sherwi Khangba Hotel Museum, a cultural space dedicated to preserving Himalayan mountaineering history and indigenous heritage, which has been recognized by Google Street View and legendary climber Reinhold Messner. He has devoted his life to researching, conserving and promoting the cultural values of the Khumbu Valley.

Accompanying him is Nguyen Manh Duy, widely known as a “Himalaya storyteller,” whose photographs reflect more than a decade of personal journeys, from his first encounters with the region to the successful summits of Mount Everest and Lhotse in 2025. His visual narratives convey inner transformation and the resilient spirit shaped by the Himalayan landscape.

The OM Himalaya founder spent a decade working in journalism before first traveling to Nepal and Tibet in 2014. He was the first Vietnamese person to summit both Everest and Lhotse within a single week in May 2025, and later pioneered the introduction of Himalayan mindfulness practices, sound healing with singing bowls, and therapeutic arts in Vietnam.

The exhibition is open to the public free of charge, welcoming visitors interested in visual arts and the cultural and spiritual values of the Himalayan region at the beginning of the new year.

Photo exhibition captures over three decades of Vietnam’s transformation

A photo exhibition by British photojournalist Andy Soloman opened in Hanoi on November 4, offering a unique perspective on Vietnam’s remarkable transformation over more than three decades through a series of moving encounters and reunions.