Pilgrims Spin Prayer Wheels Under Night Sky

Deep shadow envelopes a stone corridor lined with brass prayer wheels, their surfaces catching faint rim light against the blackness of an early summer night. Wooden prayer flags flutter violently above, their saturated blues and reds blurred by the whipping wind. Pilgrims in heavy woolen coats stand shoulder to shoulder, their hands gripping the cylindrical brass drums as they rotate them in unison. The low angle emphasizes the towering stone archway overhead, where the night sky presses down without stars. Sweat glistens on the exposed skin of a face near the front, against the cold, metallic sheen of the spinning wheels. One brass ring on a wheel hangs loose, vibrating against the stone floor.