Matthieu Ricard
Biography
Born in 1946. Son of French painter Yahne Le Toumelin and philosopher, essayist, journalist and academician Jean-François Revel (born Jean-François Ricard), nephew of Jacques-Yves Le Toumelin, solo sailor around the world, brother of poet and writer Ève Ricard and half-brother of senior civil servant Nicolas Revel.
Travelled to India for the first time in 1967, where he met Tibetan spiritual masters. After completing his doctoral thesis in cellular genetics at the Pasteur Institute under the supervision of Professor François Jacob (Nobel Prize winner in medicine), he decided to settle in the Himalayas, where he has lived since 1972, meditating, studying and practising Tibetan Buddhism with great spiritual masters, mainly Kangyur Rinpoche and then Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche.
He became a monk in 1979. In 1980, thanks to Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, he met the Dalai Lama for the first time, becoming his French interpreter in 1989.
Today, he resides mainly at the Shechen Monastery in Nepal, in a mountain hermitage outside Kathmandu, as well as in Bhutan and the Dordogne. He has travelled to Tibet 21 times.
He has been a speaker at various international events, including ten times at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the United Nations, the World Government Summit in Dubai and twice at TED conferences.
Since 2000, he has been a member of the Mind and Life Institute, founded by neuroscientist Francisco Varela, which facilitates encounters between science and Buddhism, and has been actively involved in research studying the influence of long-term mind training on the brain.
He is committed to the protection of nature and animals and has been a vegetarian for 60 years.
He also had the opportunity to meet Henri Cartier-Bresson at the age of 18. He then continued to learn in the field. After settling in the Himalayas in 1972, he photographed his spiritual masters and the world in which they lived. His goal was to share the splendour, strength and depth of their universe.
Exhibitions selected
2025 Galerie Françoise Livinec, Paris
2022 Toit de la Grande Arche de la Défense, Puteaux
2021 Abbaye de Silvacane, Roque-d'Anthéron
Église de Mérignac et Parc de Bordeaux
2018 Affaires Culturelles de la Principauté, Monaco
Rencontres d'Arles, Arles
2017 Abbaye Royale de l'Epau, Belgique
2016 Musée Paul Dupuy, Toulouse
2015 Invité d'honneur du Vincennes Images Festival, Vincennes
2011-2025 Invité d'honneur du Festival international de la photo animalière et
de nature de Montier-en-Der
2010 Forum des halles, Paris
Festival de Riedisheim
2006-2007 Rubin Museum of Art, New-York
1999 Visa pour l'Image, Perpignan
1998 Asia Society, New-York
Photography Books
- L'esprit du Tibet (Aperture et La Martinière);
- Himalaya Bouddhiste (with Olivier et Danielle Föllmi) ;
- Moines danseurs du Tibet (Albin Michel) ;
- Tibet : regards de compassion ;
- Bhoutan : terre de sérénité ;
- Un voyage immobile : L'Himalaya vu d'un ermitage ;
- 108 sourires ;
- Hymne à la beauté ;
- Visages de paix, terres de sérénité ;
- Un demi-siècle dans l'Himalaya, Contemplations, et Émerveillement ( Éditions de la Martinière).
- Lumière (Allary Éditions, 2025)
Books
- Le Moine et le Philosophe (with son père Jean-François Revel)
- L'infini dans la paume de la main (with l'astrophysicien Trinh Xuan Thuan)
- Plaidoyer pour le bonheur
- L'Art de la méditation
- La citadelle des neiges
- Chemins spirituels, Plaidoyer pour l'altruisme
- Plaidoyer pour les animaux
- Trois amis en quête de sagesse
- À nous la liberté ! et Abécédaire de la sagesse (all 3 with Alexandre Jollien et
Christophe André)
- Le Cerveau et la méditation (with Wolf Singer)
- Les Folles histoires du sage Nasredin (with Ilios Kotsou)
- Carnets d'un moine errant (Allary Éditions)
