Helped by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which has a comprehensive anti-AIDS project in India, Gere met with the prime minister and brought together the hugely influential Indian film community to raise awareness about the way HIV is spreading throughout the country. This is in addition to his lobbying work on behalf of Tibet and other projects in the Middle East and elsewhere.

With Gere maintaining so many commitments in various parts of the world, it is not surprising that Gere's wife is reluctant to see him take on additional save-the-world projects. He says that he is also reluctant to shoulder new responsibilities in various trouble spots because he already spends so much time away from his family.

"I've stayed away from a lot of places because my wife will kill me if I get involved with anything else," Gere says, as Lowell relaxes out of earshot in the next room. "Of course, she wants me to slow down and be home more. I ask her, 'Look, are you okay with this?' when I'm starting something new. And sometimes she says, 'No, I can't let you do any more, it's gonna hurt us.' And usually I listen."

One thing he won't give up in the interest of domestic harmony is his passion for photography. Pilgrim, his book featuring the images on display at his Brussels exhibit, shows 64 of his photographs from Tibet and the surrounding regions, including the parts of northern India where the Dalai Lama and other Tibetans live in exile. The photos are quiet, haunting images that reflect Gere's deep involvement with Tibetan culture, which has been central to his life since he was a young man.

Like much of his work, the photos have both an artistic and a political element at their core. In one way, they are expressions of his admiration for the Tibetans and their traditional way of life, which he sees as an untarnished expression of the ideals of nonviolence and brotherhood he aspires to in his own life. At the same time, some of the photographs capture the dislocation and angst experienced by Tibetans after their country fell under Chinese control.