Apsara Dance
One day at Angkor Wat I stumbled onto a rare performance of traditional Apsara dance at the temple and happily photographed away. Apsaras are female spirits or celestial nymphs in Hindu and Buddhist mythologies. They’re young, beautiful, magical and, not surprisingly, excellent dancers. Apsara dances tell classical myths inspired by the Cambodian version of the [...]
Shivratri Festival
Shivratri symbolizes the wedding day of Lord Shiva and Parvati and is an auspicious days for Hindus. In Kutch there was a Shivratri festival at a small village north of Bhuj. I took the bus, always an adventure in itself, and spent the day there. (The only other foreigners there were a guy from Japan [...]
Ladakh Festival
The Ladakh Festival is organized by the J&K government and brings together the various peoples and cultures of the region. Today was the first (and best) day. It started in the morning with a parade of people from different villages in traditional dress playing music, singing and dancing, and ended up at Leh Polo Grounds [...]
A Wedding in Zanskar — Scenes From the Road
I traveled with the groom’s side of the wedding party from Zangla to Shilla to bring the bride to the groom’s family home. Traditionally the groom stays in his village and waits for the bride to be brought to him, so neither the groom or bride was present for this part of the ceremony. The [...]
A Wedding in Zanskar — Arriving at the Bride’s Village
At Shilla all the villagers welcomed the groom’s party with food and chang and there was more music and dancing. The celebrations lasted all night as parties from the two families held a competition of songs and riddles, all part of the ritual. The dusk light was magical and I stayed until there wasn’t enough [...]
A Wedding in Zanskar — The Big Party
The next day the bride’s house filled with people. There was the main party room, a prayer room with about five monks doing a special wedding puja, a room that was taking stock of all the gifts, a busy kitchen, and a kind of den where the young guys started to party after sufficient chang [...]
A Wedding in Zanskar — The Dance Party
When the young guys in the den started dancing to the latest Ladakhi songs (played on every bus so I know them all by now) it felt like a window opened to the culture that I could relate to. I was so happy to see and feel this particular kind of freedom. I hadn’t seen [...]
Lamayuru Festival
Lamayuru is one of my favorite places in Ladakh. It’s a beautiful village with an amazing monastery set in a totally surreal mountain landscape. I went to the monastery’s annual festival last weekend. Masked dances (chams) enacting themes from Tibetan mythology are the center stage of these festivals and the house is always packed. (Thankfully, [...]
