Inle Lake
The jewel of Burma’s Shan state is Inle Lake, a long, shallow body of freshwater situated at 2,900 feet above sea level, surrounded by lush hills and inhabited by about 150,000 people. The largest ethnic group of Inle Lake are the Intha, which means “sons of the lake.” The Intha are a Tibeto-Burmese people who [...]
Pa-O Style
The Pa-O women of Burma’s Shan state are known for their strength and beauty, and not surprisingly they have a great style of dress to match! It consists of a lunghi (skirt), a sleeveless shift blouse with a v-neck in front and back, and a long sleeved, crop-length jacket with a short, stand-up collar. The [...]
Walking Meditation
A number of monks and yogis do walking meditation at Shwedagon Pagoda. It’s extremely slow, deliberate walking in a state of meditation, and sometimes along a specific path and using prayer beads, like the yogi in this photo was doing. Yogis can be male or female, and they are not monastics but are on a [...]
Me & the Shan Women
Here’s a rare picture of me out in the world. These women are from the Pa-O tribe of Burma’s Shan state and had just returned from Bodh Gaya, the place of Buddha’s enlightenment in India. The white sashes symbolize their pilgrimage. The group included several monks and nuns and they were making a tour of [...]
Inle Lake Fisherman
Falling in love with this guy, photographically speaking, was not hard to do. The fisherman of Inle Lake are famous for this balletic, one-legged rowing style.
Angkor Rice Farming
Angkor is the world’s most extensive medieval hydraulic city and the cultivation of rice around the temples continues today. Monsoon rains start the short, intense planting season in summer. The lands are flat and the work is hard, all done by humans and animals. The farmers grow enough rice for themselves to eat for the [...]
Morning Alms
A familiar sight across Southeast Asia is the early morning alms round of the Buddhist monks. The monks walk door-to-door in the areas around their monasteries asking for their daily sustenance. Traditionally rice is given, and today people also give packaged noodles, juice, money, etc. The monks recite some text before the donors, who are [...]
IKTT Reviving Cambodian Ikat
On the outskirts of Siem Reap nestled away in a tropical forest, the enlightened Institute of Khmer Traditional Textiles (IKTT) is working to restore and preserve Cambodia’s silk textile traditions. The Khmer Rouge all but obliterated the country’s artisans during the 1970s, including its weavers who produced silk ikat, one of the world’s most complex [...]
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 [...]
Angkor Portrait
This is one of my favorite portraits from Cambodia so far. The colors and light aren’t special, but the woman is. It was a Sunday afternoon and she was alone, watching the busloads of tourists entering Angkor Wat. She’s probably a rice farmer who lives in the area surrounding the Angkor temples. She was wonderfully [...]
Anokhi Factory
The clothing retailer Anokhi is one of my favorite things about India. A trip to one of their shops brightens even the worst day in Delhi. Not only are their block printed clothes and other textiles beautifully designed and tailored, they actually run a socially and environmentally ethical business. Before leaving India I visited their [...]
Dolma’s Garden
My home-base in Ladakh is the Skit Tsal guest house in Leh. It’s a traditional home stay in a nice, big house run by a lovely couple, Dolma and Phunchok. The grandfather, who’s still chugging along at 92, and their two young sons live here too. The two-story house is located in Leh’s upper Karzoo [...]
Buddhist Masks
No wonder Picasso loved masks. I think he would have liked the Tibetan Buddhist ones too. The mask above is of Yamantaka, the Terminator of Death, who is the wrathful incarnation of Manjushri, the bodhisattva of Wisdom. According to legend, the Lord of Death, Yama, was about to destroy Tibet, but the people sought help [...]
Varanasi Bites
Varanasi was very unfriendly to me. Nevertheless, here’s a friendly image from Varanasi, unless he really does bite!
The Ghats of Maheshwar
Maheshwar was another small revelation and I’ll certainly be going back. Named after Lord Shiva and mentioned in the Hindu epics the Ramayana and Mahabharata, Maheshwar is a small, peaceful pilgrimage town along the banks of the Narmada River. Since I haven’t had a very good or productive time at other Hindu pilgrimage sites in [...]
30 Meters of Turban
This man is a fully baptized Sikh whom I met at The Golden Temple. His turban is made of 30 meters of cloth and is decorated with the two primary symbols of Sikhism: the Khanda and the Ek-Onkar. Baptized (Khalsa) Sikhs like this man follow the famous five K’s: Kachera, Kara, Kirpan, Kanga and Kesh. [...]
Norbulingka Institute
The Norbulingka Institute near Dharamsala was established to preserve Tibetan culture and traditional arts. It has workshops for thanka painting and appliqué, woodworking, metal sculpture and textiles, and produces top-notch work, all done by Tibetan refugees. There’s a beautiful shop where the goods are sold, a Buddhist temple, a doll museum, a delicious cafe, a [...]
Tea with the Rabaris
The Rabaris are a Hindu tribe found in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab, and other northwest Indian states, as well as in Pakistan. Their traditional occupation is raising and herding animals like goats, camels and cattle. They were once nomadic but have almost completely settled into villages. The women are famous for their textile embroidery, and in [...]
Hampi
The ruins of the Vijayanagara Empire at Hampi are just spectacular. India at its best. Hampi on Wikipedia Hampi on UNESCO
Cochin, Kerala
Cochin (Kochi) is made up of a handful of islands and peninsulas including the main hub of Ernakulum and the historic areas of Fort Kochi and Mattancherry. Most of these images are from Fort Kochi, where you can still see and feel the Portuguese influence. Sometimes it feels like Cuba or Latin America too—the same [...]
Tropical Color
Kerala presents a whole new color palette for me. Purples and oranges. Blues and yellows. Greens and reds. It’s fabulous.
Debates at Sera Monastery, Bylakuppe
Bylakuppe is a small town in southern Karnataka that’s home to the largest Tibetan refugee settlement in India. Roughly 3,000 acres of jungle forest land was given to the Tibetans by the Indian government in 1959, and from that they’ve created a pretty nice settlement. Today approximately 14,000 Tibetans live in about 15 “camps” where [...]
Free Community Kitchen
The Langar at The Golden Temple is simply amazing. It serves free, delicious food to tens (or hundreds) of thousands of people a day, 24-hours a day. And the whole operation is run by volunteer labor. The free kitchen is a feature of all Sikh temples (gurdwaras), and doing volunteer work in the kitchens is [...]
