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 [...]
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 [...]
Fès Festival of World Sacred Music
One of the world’s top cultural and musical events, the annual Fès Festival of World Sacred Music brings together a wide range of performers, artists and intellectuals from around the globe for nine days in June in Morocco’s most historic city. The theme for the 17th festival was “Wisdoms of the World” and the musical [...]
Varanasi Bites
Varanasi was very unfriendly to me. Nevertheless, here’s a friendly image from Varanasi, unless he really does bite!
Bodh Gaya Prayer Festival
An international Buddhist chanting festival takes place each December at the Mahabodhi temple at Bodh Gaya, the place of the Buddha’s enlightenment and the foremost Buddhist pilgrimage site. Bodh Gaya was not blessed with beautiful light or color at this time, and I’ve struggled to like these images I made there during one of my [...]
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 [...]
The Golden Temple {Round 2}
I love this place. Unfortunately I was sick on Diwali so couldn’t make it here then, but went last weekend and still had a great time. To be expected, it wasn’t the same explosion as last year. It was still packed, but no thousands of sadhus rocking the place to high heaven, and the food [...]
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. [...]
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 [...]
Jew Town
The Jews first arrived in Kerala in the 1st century BC at a time when Kerala traded with the Greeks, Romans and Arabs. The Jews in Kerala mainly lived in Cochin (Kochi) in an area now called Jew Town. They were an important part of Kerala’s spice trade and maintained huge warehouses of black pepper, [...]
Varkala Puja
Hindu puja (prayer) ceremonies led by priests are held every morning at Varkala beach on the Kerala coast. Families come to do this together. I don’t understand the significance of the rituals, but it was fascinating to watch. And the beach is gorgeous.
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 [...]
The Evolution of a Smile
He initiated these shots every time our paths crossed. I never saw him any other way.
A Man (I might understand)
This man asked me to take his picture at Stondge Monastery in Zanskar. He was alone and asked me to bring the photo to his work in Leh, which I’ll do. Usually these kinds of pictures aren’t very interesting, but this guy was different. He reminds me of the men from New Mexico where I [...]
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 [...]
Rainy Day Trip
Today the Koreans and I hired a jeep and visited four monasteries in Ladakh: Taktok, Chemrey, Stakna and Matho. It was a rainy day which is unusual for Ladakh, but it’s happening more frequently in the past few years due to global warming (and is having disastrous effects on the walls and murals of the [...]
Three Young Monks
These three young monks from Karsha Monastery are truly as charming and sweet as they look. Each has an older monk that acts as kind of a mentor or guardian to them. The monk above is mentored by Wangboo, the monk who put me up in his place at Karsha, and he was often around [...]
Youth in Red + Green
How can you not love these faces??? This is a huge reason why I love it so much here. I ended up taking many pictures of the young Zanskarpas among the greens, source of life…
Zangla Nunnery
This is Zangla Nunnery, a.k.a. Chomo Gompa. Thanks to two friends I’m staying in Angmo’s room. Angmo is the nunnery’s current Chantmaster which involves a lot of work and she’s rarely in her room, but she has more good energy and charm than anyone I’ve met in a long time. Since my ankle hasn’t healed [...]
Sani Festival Portraits
Portraits of the monks of Bardan Monastery, who perform the festival at Sani.
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 [...]
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, [...]
