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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Rehwa Society
Roshanara Bi was unlikely to become one of the top weavers of Maheshwar. Born into a poor family from the Muslim area of town, at age 16 she was married off to a young man from a neighboring village. She bore a son but did not want to stay in the marriage, and after three [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
A Wedding in Zanskar
Weddings are a huge reflection of the culture of Ladakh and Zanskar and are in a state of change like everything else here. I wasn’t sure what to expect from this marriage other than a constantly weeping bride, but what I got was an insight into the culture that I hadn’t known before. It was [...]
A Great Little Day!
Today was a great little day for me. I stumbled onto a small festival where I was the only non-Ladakhi and the locals just brought me into the fold. The exact reason for the festival is still unclear to me, but monks and nuns from different monasteries were there to recite some Buddhist texts. The [...]
Nizamuddin Dargah
I spent two days in Delhi before flying to Ladakh. The first day I slept and the second day I visited Nizamuddin, a poor Muslim area in southern Delhi. At the heart of Nizamuddin is the shrine of the famous Indian Sufi saint Hazrat Nizamuddin, who died in 1325 and was a member of the [...]
