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Sunday, 30 June 2019

Palanqueras, the Fruit Basket Ladies of Cartagena

Written by Jim Chamberlain

I wandered along the stone walls of one of the largest fortresses in the Caribbean. Castillo San Felipe de Barajas dominates the approaches to the old city of Cartagena, Columbia by both land and sea. This city is one of the cornerstone locations of the old Spanish Main. The Old Town of Cartagena is rich in history. The beautiful squares and its cathedral remind visitors of its importance in the Caribbean. Vendors selling a variety of souvenirs are everywhere. I saw several women carrying pans of fruit on their head while wearing colorful dresses. They would pose for photographs with the tourists. I asked my guide, Victor Mendez, about them. He said they are called Palanqueras from a village south of the city. Their history reflects one of the lesser known but important stories of the Caribbean. One of the best places to find these women is near the Plaza…

Friday, 01 March 2019

The People of the Four Sacred Mountains: The Navajo

Written by Jim Chamberlain

They call themselves the Diné (Din Nay), the people. They have inhabited the Four Corners region of the United State for hundreds of years. Their traditional homeland is contained by four mountains they consider sacred. Mt Hesperus and Mt. Blanca in Colorado, The San Francisco Peaks in Arizona, and Mount Taylor in New Mexico. They currently occupy one of the largest reservations in the United States, but it only encompasses a portion of their traditional homeland. Iconic places like Monument Valley, Canyon de Chelly, Window Rock, and Antelope Canyon attract visitors to view the beauty of Navajo land. It is the people and their culture which developed here that makes visiting here memorable. This land is like a giant church bounded by four sacred mountains, its landscape providing lessons to guide their lives. I look at a beautiful mesa and see a postcard while a Navajo might see a natural…

Sunday, 01 July 2018

Bali: Indonesia's Island of Temples

Written by Jim Chamberlain

I have not seen or read Eat, Pray, Love. I am not sure I want to. I did want to see the most exotic of destinations in Asia. The island of Bali. What I expected was probably a combination of swaying palm trees and beautiful beaches with an Southeast Asian ambiance. What I experienced was one of the most spiritual cultures in Asia. Bali is a Hindu enclave in the most populous Muslim country in the world, Indonesia. The island's location allowed it to remain isolated and retain its centuries old culture while the rest of Indonesia became mostly Muslim. Christianity flourished during the colonial period of Dutch rule in these islands but Bali remained Hindu. Along the pier, three Balinese women greeted the cruise ship tourists with the "sembah" (to greet by clasping two hands together in front of the chest while slightly bowing). The streets and roads from…

Friday, 01 September 2017

Stunning Sapa, Vietnam

Written by Laura Collins

After precariously zig-zagging our way up and between the mountains, we arrive to find Sapa’s beauty concealed in a shroud of mist and darkness. When we awake, the town has too. Its aliveness proves a delight for the senses: the vibrant colours of the traditional dress, the whirl of hustle and bustle, the smell of roasting pigs and motorbike fumes – the west seems sterile and dull in comparison. It is here that we meet Lan, our beaming local guide from the Dzay tribe. Her ancestors arrived here from China 600 years ago. Today her entire family live in the same nearby village, whose eldest inhabitant is 110. “No fast food here,” Lan chuckles. We begin hiking and she assures us that this afternoon will be even more beautiful than Sapa town. “More beautiful?” we exclaim back, eyes widening, as we take in the splendor already unfolding before us. We…

Saturday, 01 July 2017

A Mozambican Beach: A Very Social Institution

Written by Donal Conlon

Going to a beach in Mozambique is totally unlike going to a beach in Greece, Italy or the South of France. Its role is different; it’s all about interaction. Maputo beach on the edge of Mozambique’s capital illustrates this in many ways. Obviously, people go there to escape the heat and humidity of the city, but they don’t go there to swim - few can, or to sunbathe - little need to. They go to play, socialize and do business. People jump up and down in the water and frolic at the edges. Groups of young boys and girls play football as they howl and scream. Anyone can join in. They shout, “Come and play”. There are children scooping the sand for the thousands of tiny crabs trapped in dips in the sand at low tide. Women and their children grill fish or chicken to serve with “xima” which is…

Monday, 23 January 2017

The Kindness of Strangers; Somewhere in Morocco

Written by Daniel Davies-Llewellyn

A serious bout of food poisoning threatens to put a stop to a desert road trip until a chance meeting with unconditional kindness... I pulled the car over and ran as fast as I could, difficult given the circumstances, up the loose rocky lunar-like scree to the top of the low hillside in search of some privacy. In reality this was lunacy as the only other human for as far as the eye could see was my cousin, and traveling companion, Jack. However, some basic human need to be out of view drove me up and out of sight where I crouched down behind a well-placed rock. Something wasn't right but I already knew that; I'd spent the last hour or so spasmodically vomiting from a moving car's window. I stood up, light-headed, and stumbled back towards the beat-up hire car down on the asphalt below. It was then I…

Sunday, 01 January 2017

Empire of the Sun and Moon: A Bolivian Creation Story

Written by Daniel Davies-Llewellyn

A serendipitous walk along the spine of Bolivia's Isla del Sol leads to an unexpected and unforgettable festival experience. The TV camera panned across the scene and onto the politician from La Paz. A young reporter fired well-prepared questions from his notebook whilst a group of bemused locals looked on in amazement. It wasn’t every day a film crew from the capital turned up here, but then it’s not every day you celebrate the birth of the Sun, Moon and all life on Earth. We were at what seemed like the extremities of the world; 4000 meters up in the crystalline air of the Andean massif at the northern tip of Isla Del Sol, a small island floating in Lake Titicaca, the world’s highest navigable body of water. No cars, roads, mobile phone masts or chain stores here. We had stumbled across a traditional celebration of the Aymara and Quechua…

Sunday, 01 May 2016

A Trek Through Irish Culture in Doolin

Written by Tina Donvito

How can a place so remote be so alive? Doolin in County Clare, Ireland, is barely a town, but the locals who gather at Gus O’Connor’s pub couldn’t be more of a community, as tightly knit as a woolen Irish sweater. Located on the wind-swept west coast of Ireland, the village is situated between the sea and the Burren, an area covered by flat, barren rock — a desolate place secretly filled with history and song. I spent a drizzly afternoon walking from Doolin to the Cliffs of Moher, down a path used by horses and carts, past ruined stone cottages that I imagine had been abandoned for the fair shores of America during the famine. By the time I got to the cliffs, I was soaked to the bone, but the lack of tourists venturing out on such an especially rainy day made the place all the more mystical.…

Sunday, 01 November 2015

Coba: Ancient Mayan Ruins & a Family-run Hotel

Written by Emese Fromm

“Can I show you some rooms?”, the young kid, about my own son’s age, asked. We looked at a few, since he insisted on showing us each type of room they offered in the small hotel. It was midday, hot and sticky, and all the rooms were sunny and warm. When he saw us still hesitant, he took us a next door, to another hotel, where he talked to someone who we supposed was the owner. I couldn’t contain my smile when I realized that they were talking in Mayan! Not that I understand a word of it, but it made me so happy to hear it, to know that this ancient language is still used every day. We found a room in the shadiest part of the building, and as soon as we unpacked, we left to explore the ruins. We only had about an hour left until closing…

Thursday, 30 April 2015

Carving A Piece Of Cambodia

Written by Paige Lim

"Clink, clink, clink". Every strike of the hammer sends my chisel plunging into rough sandstone, dislodging tiny chunks which scatter haphazardly across the table. A tingly ache has begun to creep up behind my hunched-over back while dripping beads of my forehead perspiration dissolve into damp speckles on the red, earthy surface of the stone block. It is Sunday afternoon, and I am learning the traditional Cambodian art of stone carving in the modest workshop of 31-year-old Poy Khet, a professional craftsman. An hour into incessantly chipping away at a square slab, an exquisite Romdoul flower - the national flower of Cambodia - is slowly but surely beginning to take shape. "One by one, not too strong," says Khet as he watches me struggle to control the strength exerted from my hammer. Carving the delicate contours of the flower's petals proves to be the most difficult task for the day,…

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Sunday, 29 June 2014

Old Mexico: San Juan Chamula and Zinacantan

Written by Kelly West

The large cross located outside of the Cathedral is the meeting point for a Mayan Village Tour with Alex and Raul Our travels had brought us to the city of San Cristobal de las Casas, and while we were deeply entrenched on the Gringo Trail, we wanted more. We wanted to see what Mexico was really like. What old Mexico was really like. Throughout our travels in Mexico we’d experienced the warmth and friendliness of the Mexican people, but there's a lot more behind the smiles and the friendliness. Mexicans have a deep patriotism and pride for everything that is Mexico and are fiercely protective of their native cultures. While in San Cristobal de las Casas we heard about a small tour company called Alex y Raul who run small, culturally responsible tours out to two nearby Mayan villages called San Juan Chamula and Zinacantan. All we had to do…

Saturday, 01 February 2014

Three King’s Day Festival: Valencia, Spain

Written by Jessica Morgan

My husband and I were in Valencia, Spain for a week during the Three King’s Day Festival (El Dia de los Reyes) that takes place in early January. We travel often and opted for a hostel with a private room and bath, which ended up having such a great location that we would have paid triple the price to stay there. Location is key when you are traveling, especially for those on a budget. The less you spend on public transportation and taxis the more you have for other expenditures. We were able to walk all over the city from the hostel and partook in the holiday festivities easily. Three Kings Day celebrates the love and adoration by the Three Kings for baby Jesus. The celebration begins with a huge parade, during which candy is thrown from all the floats and into the hands of the dressed up children in…

Monday, 30 December 2013

The Bajau of Wakatobi, Indonesia

Written by Caitlin Kelly

The Bajau people of Wakatobi national park in Southern Indonesia are perhaps the most smiley people I have ever encountered, but then again… I haven’t met many people. Three months ago I traveled to Indonesia, embarking on a South East Asian odyssey. This was my very first ‘big’ adventure. 18 years old, with a bag so heavy that it made me walk like a new born calf, I set off with a friend, to a corner of the world very different from my own. 48 hours later we had made it to Jakarta. The blast of heat wasn’t the most comforting element of my first few moments off a steamy, sweaty airplane. Forget that, I was in Jakarta! The roads alit with red and orange lights, car horns of course, the soundtrack to an Asian city. We were quickly bustled onto a bus, and off we went, to a hotel…

Wednesday, 30 October 2013

A Tomb Worth Dying For: A Funeral in Sumba, Indonesia

Written by Shivaji Das

The crowd built up along the street, shoulder to shoulder, building the pressure around me. Older children climbed up coconut trees for a better view. An opening formed and an elaborately decorated buffalo was pulled in. It was positioned in front of the house and the crowd formed a circle around it. Everything became still. The whole world radiated from where the buffalo stood. A man with a machete slowly walked up to its side. You are witnessing a funeral rite in a village in the remote island of Sumba, Indonesia. You know by now that in Sumbanese society, ancestors are revered, and death means elevation from a mundane world to the realm of Marapu, a few steps closer to God in their ancient animist religion. Death is also when social standings are audited. Therefore, fortunes are spent on building grand tombs and organizing elaborate sacrifices and feasts during funerals.…

Sunday, 01 September 2013

Blood Sunday in Salmuenster: Passion, Promises and Processions

Written by Mike Howard

I’m alone on the bluff above the magnificent Fulda Cathedral. I’m no ghoul – at least, I don’t think I am. But I can’t take my eyes off of the large slab of gray slate that’s bolted to the sandstone blocks of Saint Michael’s chapel. It’s quite the experience. Rows upon rows of skulls are carved in stone – large skulls, small skulls, adolescent, child and infant. The skulls are carved in relief, with such gentle detail that I think that I can distinguish between male and female. On the far right, a stylized angel/monk points heavenward. Saint Michael’s is the oldest Holy Sepulcher church in Germany—and dates back an incredible 1200 years. I’d spent the morning thirty minutes to the south, in the “Salmuenster half” of the spa town of Bad-Soden Salmuenster, a smallish town of 15,000 permanent residents. It’s Blutsonntag—Blood Sunday. I was early, but Saint Peter and…

Sunday, 30 June 2013

Holi Moley!

Written by Will Hatton

The streets were deserted, the shops closed. A lone pedestrian hurried down the street, anxiously glancing upwards as if looking for some unknown threat. Street corners were crowded with heavily armed riot police in lightning blue urban camouflage. The police eyeballed all who approached the large collection of small stalls which had been set up in and around the alleys crisscrossing Thamel, the beating heart of Kathmandu's backpacker scene. Unable to stand the tension any longer I gathered together a small group of foreigners from my guesthouse and ventured out towards the stalls. Hundreds of packets of dry paint in various shades and sizes lay scattered across the tables and it didn't take us long to buy a dozen packets between us. A Nepalese journalist was instantly upon us and, with a camera shoved in our general direction, we were encouraged to begin. I was the first to crack. Ripping…

Sunday, 28 April 2013

Beads and Prayers: a Candomblé Ceremony in Brazil

Written by Libba Hockley

Beads, the color of aqua and jade, dangle from my fingertips. The freshwaters of Mountain Creek catch them in its path, purifying their plastic centers until the sun shines through them with verve. I’m washing these necklace beads in the waters of my hometown just outside of Carlisle, Pennsylvania. They left the hands of a market merchant in Bahia, Brazil two weeks earlier, shifted amongst jostling clothes still damp from the humidity of Brazil in the undercarriage of a 747, and ended up here in the woods of Pine Grove Furnace, grounding me to something. I’ve worn these beads a few times since returning from Brazil, wrapping them around my neck, letting them fall beneath my shirt to rest in between my rib cages. That’s the way the people of the Candomblé religion wear them, hidden under their clothes, close enough to salty skin to allow the energy of the…

Tuesday, 01 January 2013

The Ta Phin Games, Vietnam

Written by Filip Gierlinski

A ‘Push of War’ takes place in front of the cheering crowd In the northern province of Lao Cai, Vietnam, the locals have their own version of the Olympic Games. In the small village of Ta Phin, about 30 minutes from the market town of Sapa, villagers take part in a variety of sports, challenges and events. Day to day it is a small hillside village, humming with the bustle of trade between the local tribes and traders from the bigger towns. But in late January, people from the surrounding hills and tribes all come together to celebrate the end of the Tet festival. Over 150 people come to watch and compete in the various games undertaken in the rice fields surrounding the village. In this region, the two main ethnic tribes are the Black Hmong, and the Red Dao. Each with their distinctive, traditional clothes, they add a flare…

Wednesday, 29 August 2012

The Water People of Venezuela

Written by Victor Manuel Rodríguez Urosa

A photo essay about the Waraos, 'the water people' who live in the Orinoco Delta in Venezuela by Victor Manuel Rodríguez Urosa(c)Victor Manuel Rodríguez Urosa

Saturday, 30 June 2012

Gypsy Celebration, Cabra, Spain

Written by Helen Vicary

Ever imagined drinking brandy for breakfast with gypsies? Me neither. But that's exactly what happened when I and two traveling companions decided to go to the religious festival held at the Ermitage de Nuestra Senora de la Sierra, in the province of Cordoba, in the region of Andalucia, Spain.We were living on the Costa del Sol. Almost a crime in itself. The Costa is full of holiday apartments, villas and British pubs playing English soccer matches and serving English food. A strip of prime real estate around the southern coast of Spain and many would say, a travesty. We were renting an apartment in one of the enclaves and working. Getting paid under the table seemed relatively easy and we cleaned villas and apartments, or baby-sat. We did anything that would enable us to live in the sun and explore the interior of Andalucia in our spare time. We wanted…

Monday, 30 April 2012

Sumpango Festival, Guatemala

Written by Sophia Efthymiou

In the ‘Western’ developed world I think we’d all agree that memorials for our departed beloved are scarcely an annual event. When they do come about, they tend to be quite low key, somber affairs. You will experience quite the opposite, should you find yourself in Guatemala, Mexico or a handful of other Latin American countries on November the 1st. Think bustling, colorful and warm. Throw in some indigenous artistic masterpieces and a lot of spirit. This is ‘Dia de los Muertos’, in English ‘Day of the Dead’. Ancient indigenous peoples such as the Incas, Mayans and Aztecs in Latin America each used to perform different rituals to honor the dead. Following the influence of Catholic All Saints Day, brought to the region by the Spanish and Portuguese conquistadores, these traditions developed into the modern day Dia de los Muertos. Common to the festive day in several countries, families congregate…

Friday, 03 February 2012

Dragon Fever

Written by Holly Urquhart

Inside, outside, everyone, everywhere was in a flurry of movement. The year of the Dragon was upon us. Row upon row of dragon-like flowers peered down from the shelves, mouths wide open in determination to display their wealth of colors and tantalizing petals while screaming seductions at shoppers as they bustled past. Everywhere you looked red and gold dominated the landscape, with every stall a mirror image of the other, all of them selling wine, flowers and boxes of finger foods. The air was filled with the sound of children screeching happily, dashing here and there in the delight of knowing full well what these symptoms meant – the arrival of the Chinese New Year.In the weeks succeeding Christmas, the red and gold shops of the Lunar New Year plague the downtown malls of Hong Kong, bringing with them gifts of food, sweets and red laisee packets containing money that send…

Monday, 31 October 2011

Why a Horse Riding Accident in Mongolia Is Good for the Soul

Written by Mariusz Stankiewicz

At first I was not convinced. I had never been interested in horse riding at all, nor did I even plan on mounting a sturdy white mare upon arrival to Mongolia’s Gorkhi-Terelj National Park. And despite everyone indulging me with horse maxims like, “to ride a horse is like to ride the wind,” or “no hour of life is wasted that is spent in the saddle,” I still associated the pastime with priggish bourgeois social classes and the boring equestrian events of the Summer Olympics. Even as a boy I was thoroughly bored with Wild West and Cowboys and Indians movies; and need I even mention the dancing Lipizzaner Stallions of the Spanish Riding school in Austria, which to me, are parodied of their true abilities and groomed to look like pearly “My Little Pony” toys for children. But after ceaselessly goading me on the prospect of a mini-adventure within the…

Tuesday, 26 April 2011

Vine of the Soul: Ayahuasca

Written by Chris Perkins

I have always had a deep quixotic nature which sometimes takes my life in surprising new directions. Some view it as living on a whim, but at some point you have to follow your instincts and listen to the call. This brings me to my present location... a few hours outside of Iquitos, deep in the Peruvian Amazon basin, living in a hut, and spending my nights trying to straddle between two worlds. One foot in the physical world, and another in the ethereal.Last night, shortly after darkness had blanketed the jungle, I was led to the maloca, a ceremonial hut where I was met by a couple of others and the three curanderos, or shaman, presiding over the ceremony. We would be drinking ayahuasca, also known as yage, la purga, or the vine of the soul. The only light illuminating the hut was three candles burning on the floor…

Saturday, 26 February 2011

Hindu Bratabandha Ceremony, Nepal

Written by Amanda Shore

A Photo Essay A boy waits for his Bratabandha to begin. Bratabandha is a complex Hindu ceremony where boys, between 8 and 12, take the first steps in learning the traditional laws, ceremonial roles and rituals of their caste. In Nepal, it is considered the beginning of manhood. Before the ceremony boys wear a traditional orange headband pierced with a porcupine spine, for protection from evil. The boys warm themselves in front of the fire, close by a priest prepares. The boys try to behave like young men until the urge to wrestle overwhelms them. This Bratabandha is being performed by 6 Brahman priests, though only 2 are technically required. Red, white, yellow patterns, Swasti, were made around the fire for protection and to mark an elaborate place setting, indicating where each god should sit as they joined the ceremony. Pujas are performed to Ganesh, and light and water. Female…

Thursday, 30 December 2010

Performing Kabuki in Japan: Memoirs of a Rooster

Written by Colin Machado

“Take off your clothes.” For a moment, I wasn’t sure whether I had signed up for kabuki or for a low-budget porno. This was our first rehearsal and they were already asking me to get undressed? That’s more of a second- or third-rehearsal kind of thing, isn’t it? Fortunately, we only had to strip to our undies, and it was just for the purpose of putting us into costume—no funny business. The five of us were dressed in colorful new kimonos, embroidered in gold. Everyone else had powerful, masculine patterns on theirs, like dragons, lions and waves. I had a rooster. Three weeks prior, I had been invited, along with four other native-speaking English teachers, to join an amateur kabuki production. Kabuki is a form of traditional Japanese theater, spoken in an exaggerated, cantering rhythm. There are stylized movements to accompany the fancy costumes, and live shamisen (a Japanese string…

Tuesday, 12 October 2010

Tahiti's Heiva Festival

Written by Mark Sissons

So you think you can dance the otea? Tahiti's flamboyant Heiva festival helps keep Polynesian traditions alive You can cut the anticipation with a machete as the spot lights dim under a canopy of southern stars. All eyes are fixed on the stage in the French Polynesian capital of Papeete’s waterfront amphitheater. Tonight’s audience is here to watch dozens of dancers, singers and musicians perform in Heiva Tahiti, a spectacular annual month-long celebration of traditional Polynesian culture. Backstage, dancer Maire Teihotaata nervously adjusts her elaborate headdress. Her skirt is made of coconut bark and hibiscus flowers, with a wide belt slung low on her tall, lithe frame, and decorated with mother-of-pearl, shells, natural fibers, and colorful seeds. Bathed in intoxicating tropical flower scents with jet-black hair flowing to her waist, this 37-year old government communications specialist could have stepped out of a Gauguin painting. Suddenly, slit and base drums carved…

Friday, 30 July 2010

The Miraculous Fruits of the Barabbata Festival, Marta, Italy

Written by Diana G. Armstrong

"Our float parade, Signora, each year these crazy people, they try to make it more special. For five hundred years these people are trying to out-do l'anno scorso (last year)." says the 80 year old barista. I am in a caffe in Marta—a small fishing village on the shores of Lake Bolsena, about 80 miles north of the center of Rome.

Monday, 03 May 2010

Southeast Asian Rocket Festival

Written by Kenton Molloy

While farmers and politicians across Australia battle it out over water allocations, in South East Asia Thais and Laotians are preparing to embrace their water shortages in a style all of their own.

Monday, 22 March 2010

Surviving a Traditional Ayahuasca Ceremony

Written by Katie O'Hara

Staring at the dark outline of the thatched roof against the night sky, my eyes begin to glaze over. Lightning flashes—illuminating the faces of the three men on the floor next to me. The chanting of the shaman begins to blend with the sounds of the insects and nocturnal beasts prowling outside the shack, deep in the Amazon jungle. My body feels cool and tingly. I melt into the wall. My eyelids feel like they are shutting from the bottom up. Another dramatic bolt of lightning rips across the starlit sky, sending me back to my present circumstances.

Friday, 22 January 2010

Courida a Corda: Running from Bulls on Terceira Island, Azores

Written by Andrea Calabretta

Terceira Island sits in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, among the isolated archipelago of the Azores. Its origins are humble—Portuguese farmers and fishermen settled the island in the 14th century—and it’s still a place without pretension, where people rely on agriculture and artisanal traditions such as cheese-making for their livelihoods.

Friday, 20 November 2009

The Highland Games, Isle of Skye, Scotland

Written by Lily Iona MacKenzie

The Isle of Skye has always felt like home for me, though I’ve never lived there and have visited only twice.A first-generation Canadian, I grew up listening to my mother and uncle tell stories about their early days in and around its small capital, Portree.

Tuesday, 01 September 2009

Into the Sahara: Timbuktu

Written by James Michael Dorsey

The blowing sand rocks our Land Rover as we reach the outskirts of Timbuktu. Mahkmoud leans over the steering wheel and peers into the hazy lemon yellow that fills our windshield. There is no horizon between earth and sky and I wonder how he can continue to drive with no reference points, yet on he goes with the instinct of a desert nomad. I realize for him, this is normal.

Friday, 03 July 2009

The Proud Tarahumara: Mexico's most Authentic Indigenous People

Written by Habeeb Salloum

The railway station at Divisadero, one of Copper Canyon's most popular stopovers in the southwest region of the Mexican state of Chihuahua, was a riot of activity. It was a shopper's delight and gave us a chance to buy Tarahumara handicrafts and gain a brief glimpse of Tarahumara women weaving baskets, indifferent to the clamor around them.

Sunday, 31 May 2009

A Short Cut to Manhood, Uganda

Written by David Bentley

The threshold, a tree branch on the ground, has been crossed. The 16-year-old boy, the candidate, steps forward. He's about to become a man. The crowd encircled around him inches forward, craning for a better look. Children crawl beneath the forest of legs, hoping for a glimpse.

Monday, 23 March 2009

Tajik Spirituality: Saints and Ritual in the Zarafshan Valley

Written by Ai Watanabe

I left for Zarafshan from Tajikistan’s capital, Dushanbe, at about noon. Not the best idea to leave then -- I ended up traveling through the hottest part of the day and arrived after dark in Penjikent, a northern city along the Tajikistan-Uzbekistan border. Despite the heat, the drive was spectacular. I felt consumed by the beauty of the deep, crystalline blue of the rivers that sliced through the dusty mountains and snow-capped peaks. The sparse trees were showing hints of autumn, with the aspen leaves tinged yellow. Almost every rooftop of the mud-brick village along the road was dotted with rust-colored apricots drying for the coming cold season.

Friday, 06 February 2009

A Malaysian Passover

Written by G. Michael Schneider

In our first few months in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, my wife Ruthann and I have celebrated Id al-Fitr, the Muslim festival ending Ramadan; Chinese New Year; and the Hindu full moon festival of Thaipusam. Now it is our turn to host a celebration. Passover is next week and my wife and I, Reconstructionist Jews from Minneapolis, are determined to have a real Seder, complete with Haggadoth, matzoth, and charoseth. The problem is, in this city of Muslims (62%), Buddhists (24%), and Hindus (8%), we can't find the fixings and, except for one visiting American couple in our building, we can't locate any Jews.

Sunday, 16 November 2008

The Warm Heart of Borneo: Sarawak

Written by Alison Aitken

Dense jungles, bats and blow-pipes. As our accidental party of four cheerfully unkempt backpackers and a quietly intrepid, forty-something Canadian couple travelled further up the Betang Rejang river and into the heart of Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo’s southern province, this otherworldly combination gradually became an altogether more tangible reality. We had sped out of Kuching, the capital of Sarawak, on an 80-seater catamaran which boasted a super powered air-conditioning and a steady loop of James Bond classics. Five hours later, we left the inland town of Sibuh on a vehicle older than Sean Connery himself. As the open sea changed from estuary to swirling brown river, rutted muddy tracks came into view. These jagged scars revealed the obvious presence of machinery in the previously untouched Malaysian jungles.

Sunday, 28 September 2008

The People: Meeting the Maasai

Written by Jim Dorsey

We step out of the car into the hot blowing dust of southern Kenya, into a different world in a different time.A dozen stately Maasai in bright red and purple robes surround us. Ebony colored hands reach out for ours in welcome, and two different ways of life come together. Maasai means those who speak Maa, but they simply call themselves "the people".

Saturday, 05 July 2008

The Dancing Gods of Bhutans Paro Festival

Written by Julian Worker

Standing by the doorway I watch the individual deities performing their final pirouettes for the crowd, who warmly applaud each balletic finale. As the dancers pass by me, they are displaying the more human traits of tiredness and exhaustion, a result of performing in a heavily masked costume under a warm sun for nearly an hour. This is the end of the Dance of the Terrifying Deities at the Paro Festival, one of the most important cultural celebrations in Bhutan, the Land of the Dragon, in the Eastern Himalayas.

Monday, 05 May 2008

The Peoples Guelaguetza: Oaxaca Reclaims its Most Time-Honored Tradition

Written by Anna Barto

Despite the threatening clouds, the procession swelled in size, stretching as far as I could see in either direction. I was swept along by the crowd, down winding cobblestone streets and past colonial buildings painted tropical fruit colors. In doorways and windows, behind the wrought iron curlicues, whole families stood and cheered.This kind of procession, called a calenda, is how the people of Oaxaca, Mexico, traditionally kick off a fiesta, and the Guelaguetza of Lunes del Cerro is the biggest fiesta of the year.

Tuesday, 04 March 2008

Hiwatari Matsuri: Fire Walking Festival - A Photo Essay

Written by Joe Pickard

Hiwatari Matsuri, or Fire Walking Festival is held at Mount Takao, Japan. The event is dedicated to the Tengu, or mountain spirit and is for purification and renewal. Monks light a massive bonfire and then douse it with water until the flames are quelled. They then throw people's prayers, which are written on wood tablets, into the fire. Just before the monk's cross the fire, they flagellate themselves with bamboo in boiling water. Then, two by two the monks cross the burning hot coals. To finish the festival, all the onlookers line up and walk the coals, now substantially cooler, and receive a blessing from the head monks. With a final prayer to the mountain spirits, the monks head back into the mountains from which they came.

Friday, 29 February 2008

Rajasthani Gypsy Camp, Pushkar, India

Written by Drea Knufken

Many Indian cities have been built around holy bodies of water. The Ganga, of course, is the lifeblood, the sacrament of these bodies, but lesser lakes and rivers are also revered. The water is sacred, so, understandably, people build religious vessels around it. Worship is solidified in the form of multi-tiered temples (with swimming landings called ghats) constructed in blocky layers around the lake.

Tuesday, 11 December 2007

Silenced Nightingales: Women, Culture and Music in Modern Iran

Written by Ai Watanabe

I walked into a dark, cramped musical instrument shop beneath a shopping mall and was greeted by a slight, skinny man with braces on his teeth. After exchanging cordial greetings and making small talk, he offered me a seat on the drum beside him. Then, wordlessly, he reached for his satar, a four-stringed lute, which he started playing very gently.

Thursday, 01 November 2007

Submerged in the Bonn Om Teuk Water Festival of Phnom Penh

Written by Elizabeth Gartley

The hint of a city – plaster white buildings and golden Khmer steeples – finally emerged from the green of the jungle and dirty brown river. After hours of traveling up the Mekong, the small clunky motorboat began its approach into Phnom Penh, the driver taking a back door approach into the city as to avoid the racers. It was the final day of Bonn Om Teuk, the water festival, one of the most important national holidays in Cambodia.

Saturday, 01 September 2007

Tibet: Visiting a Dying Culture

Written by Steven Mendel

Visiting Tibet is like watching someone drown. They are calling out for help as you stand on shore not knowing how to save them. An elderly Tibetan woman grabs my wife’s hand stares intently in her eyes and sweeps her free hand across the sky, encompassing the mountains and says, “Tibet, Tibet.” A middle aged man in an outdoor market beckons me to sit next to him and for the next fifteen minutes pours out his life story and that of his beleaguered country, all the time anxiously looking out for anyone who may be eaves dropping.

Friday, 08 June 2007

On the Marae: A Maori Ritual of Encounter

Written by Stephanie Henck

In the beginning there was darkness, te po--the domain of the gods. Here, Rangi the Sky Father and Papa the Earth Mother were joined in an intimate embrace that left the world void of light. They begot many sons who dominated aspects of the natural world: they controlled animals, the forests, the weather, and the seas. The sons of earth and sky suffered from the eternal darkness of the tight hold between Heaven and Earth and resolved to separate their parents.

Thursday, 12 April 2007

The Gypsy Pilgrimage of Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer

Written by Anna M. Mays

In the desolate Camargue region of southern France -- an untamed coastal plain marked by salt marshes, wild horses and wayside cowboy ranches -- sits a small seaside village with a unique history and a colorful ancient tradition that is still celebrated today. The press call it the “Gypsy Pilgrimage.” This quiet town, known locally as Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, comes alive each year in early spring as thousands of Roma from across Europe make the long journey to celebrate the annual festival of their patron saint Sara Kali. For hundreds of years, the village of Saintes-Maries has served as the sacred pilgrimage site for Europe’s Roma peoples.

Tuesday, 06 February 2007

Beaten in the Banya, Ukraine

Written by Daniel Reynolds Riveiro

I was naked except for a pair of plastic sandals and the brown felt version of Gilligan’s hat. My friend, Kiril, was unadorned in the exact same manner. He was also beating me with birch branches. I’m told this is a Ukrainian tradition. I probably shouldn’t have told his mother, Larissa, that I’d had a sore throat

Saturday, 30 December 2006

Living off the land in Hawaii

Written by Jason Ference

Just getting to this remote tropical island paradise was exhilarating in itself. The specific location of said paradise I shall not divulge per the request of our hosts, who prefer to choose their own guests. The hosts in question were my brother in law and his girlfriend and they have been living a Robinson Caruso-esque life on a Hawaiian island together for the past two years.

Friday, 20 October 2006

Diwali: More than a festival of lights

Written by Natasha Jaksich

Diwali around the world is known as the “Festival of Lights,” or when lord Rama returned home after a 14-year absence and a battle against the demon king Ravana. It’s a time of year, much like the Western holiday of Christmas, where families gather together in celebration. They pay homage to the gods, eat decadent sweets, dress up in their best attire and light small candles known as diyas around the house.

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