I've seen ...

A big hit in 1970 was "Fire and Rain" by James Taylor.  It seemed just about anytime of the day or night it's lyrics could be heard in and around the University of Rhode Island - as well as many other locations around the world I am certain.

"I've seen fire and I've seen rain
I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end
I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend ... "

In my life, I too have seen fire and I have also seen rain.

I have seen sunny days that I thought would never end - literally and figuratively.

I have seen lonely times when I could not find a friend.

Although James Taylor did not mention it in his song, I have also seen many wasted days with people who I thought were my friends.

Those were all learning experiences and became the foundation upon which my life has been built.

Since I was 9 years old, I have been photographing my world.  I started with an 8 or 10 shot Kodak box camera with a fixed lens.

As technology evolved, so did my cameras change.  My first 35mm camera was a Kowa 35mm circa 1968 which I still have.

I have always had a wanderlust and using a camera has allowed me to share the sights and scenes that I have encountered along the way.

Today with the wonders of digital photography and the Internet, I am able to share so much and so much easily with so many people - throughout the world.

As I have matured, my photography has also matured.  Prior to 1987, I estimate that 90% of my photographs were of landscapes and animals.  Since then, my photographs are more like 90% of people and 10% of landscapes.

Hamar Maiden in Ethiopia

My goal and ambition in photography are to show extraordinary people doing ordinary things.  In so doing, I wish to show how different people can appear, to provide a glimpse of other cultures, to celebrate the diversity of mankind, and to demonstrate that despite our appearances we are so much alike.

 

Suri Women Smoking in Ethiopia

 

I consider my work to be documentary style photography in that my goal is to capture a real and true moment at a specific point in time; sort of like “If you had been there then, this is what you should have seen”  As such there is very little posing, imposed direction or post processing manipulation in my work. 

Bhutanese Monk Preparing for Cham Performance

 Although my genre can be considered documentary photography, which some people believe can only be done in black and white, I prefer to work in color for no other reason than the fact, for me, color more accurately and more completely captures the scene.

Cham Performance in Central Bhutan

 My journeys now are to find, witness and photograph those unique cultures, people and rituals which define the limits of the human experience.  Mankind is immensely diverse and with countless perspectives.  I have the opportunity and resources available to seek them out.  I enjoy sharing these findings with other people.

Devotee Participating in Vegetarian Festival, Phuket, Thailand

 Many of the opportunities that I have to photograph people and to begin to learn of their culture as well as way of life are at festivals and special events.

Life events such as weddings, funerals, initiations, ordinations define a person's life and typically showcase a culture.  These are events that a people revere and are typically proud of.

Hmong Girl at New Years Festival in Laos

 In my quest to show extraordinary people doing ordinary things, I have to the opportunity to learn some and to start to understand a little of people's religions.  I have discussed and witnessed Animist, Brahman, Hindu, Islam and the various traditions of Buddhism with practitioners, devotees, and clergy.

I avoid discussing politics for it seems to be more an emotional issue than one's faith.  Most people are very willing to talk to you about their religion.  If you know a little about their religion to begin with and show respect, it is a great ice breaker in getting to know people.  Showing respect is not the same as agreeing with what is being shared with you.  Showing respect is accepting what you are being told as what the people believe and how it guides their daily life.

Monks in NE Thailand

Most of the events and opportunities that I have seen have been happy, joyous or, at worst, solemn occasions in the lives of the people.  In Thailand several of the occasions have been funerals.  The funerals are much different from the funerals that I had attended in the USA.  Several of my blog entries are about the funerals and funeral ritual of Theravada Buddhists here in Isaan.

A Mourner in NE Thailand

My main concerns in photographing the people is that the photographs be truthful in the depiction of the people, their cultural and most importantly - be respectful.

Shan Boy Being Prepared to Become Buddhist Monk

"I've seen fire and I've seen rain
I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end
I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend ... "

However, I have seen things that I could not photograph.

I could take a photograph that was staring at me in the face - a photograph that was reality.

But I could not take the photograph that I felt was exploitative and defined the limits of what I can control. 

It was last October on the Sahel in Chad, Africa.  I was attending the Gerewol Festival - the annual gathering of the nomadic Wodaabe people.

Wodaabe Men at Gerewol Festival, Chad

Wodaabe Young Woman Singing

 It was around lunchtime when a few of us wandered back to our campsite and sat in the dining tent charging our batteries - literally and figuratively.  Occasionally tribes people would wander by close to our tent on their way to and from their campsites.  This was an opportunity for them to observe some foreigners up close and in their natural surroundings - tables, chairs, electric fan, generator, bug netting ...  When traveling it is very important to know, understand, and accept that we are just a subject of curiosity as the people that we travel to see.

A small group of young women and children came by and stopped to take a closer look at us.  We left the tent and approached them.  It was all pleasant and light until I saw a young mother and her baby.  The mother appeared to be around 15 or 16 years old.  The only reason that I knew that she was a mother was the fact that was carrying a newly born baby tenderly and affectionately.  The mother showed no signs that her milk had come in.  The baby was very malnourished.  Its ribs showed through its thin translucent skin and its eyes were sunken into the skull orbs with an empty glassy stare about them.  This baby was in crisis and suffering.  It was too weak to even cry. It was obvious that this baby was starving to death.

Healthy Wodaabe babies are fed a water sorghum mixture from an open cup.  This new born was not able to eat that and needed more nutrition than that.

 

Wodaabe Mother Feeds One of her Young Twins

 This put an entirely somber air about the encounter.  I realized that there was nothing that I could do to save or help this child.  My friend, a doctor, could not do anything to save or help this child.  This is the life that many people suffer through in this world - short and suffering through no fault of their own.

This poor child would be dead, most likely, by the end of that day.

There was nothing that we could do but to be respectful, take no photographs, and make a controlled return to our dining tent - more somber and aware of the fragility of life.

It is a moment like that which puts our life into a completely different perspective.  Our powers to do good are limited.  We can not always get what we want.  We are often not in control. Life is ...

Saddhu - A Hindu mendicant, Holy Man

Siddhattha Gotama, an Indian nobleman of 5th century BC, had a life crisis at the age of 29.  He had a sheltered life and all the material wealth one could expect.  However outside his palace he encountered a very sick person, an old man, and then a corpse.  He realized that he could not do anything to help.  He then came upon a mendicant, a holy man, and decided to renounce his wealth and life to become an ascetic. For 6 years, Siddhattha lead the life of an ascetic but found no answer or solution to his question of why there was suffering in life. He eventually realized that the path to peace was through mental discipline. He sat meditating beneath a ficus tree until he awakened -  achieved enlightenment. From that time on, he was known as the Buddha.

The Buddha taught the "middle path" as the key to life and happiness. - the road to enlightenment.

The incident in Chad made me wonder why there is such suffering of the innocent in this life.  I had considered becoming a children's doctor when I was young but knew that I was not strong enough to accept that babies would die despite my efforts to save them.  I became an engineer instead - far less emotions and simple universal truths to deal with. I know and accept that a made the proper decision for me.

From my Islamic friends, I have learned to accept the ways of God. "Who are we to question the way of God?"  I am familiar with the "right and straight path" and incorporate elements of it into my life.

My Christian faith provides comfort in a world with suffering. There is always a better day coming.

Now as a much older man, I accept what I have seen - the bad as well as the good.  I take comfort in knowing and trying to ensure that I do the best that I can and especially in "doing no harm".

Tiji Festival 2019

 

In 2019, I went on three major journeys to photograph "ordinary people doing extraordinary things".

The first journey was at the end of May.  I returned to Upper Mustang, "The Former Kingdom of Lo", for the third time in three years ostensibly to witness and document a major festival, Tiji Festival" held in Lo Manthang.

The Tiji Festival is one of the two major festivals held in Lo Manthang each year.  It is held typically at the end of May and early June, prior to the start of the rainy season.  The other major festival, which I attended the previous year, is "Yartung Festival, which is held at the end of the rainy season in August.

In the 17th century the King of Mustang invited the Sakya Trizin (Holder of the Sakya Throne) in Samye Monastery in Tibet, the home of Vajrakila sacred dance, to reside at the Chode Monastery in Lo Manthang. The Tibetan culture and tradition is very strong in Mustang.  Today it is said that Upper Mustang is more like Tibet than the post WWII Chinese dominated Tibet of today.

While at the Chode Monastery, the Sakya Trizin performed a special Vajrakila ritual for the well being of all conscious as well as mindful beings such as divinities, humans, animals, tormented spirits, and denizens of hell.  He started a Cham, sacred Vajakila dances, associated with meditation.

Since that time in the 17th century, the Monks of Chode Monastery have been performing the dance and rituals.  Just as the Chams of Bhutan, every intricate movement, gesture, and expression of the dancer is prescribed and holds significant meaning.  In performing the Cham the Monk dancer has meditated to become the deity that he portrays.

The Tiji Festival, "Prayer for world peace", is a very religious Vajrayana Buddhist purification ceremony and ritual that commemorates the legend of a son who defeated his father in order to save the Kingdom of Lo.  The son, a deity named Dorji Jono, fought his demon father who had brought drought which caused famine in the land.

The Tiji Festival, which is held at the end of the dry season and the start of the wet growing season, commerates the victory of good over evil.

The Tiji Festival is a three day event.  In 2019 the first day of the festival was May 31st.  On the morning of the 31st, I attended a puja, a religious ritual, at the Chode Monastery.  I did not take any photographs because photography is not allowed UNLESS you had purchased a special permit just for that event.  If I remember is was something like $100 for two hours.

Unfurling the Thankla

In the afternoon, the ceremony started with a procession of costumed Monks from the monastery to the courtyard south of the Palace Gate and East of the Royal Palace.  I had been informed that the festivities would commence at 1:00 PM.  I arrived early, around 12:00 PM in order to not miss anything.  The area for spectators was already rapidly filling with people - locals as well as tourists.  I found a good location and sat on the cobble stone paving to await the start. 1:00 PM came and went.  I spoke with some people and they informed me that the ritual would start around 2:00 PM.  2:00 PM came and went.  I spoke with a monk that I know in Lo Manthang and he informed me that the start would be at 3:00 PM.  3:00 PM came and went.  However, at 3:30 PM the festivities actually started.  The wait and confusion is fairly typical for events in Upper Mustang.  Waiting is not all that unpleasant when you are surrounded by such beautiful scenery, ancient buildings, interesting local residents, and perhaps just as important - protecting your vantage point from the ever increasing number of spectators.

A Grandfather Escorts His Grandson

Monks Arriving at the Festival Site

Monk Performing Cham

 

The second afternoon, was highlighted by unfurling the ancient Thangka.  The ancient tapestry is said to be 400 years old.  It depicts the image of the Padmasambhava also known as Guru Rinpoche.  Guru Rinpoche was an 8th century Buddhist master.  He constructed the first monastery in Tibet.  He he is widely worshiped as the second Buddha by devotees of Tibetan Buddhism, typically found in Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, and the mountainous areas of India.

Devotees of Tibetan Buddhism believe that viewing the sacred dances and the thangka brings them peace as well as prosperity.  The chams performed during the Tiji Festival cleanses Lo Manthang and surrounding area of evil spirits.

Unfurling the ancient thangka of Guru Rinpoche

The afternoon of the second day of the Tiji Festival, is filled with sacred dances, Chams.  The Chams performed on that day are more energetic and lively than the ones performed the previous afternoon.

Local women pay their respects to Guru Rinpoche

Lamas play cymbals and blow radong (long horn)

 

Monks Performing Durdag Cham - Lord of the Cremation Ground Dance

Lord of the Cremation Ground Dance

Young Monk Performs  Cham

On the third day of the festival, June 2, involved more sacred cham performances at the festival site.  At approximately, 5:00 PM there was a procession lead by the Lamas from the festival site through the streets of Lo Manthang to a field outside of the village.

Inside of Lo Manthang, Lamas beat drums and chant

At the edge of town, the man who many people recognize as the King stopped and lit the musket held by his bodyguard.  The matchlock musket erupted in a thunderous clap and filled the air with copious clouds of white smoke along with fragments of paper.  The firing of the musket is to banish evil from the town.

The "King's" Bodyguard Holds and Ancient Musket that the "King" Has Just Fired.

Once the procession had cleared the village of Lo Manthang, the ritual was concluded in an open field with the snow capped Himalaya mountains as a backdrop.  Several times, the ancient matchlock muskets were fired to signify the destruction and defeat of Dorjee Jono's evil father for the benefit of Lo Manthang and the Lowa people.  Firing of the muskets also banished any current demons from the region.

Outside of Lo Manthang, a man loads his ancient musket

Men Prepare Musket to be fired

Ramming the Charge

I am glad that I attended the Tiji Festival.  It was a interesting and unique experience.  

Would I return to the Tiji Festival?

Having "been there and done that", I can honestly say that I would not return to the Tiji Festival.

The ritual and ceremony met all my expectations.  The photo opportunities met my needs.

The local people were friendly and very photogenic.  It was a pleasure to see some friends once again and to make some new friends.

However, I did not completely enjoy my visit like during the previous two journeys to Lo Manthang.

The problem on this visit were the other foreign visitors.  There were not necessarily a great number of foreign visitors but I estimate that there were approximately 200 foreigners.  For a "town" of 500 residents, the amount of visitors made a big impact.

Two hundred visitors in the confined space of the Royal Palace Courtyard along with the local people attending THEIR festival was difficult.

I can tolerate the number of visitors.  I can even live, but grudgingly, with some of them wearing bright yellow or red jackets - who wants  photographs of an ethnic festival with brightly dressed foreigners conspicuously in the background? I always attend dressed in tan and black to minimize my visual impact on others.

What I have a low tolerance for and have difficulty in accepting is the poor behavior of  some visitors.  Granted that most visitors behave properly but there is a certain percentage of people who behave poorly.  The greater the number of people in any group, the greater the number of miscreants. I have also found that certain nationalities also tend to be more prevalent to poor public behavior.

Americans used to be considered to be the world's worst tourists.  They have been superseded by Chinese, South Korean, Russian, and German tourists.  I suspect that Italian tourists could also outrank the Americans now.

The Tiji Festival is highly publicized and touted for tourism to Upper Mustang.  Although Upper Mustang receives approximately 3,000 visitors a year, the vast majority of them arrive for the three day Tiji Festival.  Most have not done their homework as to what the festival is about, and most of all how sacred and important it is to the local people.

The festival is for the local people.  They believe that just by attending and witnessing the ritual, they will receive blessings and merit.  The festival is not a commercial event to attract tourists and their money.

Some of the visitors that I observed behaved as if the festival was being conducted for their benefit and entertainment.  That did not excuse their boorish behavior.  On the right hand side of the courtyard, there were a series of well made long benches with red plush cushions on top of them. HINT.  HINT!  They were obviously not intended for tourists!  Other than the chairs set up on the opposite side of the courtyard with "VIP" signs on them, there were no other seating arrangements at the performance venue.

I realized right off the bat that these benches were for the Monks.  Taking advantage of that, I stood right behind them with my knees against the bench - I knew that the young Monks would not be standing and I would have an unobstructed view of the ritual.  

Many tourists came and sat on the benches before the start of the ritual.  Perhaps they did not know or realize.  Some of the tourists sat and refused to move even when they were told that the benches were for the Monks.  As the young Monks stood before them, they would not move.  Even when they were informed by the local people they refused to allow the Monks to use the benches.  Only after an authority figure in a uniform arrived did they reluctantly vacate the benches.

The area of the courtyard where the cham is performed is sacred ground having been purified before the start of the ritual and marked out in two large concentric red lines placed by a Monk pouring the red liquid on the cobble stoned courtyard.  This did not stop some tourists from sitting in the space and refusing to move or respect the area when informed ...until an authority figure appeared with a baton to move them.

Some people behaved even more disgracefully.  There was one Chinese female tourist who kept violating the sacred space to squat and get "HER" shot.  Her presence at times interfered with the movement of the performers. Despite protests from local as well as other tourists she persisted with her obnoxious and inconsiderate behavior.  She became well known and despised throughout the festival.

One foreign man would stand in front of the seated local people at the edge of the audience obstructing their view.  He was not there for a short period of time to take a photo but to watch the ritual!  At other times I saw him placing his hand on local people to move them.  

These were all behaviors that I had not observed in Lo Manthang during my other trips.  It was not an environment that I enjoy or prefer.

More Places Less Visited

Wodaabe young woman at Gerewol Festival

Roadside travelers - Dhaulagiri Zone, Upper Mustang, Nepal

"My ambition and goal is to show extraordinary people doing ordinary things.  In so doing, I wish to show how different people can appear, to provide a glimpse of other cultures, to celebrate the diversity of mankind, and to demonstrate that despite our appearances we are so much alike." - Artist's Statement, Allen A Hale

Eight years ago as part of the submittal process for a gallery exposition, I had thought about my photography to develop the above artist statement.  Since that time, my photography efforts have followed the statement whether intentionally or by happenstance.

My journeys to experience and photograph the "extraordinary people doing ordinary things" have taken me to Bhutan, Cambodia, Chad, Ethiopia, Nepal, and Upper Mustang (Former Kingdom of Lo), Thailand, and Vietnam.

Monks filling butter lamps in Kagbeni, Upper Mustang

The journeys often involved travel along dirt roads to access the isolated locations where the extraordinary people were located.  In the case of Upper Mustang the travel involved travel where roads did not exist in many locations.  The way was often just following tire tracks across the dirt and rock strewn landscape.  Travel in Upper Mustang also included several determining your own crossing points across rivers.

Lo Manthang Street Scene, Upper Mustang (Former Kingdom of Lo)

Preparing firearm to banish "evil" - Tiji Festival in Lo Manthang

These experiences have lead me to appreciate and treasure traveling unimproved roads, dirt roads and even the lack of roads to access "places less visited".  My travels have included traveling along paved roads to access many well-known as well as popular tourist destinations including Angkor Wat, Bangkok, Vientiane, Hanoi, Chiang Mai, Addis Ababa and Kathmandu.  However the ease of access from the outside world to those places has made them popular which results in the dilution of their unique culture and homogenization of them.  International hotel chains, fast food outlets, and bus loads of Chinese, South Korean, and European tour groups can easily be found in these locations.  Great efforts are made to accommodate, appeal, and placate these masses often at the expense of local custom, style, and culture.

Making Coal Briquettes - Quan Lan Island, Vietnam

I have found that the extraordinary people are most likely to be found in the places less visited along with the places that are more difficult to get to.

Bhutan's West- East Main Highway, Trongsa, Bhutan

Some of the places to find extraordinary people do not even have roads.  One of my favorite places to visit is Tonle Sap in Cambodia.  Tonle Sap is a huge fresh water lake, the largest in Southeast Asia, near Angkor Wat.  It is more than just a "Great Lake".  Tonle Sap is a way of life and a unique culture to be experienced. It is one of my favorite places.  While Angkor Wat is overwhelmed (you have been warned) with hundreds of busloads of tourists a day, Tonle Sap gets much fewer visitors - mainly to Chong Kneas (you have been warned) by some of those busloads from Angkor Wat as part of their package tour.  However Tonle Sap is  large lake and there are unique places that get very few visitors where you can observe the unique culture.  Kampong Khleang can be accessed by land during the dry season.
 
There is floating fishing village called Moat Khla (also shown as Meat Khla) on Google Maps.  Moat Khla is 24 Km south of Kampong Khleang and accessible only by boat.  It is located 24 km south of Kampong Khleang - a 2 hour boat ride.  The entire village of fishermen and their families live on floating house boats. The school is also a floating structure.  The Buddhist temple is also  floating Wat.  There are also some floating gardens - small barges with dirt beds on top of them to supplement the inhabitant's diet with greens and vegetables.

Preparing dinner in Moat Khla, floating village, on Tonle Sap, Cambodia

Moat Khla, Tonle Sap, Cambodia

 
In May 2018, Duang and I returned from our second trip within a year to the Himalayan nation of Bhutan.

It was amazing at how much change in one year that we observed .  The change is driven by the widening and paving of the West to East road across the nation.  I was carrying some photographs to give to people that I had photographed the previous Spring.  I found just about everyone, a benefit of traveling to remote and sparsely populated locations.  However I missed one little boy and his father whom we had visited before.  I missed them because their home is now much closer to where we had spent the night before.  No, they had not moved, but the improvement of the main road has cut hours from the journey between the two locations.  I started looking for the four house village long after we had passed it   Fortunately our drivers and guides were going to pass the place on their drive back at the end of our eastern leg of the tour.  They agreed to give the photos and clothing gifts to the family on their return.

Rice Planting - Sapa, Vietnam

In 2019, besides returning to Upper Mustang for a third time, I traveled to Chad to attend the Gerewol Festival and later to the Omo Valley in Ethiopia to photograph some of the unique tribes that live there.

The Gerewol Festival was definitely a place less visited.  The festival is held somewhere on the Sahel, a vast semi-arid savannah on which the Wodaabe people lead their nomadic life tending their herds of cattle and goats.  There were often not even tire tracks let alone roads to travel on in order to get to the designated location of this year's festival.

Wodaabe men imitate birds to attract the attention and interest of women

Wodaabe men chanting and dancing at Gerewol Festival, Chad, Africa

No matter how far the distance, how less visited the culture, or how different the culture, life is basically the same ...

My interaction with the different cultures, various peoples, and witnessing some of their life style reinforces my conviction that, although we appear different, we are all alike.  I feel privileged and honored to be able to share the diversity of mankind as well as to celebrate the adaptability of mankind.
 
The Omo Valley of Ethiopia is part of the Rift Valley, the birthplace of man.  Many unique tribes inhabit the Omo Valley.  To visit some of the tribes is is necessary to have a 4WD vehicle and to camp out.

Suri people of the Omo Valley

The Buddhist philosophy is that life is change.  Most people have the attitude that most change is progress and progress is considered to be good.  I sometimes feel somewhat guilty when I reflect upon progress being a threat and disruptive to people.  Improving highways and other means to ease the access of people to the outside world benefits people through opening up markets for their goods as well as giving them greater access to conveniences and ideas not readily available to them.  This can be destructive for unique cultures, and lifestyles.  Access to the outside world often leads to the erosion of unique people's culture in that they make compromises for the sensitivities and comforts of their visitors.

Hamar young woman of the Omo Valley, Ethiopia

I hope that the people of those places, less visited, make decisions regarding "progress" that fully take into consideration the value of their traditions and culture rather than acquiescing to the false siren of becoming "modern" and emulating the dominant "advanced" cultures.

It is not for me to say what is best for others.  I can not stop "progress" no more than I can control the changes in my own life.  I do not have to like or approve the changes in this world.  I need only to recognize and adapt to all the changes in this world.

Until that day when changes will no longer happen in my life, a day that I am certain will arrive long before all the roads are paved, I will strive to seek out those places less visited.

I will cherish those places less visited.

I will enjoy those places less visited.

I will share with others those special places less visited through my photographs and writing so that they too may know of what is and may not long be - places less visited.

As this year draws to a close, the upcoming year offers new opportunities to visit the people of "places less visited".

For me, 2020, will bring a journey to PNG, Papua New Guinea, to document the people and culture.