Connecting with the World
Vrindavan, India. Holi is an annual Hindu festival that celebrates Lord Krishna. The festival is intensely spiritual – even blissful – for many participants, including this one. At the same time, Holi also is a riot of colorful fun, as celebrants throw and rub vivid powders and liquids on themselves and one another. Holi is celebrated all over India, but with special fervor in the Mathura area and in nearby Vrindavan, where these images were created.
Vrindavan, India. Outside a Hindu temple, this Holi celebrant awaits entrance. The writing on her cheek honors Lord Krishna.
Vrindavan, India. This proud Holi celebrant is covered in red paint. As lines of celebrants pass each other entering and exiting the temple, people headed in one direction gently apply paint or colored power to the people heading in the other direction.
Vrindavan, India. Pensive Holi participants.
Vrindavan, India. Inside the Vrindavan temple, there have been many colors flying around.
Vrindavan, India. A pedestal holds a small metal sculpture of a cow and calf, which are sacred for Hindus. In this extended exposure, Holi celebrants are paying respect and touching the pedestal for a blessing.
Mathura, India. The Holi Festival is deeply spiritual for many participants. In this temple, it also has a musical dimension and is a color paradise for photographers.
Vrindavan, India. Though covered in multi-colored powders and paints, these Holi worshipers have a spiritual focus.
Haridwar, India. After a bath in the Ganges, this sadhu has covered his body with ash, which symbolizes his renunciation of self.
Haridwar, India. A sadhu drawn to Haridwar by a Kumbh Mela festival.
Haridwar, India. This sadhu maintains a dhuni (or sacred fire) near the ghats in Haridwar. He welcomes pilgrims and visitors to join him and his followers around the fire for chai. His traditions are ancient, his technology modern.
Haridwar, India. Geeta Ashram. There are hundreds of ashrams in this holy city, each one the site of various Indian spiritual or cultural activity. This ashram provides a free dinner every evening to local sadhus, such as this one.
Varanasi, India. This city, another holy city on the Ganga, attracts sadhus, as well.
Varanasi, India. The Ganga River is holy water for Hindus, and bathing in the river is a sacred experience. The river also meets the more ordinary daily needs of tens of millions of Indians, including these. Special Hindu extended festivals, such as Kumbh Mela, can make a Ganga pilgrimage even more spiritually compelling and draw sadhus and other celebrants by the millions.
Varanasi, India. A sadhu greets the sunrise over the Ganga in Varanasi with ceremony.
Bade Themali, Kanker, Chhattisgarh, India. Muria tribal dancers in a dusty village field.
Naener, Baster, Chhattisgarh, India. Bison Horn tribal dancers against the setting sun.
Rajasthan, India. A pair of Rabari herders and their goats. The long poles over their shoulders are used to shake seed pods from the trees for the herd.
Old Delhi, India. The gritty streets of this older part of India's capital city, where much of the transportation is people-powered.
Old Delhi, India. A vegetable vendor weighs the purchases of a customer.
Mumbai, India. Even on a bustling downtown street in this, the most populous city in India, a man enjoys a moment of quiet reflection.
Jodhpur, India. A woman sits against the blue walls of this centuries-old city, hand-stitching a sari fall. The stitches need to be invisible, and therefore tiny, so good light is essential
Jodhpur, India. The women of India, like this one, often are dramatically dressed. The walls of this Blue City enclave often are elaborately decorated, as well.
Jodhpur, India. A contemplative woman.
Jodhpur, india. A basket maker crosses a square in the late afternoon sun, returning home with her unsold baskets.
Jodhpur, India. A friendly face in this colorful city.
Jodhpur, India. Happy women against blue walls; in fact, Jodhpur is known as the "Blue City".
Jodhpur, India. An intense after-market chat among some local women.
Jodhpur, India. A member of the 500-year-old Bishnoi social group visits the city from the nearby desert. Bishnoi are Thar desert dwellers with religious tenets that require environmental sensitivity, including the protection of all life forms.
Rajasthan, India. This woman’s colorful clothes and a well-cared-for goat belie the stark Thar desert landscape of this part of India.
Rajasthan, India. This woman welcomes visitors into the beautifully painted courtyard of her home in the Thar desert outside Jodhpur.
Rajasthan, India. A friendly woman in the Indian community of Shergarh, in the Thar desert outside Jodhpur.
Chiang Rai Province, Thailand. The Padaung subgroup of the Karen tribe is based mainly in Burma (Myanmar), but some, like this girl and her family, have emigrated to northern Thailand. Within the Padaung, women adorn themselves with neck coils. The practice starts at age 5 or so, with a coil that has a few turns. As a girl matures to adulthood, the original coil is replaced with successively longer ones with additional turns.
Chiang Rai Province, Thailand. A young woman in a Padaung Karen village market stall. These neck coils press down on the wearer's clavicle and rib cage, resulting in the appearance of a long neck.
Chiang Rai Province, Thailand. A young Padaung Karen woman.
Kashgar, China. On the Muslim Kurban holiday, each devout Muslim family sacrifices a sheep, and a sharp knife is important to that mission. A customer, on the left, provides power to the grinding wheel as a knife is sharpened.
Kashgar, China. A young man awaits buyers for his sheep at the massive livestock market here, just before the Muslim Kurban holiday.
Sara, Vietnam. The northern mountains of Vietnam are home to numerous minority tribes, many of which have distinctive dress traditions, particularly for women. This woman is part of the Black Hmong tribe.
Sapa, Vietnam. A Flower Hmong clothing vendor, with northern Vietnam terraced rice fields in the background. Flower Hmong are among the most colorfully dressed of Vietnam’s minority hill tribes.
Masai Mara National Reserve, Kenya. MIgrating zebras at the edge of the Mara River prepare to cross, wary of the crocodiles that may be hidden in the water.
Masai Mara National Reserve, Kenya. A cheetah mother and her five cubs monitor the plains for lions, a dangerous cheetah predator, especially for the cubs.
Mashatu Game Reserve, Botswana. Elephants pause at a water hole before moving on.
Serengeti, Tanzania. Acacia trees are silhouetted by the sunset.
Amboseli National Park, Kenya. A giraffe traverses the dry and dusty pan (dry lake bed) late in the day.
Amboseli National Park, Kenya. Zebras cross the dry lake bed (or "pan").
Serengeti, Tanzania. Maasai giraffes feeding, with yellow-barked acacia trees in the background.
Vumbura, Okavango Delta, Botswana. A young hippopotamus appears to float vertically in the water. There is some mystery about how this is happening, since the water here is believed to be too deep for the hippo to stand on the bottom and hippos aren't known to float well. One possibility is that a robust lungfull of air might be enough to temporarily support a curious young hippo.