Traditional Cultures-Cultures Traditionnelles
Mokens: the sea gypsies.
Dubbed the « nomads of the sea », the Moken community, settled in the Ko Surin islands in the north of Thailand, is trying to find balance between the nomad identity and tourism, traditional labor and natural heritage preservation.
Photos and text ©Marc Dozier/LightMediation
Contact - Thierry Tinacci - LightMediation Photo Agency +33 (0)6 61 80 57 21 thierry[AT]lightmediation.com
Rana Tharu: life in colour.
In the far east of Népal, far from Katmandu, legend and history join together to recount how five centuries ago women of royal blood immigrated from Rajasth (India) with their children and servants. Here it is the women who rise up as guardians of the traditions and combat assimilation into an Indo-Nepalese culture. Contrary to other ethnic groups of Nepal, they themselves make their exceptional costume. At a time when the Indian sari triumphs amongst most of the tribes, here, the clothing tradition continues. The design of their very colourful costume, adorned with embroidery and little mirrors, as well as their silver jewelry is very close to the dress style adopted in Rajasthan. Of course, the fabrics and colours change according to current fashions.
Photos and text ©Bruno Morandi/Lightmediation
Contact - Thierry Tinacci Lightmediation Photo Agency +33 (0)6 61 80 57 21 thierry[AT]lightmediation.com
The incredible castles of Kaiping.
China- In the middle of rice fields, near Canton and three hours away from Hong Kong by car, there are 1833 castles. Their architecture is inspired by middle age and Renaissance French castles. Some of them have art deco styles in their interiors. They were all built between the 15th and the beginning of the 20th century. The 28th June 2007, UNESCO has named this architectural and invaluable treasure “world testimony of humanity”.
Photos ©Zeng Nian/LightMediation
Contact - Thierry Tinacci Lightmediation Photo Agency +33 (0)6 61 80 57 21 thierry[AT]lightmediation.com
Oualata,a garden in the Sahara.
The sands almost wiped Oualata from human memory. In ruins only ten years ago, this former caravanserai in the Mauritanian desert has now won its formidable struggle to survive. An achievement due to the joint efforts of a Spanish humanitarian organization and the Mauritanian government, which managed to revitalize the village by setting up a vegetable garden. It is a story of rebirth.
Photos ©Pascal Meunier/Lightmediation Text ®Maud Tyckaert
Contact - Thierry Tinacci Lightmediation Photo Agency +33 (0)6 61 80 57 21 thierry[AT]lightmediation.com
The Nihangs, last warring monks of the Sikh faith.
Last guardians of the warrior Sikh traditions, thousands of Nihang monks roam across Punjab: a life of wandering dedicated to prayer, the practice of Martial Arts, and to the protection of the Sikhs, their front forward mission. To that end, they are excellent Gatka masters, a Martial Art practiced since the 17th century with sabers, daggers, maces and edge bracelets. Each year in March, the Hola Mohalla military parade in Anandpur Sahib is the opportunity for them to demonstrate their mastery of the Martial Arts; thus proving to the 3 millions of followers gathered from all over India their power and heroism.
Photos ©Virginie Vican/Picturetank/Lightmediation Text ®Guillaume Pitron
Contact - Thierry Tinacci Lightmediation Photo Agency +33 (0)6 61 80 57 21 thierry[AT]lightmediation.com
The Sambatra : the collective circumcision rite of the Antambahaoka.
Every seven years, the year of the Friday, the Antambahoaka who make up one of the eighteen ethnic groups on the island of Madagascar have been celebrating for centuries the biggest event that defines them: the Sambatra. This major moment in their lives is not just the ritual of the collective circumcision of the boys born in the seven years preceding it. It is also an initiation and integration rite practiced by the Antambahoaka boy that will permit him to make the passage from an asexual state to the statute of male. From this moment on, he will be integrated into the paternal clan and initiated into the life of the true Antambahoaka man. He, himself, will thus become a Zafiraminia, a son of Raminia, the founding ancestor of this ethnic group. But for this to happen, he has to symbolically relive the history of his ancestors, which was the exodus that brought them to Madagascar. During one month, the Sambatra lets the Antambahoaka remember their origins and so honour Raminia.
Photos and text ©Jacques Bock/LightMediation
Contact - Thierry Tinacci Lightmediation Photo Agency +33 (0)6 61 80 57 21 thierry[AT]lightmediation.com
Sichuan- Khampas, les Cavaliers du Ciel.
Depuis mille ans, ce peuple d’anciens guerriers tibétains se regroupe près de Litang - la plus haute ville du monde à 4100 m d’altitude - afin de célébrer le Yagi, la grande fête de l’été. Si leur ferveur bouddhiste reste constante, les affres politiques ébrèchent lentement la vie traditionnelle et impliquent à terme sa sédentarisation.
Photos ©Remi Benali/Lightmediation Texte ®Heather Robinson
Contact - Thierry Tinacci Agence Photo Lightmediation +33 (0)6 61 80 57 21 thierry[AT]lightmediation.com
The white shepherds of the red island
On the Highlands of Madagascar in the region of Betsileo is a curious village where time stands still, and practically everybody is dressed in white! The inhabitants are the fervent adepts of a very specific branch of Christianity on Madagascar: Fifohazana or the Church of Revival, whose influence on the Red Island continues to grow. The village of Soatanana is the historic heart and radical centre of a movement that advocates a strict reading of the Bible.
Photos and text: © Patrick Delance / Lightmediation
Contact - Thierry Tinacci Agence Lightmediation +33 (0)6 61 80 57 21
thierry [at] lightmediation.com
The Aka pygmies :an endangered freedom
Granted Intangible World Heritage status by UNESCO, the Aka pygmies are considered to be the very first inhabitants of the Central African Republic. Once, they roamed the vast equatorial forests in the southwest of the country, following the seasons in their hunt for game, edible fungi or roots.
Nowadays, globalisation is gradually encroaching upon them and this nomadic people is beginning to settle around towns and villages, adopting a more agricultural lifestyle. Thanks to their isolation from the rest of Central African society, the Aka are still little known and, whilst they are attempting to modernise and free themselves from the yoke of the Bantu villagers who still keep many pygmy families as slaves, they also try to preserve their traditional lifestyle. Caught between inequitable trade and pure exploitation working on villager’s plantations, these Aka pygmies also fall prey to all the converts of the great monotheistic religions: always to the detriment of their own values.
The Splendor of the Sican civilization
In December 2006, in the latest excavation season, a group of international archeologists, lead by Izumi Shimada and Carlos Elera, directors of the Sican Archaeological Project, discovered twenty splendid graves of Lambayeque or Sican nobles. An important archeological discovery in Peru.
To see the complete feature: ©Mauricio Granados/Lightmediation Text ®Pedro Lima
