In the misty hills of the South Sulawesi (Indonesia) there is a buffalo obsession. The Torajas ride buffalos, eat buffalos, worship buffalos, count in buffalos and eventually slaughter them during elaborate funeral ceremonies. Buffalos are the vehicles taking the dead to the land of souls.
Landscape of the South Sulawesi with a traditional Toraja house, a tongkonan. The Torajas (about half a million people) have kept their traditions vibrant, helped by the remoteness of the region.
A young Toraja running with his buffalo in preparation for a race. Buffalos are not only used in farming works but are at the centre of many ceremonies and celebrations.
TWo young men bringing back a buffalo after a day at the fields.
A young Torajan holding a buffalo to be slaughtered at a funeral ceremony.
A buffalo bleeding to death in front of the guests attending the funeral. A funeral usually involves the slaughter of two dozens buffalos as well as some other animals.
A buffalo facing his death during a funeral.
A buffalo is being slaughtered while two others are laying dead. The albino buffalo alone is worth $50 000. Funerals are also an affair of prestige for the family of the dead and relatives pay a fortune for the ceremony.
An albino buffalo laying dead while others are waiting to be slaughtered. According to local beliefs the blood is feeding the land. Slaughters contribute to a good harvest.
A sculpted wooden buffalo head decorating a tongkonan, the traditional Toraja house. In Tana Toraja, Buffalos are revered and ubiquitous as a decorative motif.
The day after the buffalos slaughter, at the funeral of 91 years old Ruth Saro, her coffin is taken down from her home. She died 18 months before. Months usually take place between the death and the funeral. A time allowing for the preparation of the costly and elaborate ceremony. During this time, the body is kept at home and relatives take turn to wake the dead, talking to the body as if it was living person.
A group of relatives crying over the coffin of Ruth Saro who died at 91, 18 months before her funeral. The ceremony is a weeklong affair involving the slaughter of over 50 animals with the whole village and beyond taking part. Ruth Saro belonged to a family of wealthy aristocrats.
A group of youth shaking the coffin of Ruth Saro in a simili battle.
As they bring the coffin to its final resting place, young friends and relatives of the deceased push each others, a joyous moment marking the end of the funeral.
The coffin of Ruth Saro is brought to the cemetery, the final moment of a ceremony that lasted a week.
In Londa, a cave containing skulls and dozens of coffins. According to the Toraja tradition, the dead are placed in holes carved in cliffs or in caves where they are left to decay.
A Toraja grave with a picture of the dead and a tau tau, a carved wooden statue representing the deceased.
The Sunday mass at a church in Rantepao. Torajas have been converted to Christianism by the Dutch colonisers who were trying to counter the influence of Islam. The missionaries, to maximise conversions, have allowed the Torajan traditional beliefs to coexist with the tenets of Christianism, in spite of obvious contradictions.
A Torajan grave looking like a miniature tongkonan. According to Torajan beliefs, death, much more than birth and marriage, is considered the true zenith of life. Death marks the beginning of a new life in a parallel world.
Once called the “The Forbidden Kingdom”, Mustang is high and remote Himalayan valley bordering the Tibetan plateau. Sheltered by 8000 meters peaks, It was once a thriving trade route between India and Tibet. No longer forbidden, a limited number of foreigners can now discover unique culture and nature of this valley.
A view of the Anapurna seen from the cockpit of a propeller plane taking travellers from Pokhara to Jomsom, gate to Mustang valley. The remoteness of Mustang makes flying the fastest way to reach its door, albeit not the safest. Flights are frequently cancelled and two crashes have happened (2012 & 2016).
Along the the Kali Gandaki river, the village of Chhusang surrounded by high cliffs. The river, a tributary of the Ganges, takes its source in Mustang at the border with Tibet. Mustang was one of the main route for Tibetan refugees to escape during the Tibetan uprising of 1959 and it it also where a Tibetan army funded by the C.I.A. set up camp with a plan to fight back the P.L.A..
On the rooftops of the village of Ghara, farmers are putting hay to dry.
Farmers harvesting in Yara village. There are over 10 000 inhabitants in Mustang, many of which move to lower valleys when winter comes.
In Charang village, surrounded by buckwheat fields, locals are picking up hay which will feed their cattle.
Chortens (stupa) in the village of Tangge. Stupas and monasteries dot Mustang where Tibetan Buddhism with some elements of Bon religion is fervently practiced.
Kunsang Tsering a Buddhist monk from Ghami on his way to to work in the fields allocated to the local monastery.
Kunsang Tsering, a Tibetan Buddhist monk perform the nightly puja (prayer) at the family home.
A novice monk flying a kite at Charang monastery.
Cliffs poked by caves near Yara. One fascinating feature of Mustang are thousands of cliff dwellings, some highly inaccessible. Some skeletons and partially mummified bodies, 2 to 3000 years old, have been found in some of the caves.
In Tashi Kabum cave, a local guide looking at a fresco representing Chenresik, the bodhisattva of compassion. In 2007, explorers discovered, in the Mustang caves, ancient Buddhist decorative art and paintings, dating back to the 13th century. It is believed that these murals have been commissioned to skilled artists from Kathmandu, at a time when Mustang got rich from the salt trade between Tibet and Nepal.
Due to the inaccessibility of the Mustang caves many works of art remain to be discovered. These murals have survived largely intact for centuries but are not protected and are under risk of earthquakes.
The village of Ghami, with its fields of barley and buckwheat.
A ruined fortress (dzong) overlooking Lo Manthang the capital of Mustang.
Locals carrying basket pass by prayer wheels near Lo Manthang.
A man at his window in Lo Manthang, former capital of the Kingdom of Mustang.
Restoration of the mural paintings at Thubchen Monastery. The work has created controversy as the restoration is done by painting over the ancient artwork.
A local artist busy at the restoration of a mural painting at Thubchen Monastery in Lo Manthang.
A nomad's necklaces: turquoise and corals, image of Buddha.
A nomad milking her sheep in the grasslands of Samduling.
Farmers harvesting barley in Lo Manthang.
A farmer stands in barley and buckwheat fields near Lo Manthang.
The terraced fields of Chhusang.
The canyons of the Kali Gandaki river sculpted by erosion.
The Pamir range, counting some of the highest mountains in the world, sitting on the famed the silk road, is also one of the most remote part of the world. Following the alleged footpath of Marco Polo, this trip takes us from the Wakhan Corridor into China through Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.
A group of Kyrghyz women with their children in a valley. The Wakhan corridor is populated by Wakhis and Kyrghyz who came there in the 1930’s fleeing stalinist collectivisation.
Afghan border patrolmen armed with Ak-47 at the back of jeep driving along the Wakhan corridor. The region is flanked by borders with Pakistan, Tajikistan and China. The Wakhan is the only region in Afghanistan that has enjoyed peace while the rest of the country struggled with civil war. Incursions by talibans have been rare.
A group of Pashtun traders taking their recently purchased yaks along a steep gorge. During the short summer, traders from the lower plain of Afghanistan come to the Wakhan to buy yaks and sheeps from Wakhis and Kyrghyz nomads.
Riding a horse along a steep gorge.
Pashtun traders taking purchased yaks along a steep gorge towards the lower plains of Afghanistan.
A lone trader at the Daliz pass in the Wakhan
A wakhi woman, carrying her child, is bringing back water from the river to the summer settlment.
A young Kyrgyz girl collecting dry yak dung. At this altitude vegetation is rare and the Kyrgyz rely on dry dung for cooking and heating during the long frigid winter.
Inside a Kyrgyz nomads yurt.
A Kyrgyz family inside their yurt.
A Kyrgyz woman heading to milk her yak, at a summer settlement just hit by the first snow fall of the year.
High school students playing a game of volley-ball, before the start of the class. One of them has put his notebook by the net. The remoteness of the Wakhan makes it difficult for the youth to get education. Some NGOs have built schools and funded teaching.
Border fences between Tajikistan and China in the Pamir njear Murghab. At the time when this was frontier between the Soviet Union and China, the fence used to be electrified.
Children playing in the village of Shaimak in Tajikistan, at the border with Afghanistan and China.
A boy at the window in Shaimak (Tajikistan) at the border with Afghanistan and China.
An old car parked in Shaimak (Tajikistan)
Kyrgyz nomads folding their summer camp, near Rangkul (Tajikistan)
Abandoned training equipment at a former military Soviet camp near Karakul Lake (Tajikistan)
An old soviet border post on the frontier between China and Tajikistan near Rangkul.
An old soviet border post on the frontier between China and Tajikistan near Rangkul.
The statue of a Soviet soldier at an abandoned military camp near the Karakul lake (Tajikistan).
A couple dancing in Murghab (Tajikistan)
Chinese workers from Sichuan, building a road linking Tajikistan with China near Sari Tash (Tajikistan).
At the Irkeshtam Pass, border point between Kyrgyzstan and China, some Kyrgyz live in rusty trailers, make a living from small border trades and whatever service they can provide to truck drivers who take this road.
Hundreds of Uyghur gathered in front Id Kah mosque in Kashgar (China). Such gatherings don’t happened anymore has the the practice of Islam is restricted in the region.
Centuries ago, armed by European merchants eager to acquire cloves and nutmegs, then worth more than gold, dozens of European vessels sunk or got lost trying to find their way to there. In the XVIIth century, once a relatively secure maritime road established, Portugal, Spain, England and the Netherlands went at war to acquire control over the islands and their precious spices. After many bloody battles and thousands of deaths both native and European, the Dutch prevailed and the last British stronghold, the small island of Run was exchanged by the latter, for Manhattan which was lost its name of New Amsterdam to be renamed New York.
In the pilot's cabin of the "Asia Permai" cargo ship, a nautical chart indicates the road to the Banda Islands nicknamed the Spice Islands.
In the island of Banda Neira, a boy showing a handful of fresh nutmegs he just collected. Until the mid XIXth century the Banda islands were the only location for the production of the coveted spice.
A young boy harvesting nutmegs at a plantation in Banda Neira.
Workers filling bags of nutmegs to be exported to China, and Europe, in warehouse on Ternate Island. The retail price for one bag would be $6000 in the US or Europe.
At a warehouse on Ternate Island a female worker sorting nutmegs. Most of the spice trade is run by Indonesian Chinese businessmen.
On ternate Island, workers sorting and preparing nutmegs for export.
Piles of nutmegs waiting for sorting at a hardware store run by ethnic Chinese, on Ternate Island.
A woman spreading nutmegs to dry in the sun by on a roadside of Ternate Island.
A man standing on the walls of a XVIIth century Spanish fort on Tidore Island which was used to fend off attacks by Portuguese vessels from the nearby island of Ternate. During the for 200 years starting in the XVI century, Spanish, Portugese, British and Dutch competed for a monopoly on spice trade resulting in a bloody war that cost thousands of lives.
Kids playing marbles by the jetty of the small Rhun Island. Run, was the object of a century long fight between British and Dutch naval forces for the control of its nutmeg production. Eventually the British surrendered and exchanged Rhun island for Manhattan, which from that day gave up its original name of New Amsterdam, to become New York.
A young boy walking past a Dutch colonial building in Banda Neira. The small island, is lined with remains of colonial buildings. During the spice wars between The Portugese, Dutch and British, thousands of Bandanese died. The Banda islands population dropped from an estimated 15 000 to 1000. They were killed, starved while fleeing, exiled or sold as slaves
In Banda Neira, a family is repainting its house ahead of Eid, while preparing a bag of nutmegs to bring to a local ethinic Chinese trader.
At Tidore harbour, a ferry loaded with scooters and passengers from Ternate island seen across. For long Ternate and Tidore islands were entangled in a rivalry fueled by Spanish and Portugese powers who were using it to try and control the islands.
The fish market in Banda Neira. Besides nutmegs, fishing and tourism are the main sources of revenues for Bandanese.
Teenagers have gathered at sunset on Banda Neira airport runway. The airport is seldom used. The company that used to run weekly fights between Maluku capital, Ambon, and Banda Neira went bankrupt.
At the Sultan’s palace, a man is laying a carpet for the prayer time.
In Ternate, Christians belonging to a protestant Pentecostal church leaving after the mass. In 1999, the Christian minorities of Ternate and Tidore islands were victims of murderous inter-religious riots. They were evacuated by the Indonesian army.
The ruins of Banda Neira Catholic church, burnt down during the 1999 intra-religious violence. The church was burnt by mistake. Muslim rioters thougt it was a Protestant church. The Catholic community is rarely the target of religious violence and often work as mediator between protestants and Muslims. Most Christians left the Bandas following these violences.
During a celebration of Eid at the end of Ramadan, children marching and singing “Allah Akbar”
A Pelni ferry has arrived in Banda Neira harbour. Transport between the Banda Islands and the rest of Indonesia is scarce. Once or twice a week, a ferry comes to Banda Neira and bring passengers and goods to Ambon, the provincial capital of the Malukus, eight hours away.
In Banda Neira, a man getting on a ferry to Ambon, the provincial capital of the Malukus.
Young passengers on a Pelni ferry heading to Ambon.
On a ferry boat heading to Ambon.
Passengers trying to sleep under a makeshift tent, set-up aboard a cargo ship sailing from Ambon to Banda Neira. When ferry boats are unavailable, cargo ship take passengers traveling in the Banda islands.
The Banda sea
The Irrawaddy river is Myanmar main waterway but also a lifeline running from North to South becoming eponymous with the country. From Yangon to Katha, this errand along the Irrawaddy riverbanks, is also a travel in time as life there hasn’t changed much over centuries.
