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Wat Pho is a Buddhist temple in Phra Nakhon district, Bangkok, Thailand. It is located in the Rattanakosin district directly adjacent to the Grand Palace. Known also as the Temple of the Reclining Buddha, its official name is Wat Phra Chettuphon Wimon Mangkhlaram Ratchaworamahawihan. The temple is also known as the birthplace of traditional Thai massage.
Morning sunlight shines through colorful stained glass windows inside main prayer hall of Nasir al-Mulk Mosque, also known as the Pink mosque, situated in Shiraz, the capital of Fars province of Iran.
Nasir al-Mulk mosque was built during the Qajar era, between 1876 to 1888, by the order of Mirzā Hasan Ali (Nasir ol Molk), a Qajar ruler. It includes extensive colored glass in its facade, and displays other traditional elements such as the Panj Kāse ("five concaved") design.
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土耳其－Istanbul－蓝色清真寺－夜色迷人
Night view of the magnificent Blue Mosque (i.e., Sultan Ahmed Mosque), situated in downtown Istanbul, Istanbul province, Marmara region of Turkey.
© All rights reserved. You may not use this photo in website, blog or any other media without my explicit permission.
The Bodi (or Meen) ethnic group live close to the Omo River in southern Ethiopia and have the Mursi tribe as south neighbor and Konso at north. They are pastoralists and agriculturalists, thus livestock plays a large role in the tribe. Along the banks of the river, they cultivate sorghum, maize and coffee.
For their new year in June, called Kael, Bodi men are overweight because they consume large amounts of blood and milk. This is a tradition that measures the body fat of a contestant. Each family or clan is allowed to enter an unmarried contestant. The winner of this contest is awarded great fame by the tribe. The women in the tribe wear goatskin skirts and have a plug inserted into their chin. Most of them are now Christians. In Hana
Mursi, the main town of the Bodis, the government plans to settle 300 000 people from all over Ethiopia over the next few years into the area. Along with the workers and soldiers, AIDS and Hepatitis B are coming too. They do not want to give up their traditions and their land to allow the new sugar cane plantations irrigated by the water of Gibe 3 dam, and live in the settlements planned by the government. If the Konso attempt to set foot on their land with the support of the government, clashes will erupt predict the Bodi elders.
© Eric Lafforgue
Bas-relief of Persian guards on the outside of the tomb of Artaxerxes II, inside Persepolis, the ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid Empire, destroyed and sacked by Alexander the Great from Macedonia, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated 60 km northeast of the city of Shiraz in in Fars Province, Iran.
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The Maha Kumbh Mela is the largest religious gathering on earth, and takes place every 12 years on the banks of Sangam, the confluence of the holy rivers Ganga, Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati, the Kumbh Mela took place in Allahabad in 2013 and attracted more than 100 million people...
© Eric Lafforgue
Jerash in Jordan lies on a plain surrounded by hilly wooded areas and fertile basinsis, it is famous for the ruins of the Greco-Roman city of Gerasa, also referred to as Antioch on the Golden River, It is considered one of the most important and best preserved Roman cities in the Near East, it was a city of the Decapolis
© Eric Lafforgue
Hamer society (and some other tribes) consists of a complex system of age groups. To pass from one age group to another involves complicated rituals. The most significant ceremony for young men is the bull-leaping ceremony, the final test before passing into adulthood and in order to get married. He must jump naked over a number of bulls without falling. If he is able to complete this task, he will become a man and be able to marry a woman. The ceremony lasts three days. Cows are lined up in a row. The initiate, naked (as a symbol of the childhood), has to leap on the back of the first cow, then from one bull to another, until he finally reaches the end of the row. He must not fall of the row and must repeat successfully the test four times to have the right to become a husband. Any boy who fails to complete his four runs, however, will be publicly humiliated: he will be whipped by his female relatives in the middle of the initiation ground and thereafter, for the rest of his life, he will be teased, insulted and beaten by both men and women. Understandably, few novices allow themselves to fail in this way. While the boys walk on cows, Hamar women accompany him: they jump and sing. The more abundant and extensive the initiate’s scars are, the deeper the girls' affection to the boy who is about to become a man is. Totally committed to their initiated sons, the mothers are whipped to blood, in order to prove their courage and accompany their sons during the test. The ceremonies end with several days of feasting, including the typical jumping dances, accompanied by as much sorghum beer as the bull-jumper's family can provide to the visitor. Tourists visit the Hamer hoping to see that traditional leaping ceremony.
© Eric Lafforgue