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The Chin tattooed women live in the Chin, Rakhine and Arakan states in northwestern Myanmar. The origin of facial tattoos in the region is unknown. Some believe that the practice began during the reigns of Kings long ago. The royalty used to come to the villages to capture young women. The men from the tribe may have tattooed their women to make them ugly, thereby saving them from a life of slavery. Interestingly, I heard a similar origin for body modification among the Mursi tribe in Ethiopia. As legend has it, the tribeswomen began wearing giant lip plates to make them uglier to would-be kidnappers. Now, the bigger the lip plate the higher the bride price.
For years, access to the tribal Mindat area was restricted by the burmese government. It was opened just two years ago. Only about 700 tourists visit per year. Most of them only visit the bucolic Mount Victoria by bus, never meeting the tattooed women who remain isolated, hours away by foot. Those who do wish to meet them better pack good walking shoes and be prepared to sleep in smoke-filled local houses complete with rats.
There are a few different face tattoo patterns. The spiderweb tattoo is popular in the Mrauk U region. It takes a three hour long tail boat ride to reach this remote area. This tattoo is usually accompanied by a circle in the center of the forehead which represents the sun or lines under the nose symbolizing tiger whiskers.
Another design, known as the bee pattern, is common in the Mindat area. It is composed of dots, lines and occasionally circles. It is worn by the Muun tribe who inhabit the hills of the Arakan state.
The Magan tribeswomen wear huge earrings made of beads and calabashes. They can also play the flute with their noses.
I ventured to Kanpelet village in search of the women from the U Pu tribe who have the incredibly rare whole face tattoo. This is one of the most impressive styles: the entire face is inked up. Rumors had it that only three women in this area had the tattoo. After hours of off roading, I arrive in the village only to learn that one died recently and another was very ill. I was lucky enough to meet Pa Late. At 85, she is nearly deaf but still works hard with her family in a small house on the top of a little hill.
Pa Late said that a completely black face had become a symbol of beauty in the past. The few women who refused to do it looked ugly to the men. The tattoo took three days but the pain lasted over a month.
There are two ways to make the tattoo needle. The first consists of tying three pieces of bamboo together and the second uses thorns. The ink is a mixture of cow bile, soot, plants, and pig fat. It usually took one day to complete the standard tattoo and a few more for the totally black one. The tattoo artist was a specialist or in some cases a parent. Infection was a common problem as the girls had blood all over their face.
Everything, including the eyelids, was tattooed. Many women say that the neck was the most sensitive area.
Ma Aung Seim shared her memories of the tattoo sessions : “I was 10 years old. The day before the tattoo ceremony, I only ate sugarcane and drank tea. It was forbidden to eat meat or peanuts. During the tattoo session, I cried a lot, but I could not move at all. After the session, my face bled for 3 days. It was very painful. My mother put fresh beans leaves on my face to alleviate the pain. I had no choice if i wanted to get married. Men wanted women with tattoos at this time. My mother told me that without a tattoo on my face, i would look like... a man! The web drawn on my face attracted the men like a spiderweb catches insects!”
Not all the tattooed women live in remote areas deep in the mountains. Some have integrated into modern society. Miss Heu, 67, lives in Kanpelet. Her grandmother forced her to get tattooed. She lives in a modern house and even has TV (when electricity is not out). Chin people have maintained their modesty and shyness: when a movie showspeople kissing or making love, most of them still fast forward the scene.
As a leader in the local community, Miss Heu had the chance to meet Aung San Suu Kyi when she came in the area for a meeting. She is very aware of the tattooed women and the ethnicities that are forgotten by the central government. She says she and Aung San Suu Kyi are friends now. Heu’s daughter has graduated and works in Singapore.
The Chin culture is threatened by the government as their teachers are usually not Chin. For a long time, they fought for independence, but since the country began to democratize, things have calmed down.
“I am old. Soon I will die” says to me a Chin woman from Pan Baung village, while she does the gesture of drying tears from her eyes. In her village, only 6 tattooed woman remain alive. Those women are the last of their kind…
© Eric Lafforgue
Last Fall walk with Trillian of 2014. Lower Bidwell Park, One Mile. Mobile Processing · Sony RX100M3 > @EyeFiCard Mobi > Galaxy S3 > #VSCOCam > Add Watermark
View of the magnificient frescos and paintings on the ceiling of the Great Hall (Throne Hall) inside Chehel Sotoun Palace, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, in Isfahan, Isfahan province of Iran.
Chehel Sotoun Palace was built by Shah Abbas II to be used for his entertainment and receptions. The name, meaning "Forty Columns" in Persian, was inspired by the twenty slender wooden columns supporting the entrance pavilion, which, when reflected in the waters of the fountain, are said to appear to be forty.
The palace contains many frescoes and paintings on ceramic. Many of the ceramic panels have been dispersed and are now in the possession of major museums in the west. They depict specific historical scenes such as the infamous Battle of Chaldiran against the Ottoman Sultan Selim I, the reception of an Uzbek King in 1646, when the palace had just been completed; the welcome extended to the Mughal Emperor, Humayun who took refuge in Iran in 1544; the battle of Taher-Abad in 1510 where the Safavid Shah Ismail I vanquished and killed the Uzbek King. A more recent painting depicts Nader Shah's victory against the Indian Army at Karnal in 1739. There are also less historical, but even more aesthetic compositions in the traditional miniature style which celebrate the joy of life and love..
The Chehel Sotoun Palace is among the 9 Iranian Gardens which are collectively registered as one of the Iran’s 23 registered World Heritage Sites under the name of the Persian Garden.
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The old town of Ostuni, nicknamed "the White City of Salento", in Brindisi province, Apulia region, southern Italy.
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View of St. Nicholas Church, a Greek Orthodox church built in 1865, situated in downtown Batumi, the capital city of Adjara region of Georgia.
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This is so dramatic! As I was leaving Yosemite, I noticed a bunch of people stopping, little did i know that they were to view this amazing work of nature. I snapped several shots, it's to hard to select the best one of the series.
Portrait of the monk Jacob in Tatevi Mets Anapat (Great Hermitage of Tatev), a 17th-century Armenian monastery located in the Vorotan River valley, secluded in the middle of forest and isolated from the rest of the world, in Syunik Province of Armenia. Jacob left his family in Gyumri in 2014, and has been living here alone ever since.
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Beautiful painting on the ceiling inside the Qajar Kushak, in Fin Garden, situated in Kashan, Isfahan province of Iran.
Fin Garden is a historical Persian garden, and part of UNESCO World Heritage Site. It contains Kashan's Fin Bath, where Amir Kabir, the Qajarid chancellor, was murdered by an assassin sent by King Nasereddin Shah in 1852. Completed in 1590, the Fin Garden is the oldest extant garden in Iran.
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Rolling incenses hang on the roof of the pagoda to express a peaceful wish for family and life in @ HCMC, Vietnam.
Asmara is a city of Eritrea, a country of the Africa. It is the capital of Eritea. About five hundred thousand people live in Asmara. The architecture of Asmara was influenced by the Italian colonization.
The town of Asmara was colonized by the Italians. It was colonized in 1889. The town of Asmara became the national capital of the colony in 1897. In 1913 and then later in 1915, Asmara suffered knew some damages because of earthquakes. That is one of the reason why in the 1930’s, the Italians modified the architecture of the city. They built new buildings. Most of the actual center of the town was built by the Italians. The city looked like Roma. Asmara was called "Piccola Roma" (the little Roma). Nowadays, most of the buildings of Asmara have an italian origin. Some shops are still named in Italian.
The three main architectural styles you will find in Asmara are the art deco style, the Victorian style and the Italian new roman style. The Impero Cinema is a famous art deco building of Asmara. As famous as well, there is the Pension Africa, a cubist building. The Europeans at that time used to say that Asmara was a place to experiment “new radical designs”. Some buildings are neo-Romanesque, such as the Roman Catholic Cathedral, some villas are built in a late Victorian style. Art Deco influences are found throughout the city. Architects were restricted by nothing.
There are a lot of religious sites in the town of Asmara. Such as the catholic cathedral, the eclectic cathedral, mosquees, and the copte Nda Mariam cathedral which is one of the most impressive buildings of Asmara. Colored wall pictures done by contemporary artists can be seen in different parts of the town. The town also has traditional markets. It has little shops. The inhabitants are reputed warm and open people.
© Eric Lafforgue
Beautiful fresco on the interior wall of Đakovo Cathedral (Cathedral of St. Peter), a Roman Catholic Church built in 18th century, in Đakovo, Osijek-Baranja county, Slavonia region of Croatia.
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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
The Konso are quite a rich tribe, because they have a lot of fields. The villages are really big, organized like wood fortresses, and are ruled by traditional chiefs.
In the village, there are statues, called "Wagas" or "Wakas", which represent dead Konso chiefs or heros who had a heroic life -they killed animals, enemies... But since antique shops have bought the oldest ones, nowadays they tend to be very rare.
The Konso had an interesting tradition after having a fight with an other tribe: they take the tibia bones of their dead ennemies, burn them to ashes, and then dance around.
Before the women were all half nude with a typical white skirt, but as missionaries are very active in the area, they tend to wear Arsenal tee-shirt to hide their breast... There is actually a big challenge in Ethiopia between christian and muslim activits to convert the remote villages.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has added in september 2011 the ‘Konso Cultural Landscape of Ethiopia’ to it's World Heritage List.
© Eric Lafforgue
Beautiful brickwork & tilework inside the interior chamber of Sultan Amir Ahmad Bathhouse, a traditional Iranian public bathhouse in Kashan, Iran. It was constructed in the 16th century, during the Safavid era; however, the bathhouse was damaged in 1778 as a result of an earthquake and was renovated during the Qajar era.
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Low angle l view of Rabati Castle, in Akhaltsikhe, Samtskhe-Javakheti region of Georgia.
Rabati Castle was built in the 13th century and had seen many invasions and destructions. In 13th century, the fortress was destroyed by the army of Tamerlane. The majestic fortress was in ruins. Then it was restored, but hundred years later it was again destroyed by Mongolian troops, then came the Ottoman army and the army of the Russian Empire. In times of all the invasions, the fortress was of great strategic importance.
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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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