3383 TURKEY (Central Anatolia Region) - Mevlana Museum in Konya

Located in Konya, the Mevlâna Museum is the mausoleum of Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi, a Persian Sufi mystic also known as Mevlâna or Rumi. It was also the dervish lodge (tekke) of the Mevlevi order, better known as the whirling dervishes, about which I wrote here.This is one of the biggest pilgrimage centres in Turkey, and also the most visited museum, receiving 2.5 million visitors in 2017, most of them Turkish.

3376 CAMBODIA - Royal Ploughing Ceremony

The Royal Ploughing Ceremony is an ancient royal rite held in many Asian countries to mark the traditional beginning of the rice growing season. In the various versions of Ramayana, Sita, the heroine appears from the ploughed earth as a baby when Janaka, the king of Videha ploughs the field in the royal ceremony. This is the earliest historical account of this agricultural ritual Sita#Birth. Traditionally, the ceremony is performed in the month Pisak of the Khmer calendar (usually in May, after european calendar), but varies as it is determined by Hora, marking the beginning of the rainy season.

3337 MALAYSIA - A roadside hut selling durians and rambutans

Named in some regions as the king of fruits, the durian is the fruit of several tree species belonging to the genus Durio. There are 9 recognised Durio species which produce edible fruit, with over 300 named varieties in Indonesia, 100 in Thailand and 100 in Malaysia. It is distinctive for its large size, strong odour, and thorn-covered rind. The fruit can grow as large as 30 cm long and 15 cm in diameter, and it typically weighs one to three kg. Its shape ranges from oblong to round, the colour of its husk green to brown, and its flesh pale yellow to red, depending on the species.

3314 MYANMAR (Sagaing Region) - Settawya Pagoda in Mingun

Located on the west bank of Irrawaddy river, a mere 230 meters SE of the Mingun Pahtodawgyi, the Settawya Pagoda is a small, whitewashed Buddhist chapel constructed along classical Pagan lines, built to house a marble footprint of the Buddha. It was build between 1804 and 1811 under the direction of King Bodawpaya Konbaung (r. 1782-1819), who spent most of his attention on the much grander but ill-fated Mingun Pahtodawgyi pagoda. The completed temple included a set of marble stairs leading down to the river, creating a grand entrance for visitors approaching by water.

3286 INDONESIA - Gibran Rakabuming Raka and Selvi Ananda at their wedding

Mayor of Surakarta from 2005 to 2012, and the Governor of Jakarta from 2012 to 2014, Joko Widodo (born Mulyono, 21 June 1961) became in July 2014 the first president of Indonesia not to come from an elite political or military background. He has 3 children, the eldest being Gibran Rakabuming Raka (born in Surakarta at 1 October 1987), a successful businessman and politician. Gibran married Selvi Ananda on 11 June 2015, and the couple had their first child, Jan Ethes Srinarendra, on 10 March 2016.

3112, 3275 FRANCE (Saint Barthélemy) / THAILAND - A Thai spot in Gustavia

3275

Posted on 16.07.2017, 30.11.2019
Located right in the heart of Gustavia, the main town and capital of the island of Saint Barthélemy, the restaurant Black Ginger serves authentic Thai cuisine, concocted by a trio of Thai chef. Its unique interior courtyard opens on the starry sky, matched only by its contemporary design combining a palette of red and black colors, max domes spreading a soft light,and minimalist furniture, including Charles Eames chairs.

3112

The walls are decorated with photographic portraits by Serge Anton, French-Belgian photographer and designer. His collaboration with prestigious magazines around the world, as well as its exhibitions and books, and not least his accomplishments of permanent photographic installations for various restaurants and hotels, earned him international recognition. The portraits from the postcards were realised in Thailand in 2014.

1270, 3233 THAILAND - Thai Classical Dance

1270 Thai Classical Dance

Posted on 05.10.2014, 05.01.2018
The present Thai classical dance (natasin) probably developed during the Ayutthaya period (1350-1767), although very little is known about the process. Its possible origins may be found in the Khmer tradition as depicted in the Khmer reliefs of Angkor and the Khmer-related reliefs of the Phimai temple. One possible transmission route for this clearly Indian-influenced dance technique could also have been South Thailand with its connections with Sri Lanka and the Srivijaya Empire. There may also be the possibility that the tradition was brought from India by Indian Brahman gurus.

3233 A Khon performance

The formulation of the present style took place during the reign of Rama I (1782-1809), and the standardisation of the dance technique happened simultaneously with the rewriting of the Ramakien, Thailand's national epic, derived from Ramayana. As a result, the sub-techniques of classical Thai dance are classified according to the characters portrayed in this epic poem. The first group, the noble humans, are divided into major heroes (Phra Ram), minor heroes (Phra Lak), major heroines (Nang Sida), and finally to minor heroines (Montho).

3231 VIETNAM (Red River Delta) - Hoàn Kiếm Lake in Hanoi

Hoan Kiem Lake (meaning "Lake of the Returned Sword" or "Lake of the Restored Sword") is located in the historical center of Hanoi. According to the legend, in early 1428, Emperor Lê Lợi was boating on the lake when a Golden Turtle God (Kim Qui) surfaced and asked for his magic sword, Heaven's Will. Lợi concluded that Kim Qui had come to reclaim the sword that its master, a local God, the Dragon King (Long Vương) had given Lợi some time earlier, during his revolt against Ming China. Later, Emperor Lợi gave the sword back to the turtle after he finished fighting off the Chinese.

3200 TAIWAN - National Revolutionary Martyrs' Shrine in Taipei

The National Revolutionary Martyrs' Shrine, resting on the slopes of the Chingshan Mountain and overseeing the Keelung River, is located right next to the Grand Hotel in Taipei, and is dedicated to the war dead of the Republic of China. Built in 1969, it recalls the architecture of the Hall of Supreme Harmony in Beijing's Forbidden City. The structure houses the spirit tablets of about 390,000 persons killed, among other engagements, during the Xinhai Revolution, Northern Expedition, Second Sino-Japanese War, Chinese Civil War, and the First and Second Taiwan Strait Crises.

3188 VIETNAM (Red River Delta) - St. Joseph's Cathedral in Hanoi

Located west of Hoàn Kiếm Lake, in a small square within the Old Quarter of Hanoi, St. Joseph's Cathedral is a late 19th-century Gothic Revival church (resembling Notre Dame de Paris), that serves as the cathedral of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hanoi to nearly 4 million Catholics in the country. Construction was completed in 1886, a year before the federation of French Indochina was established as part of its colonial empire.

3045, 3175 VIETNAM - Hmong people

3045 A Hmong little girl with her bird

Posted on 10.05.2017, 23.10.2017
The Hmong is an ethnic group from the mountainous regions of China (where is considered a sub-groups of the Miao ethnicity), Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand. The Hmong began a gradual southward migration in China in the 18th century due to political unrest and to find more arable land. During the first and second Indochina Wars, France and the United States' Central Intelligence (CIA) recruited thousands of Hmong people in Laos, to fight against forces from north and south Vietnam and the communist Pathet Lao insurgents.

3175 Hmong girls with water buffalo in Sa Pa

Following the war, hundreds of thousands of Hmong refugees fled to Thailand to seek political asylum. Thousands of these refugees have resettled in Western countries in two separate waves. The first wave resettled in the late 1970s, mostly in the United States, but also in Australia, France, Canada, Argentina, and French Guiana (about the community from French Guiana I wrote here). Others have returned to Laos under United Nations-sponsored repatriation programs. About the communities from French Guiana I wrote here. The second wave resettled mainly in the U.S. since 2004.

1061, 3164 CHINA (Guangdong / Guangxi / Guizhou / Hainan / Hubei / Hunan / Sichuan / Yunnan) - Miao people

3164 Miao people

Posted on 21.04.2014, 08.10.2017

Miao is an ethnic group who live primarily in southern China, in the provinces of Guizhou, Hunan, Yunnan, Sichuan, Guangxi, Hainan, Guangdong, and Hubei, but also, in smaller numbers, in northern Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand. Miao is actually the official Chinese term for four distinct groups of people who are only distantly related through language or culture (and doesn't reflect the self-designations of the component nations of people): the Hmu people of southeast Guizhou, the Kho (Qho) Xiong people of west Hunan, the A-Hmao people of Yunnan, and the Hmong people of Guizhou, Sichuan, Guangxi, and Yunnan.

1061 Long Skirt Miao women in Guizhou

There are some nine million Miao in China, of whom the Hmong constitute probably one-third. The Miao are related in language and some other cultural features to the Yao; among these peoples the two groups with the closest degree of relatedness are the Hmong (Miao) and the Iu Mien (Yao). Much of the Miao area is hilly or mountainous, and is drained by several big rivers. The weather is mild with a generous rainfall, and the area is rich in natural resources. Major crops include paddy rice, maize, potatoes, Chinese sorghum, beans, rape, peanuts, tobacco, ramie, sugar cane, cotton, oil-tea camellia and tung tree.

3157 VIETNAM (South Central Coast) - A friendly smile from Hội An

In almost the entire 20th century, Vietnam was the scene of military conflicts, not seldom atrocious. The more precious is the gentle and warm smile of this old woman from Hội An, who bears on the head the traditional nón lá.

3156 PHILIPPINES (National Capital Region) - Feast of the Black Nazarene

The Black Nazarene is a life-sized image of a dark-skinned, kneeling Jesus Christ carrying the Cross enshrined in the Minor Basilica of the Black Nazarene in the Quiapo district of the City of Manila. It was carved by a unknown Mexican from a dark wood in the 16th century, and arrived in Manila via galleon from Acapulco, on May 31, 1606. It depicts Jesus en route to his crucifixion, and was housed in several churches near Manila in the early decades, arriving in Quiapo Church in 1787 where it has been enshrined ever since.

3152 VIETNAM (Red River Delta) - Millennial Anniversary of Hanoi

Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam and the country's second largest city by population (7.7 million people in 2015). In 1010, Lý Thái Tổ, the first ruler of the Lý Dynasty, moved the capital of Đại Việt (literally Great Viet) to the site of the Đại La Citadel. Claiming to have seen a dragon ascending the Red River, he renamed the site Thăng Long (Soaring Dragon) - a name still used poetically to this day. This is considered the birth date of Hanoi. From 1010 until 1802, it was the most important political centre of Vietnam.

3124 THAILAND - Traditional Thai puppets

The Thai puppetry dates back at least 300 years, the earliest recorded account of it being in 1685. Shows were often performed for the monarchy and were extremely popular during King Taksin's reign in the late 1700s. Around 1895 was first mentioned a new form of puppetry, Hun Krabok (hun means puppet, while krabok describes a type of wood which is hollow, such as the bamboo), which became shortly a popular forms of entertainmen.

3093 CHINA (Yunnan) - Pumi people

The Pumi people are one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by China, ethnically related to the Tibetans, and recognized as an official minority nationality unique to Yunnan, with a population of 30,000. They live on rugged mountains as high as 2,600 meters above sea level, cut by deep ravines. They live in approximately 500 villages spread in rugged mountains as high as 2,600 meters above sea level, cut by deep ravines. In many locations they live beside members of the Naxi nationality. Prinmi, the Pumi language, belongs to the Qiangic branch of the Tibeto-Burman family.

3075 VIETNAM (Mekong Delta) - Đồng Tháp girls with lotus flowers

 

 

Vietnam has a strong affinity with the water. Actually, Vietnamese civilization sprung out of the Red River delta and Mekong delta where wet-rice cultivation along with fishing and rice planting was the mainstay of living. Is therefore naturally that the country's national flower is an aquatic one, namely the lotus (Nelumbo lucifera), especially that it is hard to travel through Vietnam during lotus season without coming across a pond or lake filled with them. Pink lotus is considered the supreme of all lotuses.

3073 TURKEY (Central Anatolia Region) - Mevlevi Sema ceremony (UNESCO ICH)

The Mevlevi is an ascetic Sufi order founded in 1273 by the followers of the Persian poet and Islamic theologian Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Balkhi-Rumi in Konya (capital of the Anatolian Seljuk Sultanate), from where it gradually spread throughout the Ottoman Empire. Today, they can be found in many Turkish communities throughout the world, but the most famous centres are in Konya and Istanbul. The Mevlevi are also known as the Whirling Dervishes due to their famous practice of whirling as a form of dhikr (remembrance of God).

0109, 3049 VIETNAM (Mekong Delta) - Floating markets in Cần Thơ

3049 Cái Răng floating market

Posted on 27.01.2012, 12.05.2017

With an estimated population of 1,121,000 as of 2004, Cần Thơ is the biggest city in the Mekong Delta,  being regarded as Western capital of Vietnam. Located on the south bank of the Hậu River, the bigger branch of the Mekong River, it has a reputation for being a welcoming place, where everybody is smiling and welcoming. Cần Thơ is famous also for its floating markets, where people sell and buy things on the river, and can be quite freely visited on board smaller boats.

0109 A floating market in Cần Thơ

Farmers from the region bring their goods, fruits and vegetables mainly, to the markets and sell them to local dealers. These dealers sell the products to shops in the neighboring towns and to wholesale dealers from the big towns. All big boats have a pole. Each wholesaler hangs the goods he buys/sells on this pole. On the floating markets you don't find only people buying and selling goods, but also floating restaurants, floating bars, floating gas stations, and many other floating shops.