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.

2127, 3007 CHINA (Yunnan) - Jino people

2127 Young Jino woman

Posted on 16.12.2015, 01.04.2017
The Jino people are a Tibeto-Burman ethnic group, which live in an area of about 70x50 km in the Jinoshan Mountain, in the extreme south of Yunnan province, in a series of mild hills with wet climate, crisscrossed by numerous rivers and streams. They are one of the less numerous (about 22,000 people) of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China and the last one included as "national minority", being recognized in 1979.

3007 Jino women beating in a Sun Drum

It is said that they migrated from Pu'er and Mojiang or from places even farther north, and when they settled around the Jinoshan Mountain, still lived in a matriarchal society. This gave way to a patriarchal society some 300 years ago, but they were still in the transitional stage to a class society at the time when the People's Republic was founded in 1949. Zhuoba (the village father) and Zhuose (the village mother) were the leaders in a communal village.

0107, 2872 AUSTRALIA - Indigenous Australians

2872 Australian Aboriginal men in Top End, taking part in a ceremony
which is accompanied by the haunting music of the didgeridoo

Human habitation of the Australia is estimated to have begun between 42,000 and 48,000 years ago, possibly with the migration of people by land bridges and short sea-crossings from what is now Southeast Asia. These first inhabitants may have been ancestors of modern Indigenous Australians. Australia's Aboriginal culture probably represents the oldest surviving culture in the world, with the use of stone tool technology and painting with red ochre pigment dating back over 60,000 years. Australians never developed an "iron age", "bronze age", or pottery.

0107 An elder Australian Aboriginal,
his grandson and a Goanna

There is great diversity among different Indigenous communities in Australia, each with its own mixture of cultures, customs and languages. At the time of initial European settlement, over 250 languages were spoken; it is currently estimated that 120 to 145 of these remain in use, but only 13 of these are not considered endangered. Although Aboriginal society was generally semi-nomadic, moving according to the changing food availability found across different areas as seasons changed, the mode of life and material cultures varied greatly from region to region.

2617 CUBA (Matanzas) - Finca Campesina in Ciénaga de Zapata

Located on the Zapata Peninsula in the southern Matanzas province of Cuba, Ciénaga de Zapata (Zapata Swamp) is not only known for its size but also for being the best preserved wetlands in all of the Antilles. It features exceptional species of flora and fauna, many of which are endemic. Near the junction of the National Highway and the Road Cienaga de Zapata is Finca Campesina (Peasant Farm), a large estate that tries to recreate the rural ambience of the island.

2551 INDIA (Rajasthan) - Folk musicians on the road

Folk music is a vital part of Rajasthani culture. Kathputali, Bhopa, Chang, Teratali, Ghindar, Kachchhighori, Tejaji, parth dance etc. are the examples of the traditional Rajasthani culture. Folk songs are commonly ballads which relate heroic deeds and love stories; and religious or devotional songs known as bhajans and banis (often accompanied by musical instruments like dholak, sitar, sarangi etc.) are also sung. The Ghoomar dance from Udaipur and Kalbeliya dance of Jaisalmer have gained international recognition.

2501 CANADA (Quebec) - Montreal International Jazz Festival

The Montreal International Jazz Festival takes place at 10 free outdoor stages and 10 indoor concert halls, and holds the 2004 Guinness World Record as the world's largest jazz festival. Every year, at the end of June and beginning of July, it features roughly 3,000 artists from 30-odd countries, more than 650 concerts (including 450 free outdoor performances), and welcomes close to 2.5 million visitors as well as 400 accredited journalists.

1040, 2226 UNITED STATES (Hawaii) - Merrie Monarch Festival

1040 Hula dancers at Merrie Monarch Festival

Posted on 30.03.2014, 17.01.2016
The early settlement history of Hawaii isn't completely resolved. One hypothesis is that the first Polynesians arrived in Hawaiʻi in the 3rd century from the Marquesas and were followed by Tahitians in 1300, who conquered the original inhabitants. Another is that a single, extended period of settlement populated the islands. Whatever the truth, the fact is that the Native Hawaiians (kānaka maoli) are Polynesian as origin, and their culture is a clear evidence in this regard, even if the different ethnic groups who established on the islands during the past 200 years added elements of its own culture.

2226 Let's hula!

The Merrie Monarch Festival is a week-long (from Easter Sunday morning to Saturday evening) cultural festival that takes place annually since 1963 in Hilo, in honor of the last reigning king of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi, David Kalākaua, called the "Merrie Monarch" for his patronage of the arts and credited with restoring many Hawaiian cultural traditions during his reign, including the hula, a uniquely Hawaiian dance accompanied by chant or song that preserves and perpetuates the traditions and culture of Hawaii. The festival is the most prestigious of all hula contests, and many hālau hula (schools) attend it each year.

1989 BRUNEI - Zapin Dance

Like neighbouring countries, Brunei is a Malay-dominated country. Many cultural and linguistic differences make Brunei Malays distinct from the larger Malay populations in nearby Malaysia and Indonesia, even though they are ethnically related and share the Muslim religion. The Malay population are known for the Jipin or Zapin dance, performed by six men and women, accompanied by instruments that include the  gambus dan biola, dombak and rebana. Gongs like the Kulintangan (a set of small gongs), duck gongs and other styles are played.

1779 INDONESIA (Lesser Sunda) - Rejang Dance - part of Three genres of traditional dance in Bali (UNESCO ICH)

Rejang Dance is one of the rare dances in Bali, because is performed only in a temple anniversary in its inner courtyard, to delight and entertain the visiting god and spirit. Danced by women, it consist of a slow procession, the participants conducting themselves with extreme grace and delicacy. Dominant movements used is ngembat and ngelikas or left and right movements performed while moving forward slowly.  It is the most dream-like Balinese dance, surpassing all one can imagine of smooth, unending motion. It is accompanied by mysterious old melody (Gong Kebyar or Gong Gede), subtle, smooth as the dance and with the similar feeling of infinity.

1453 GUINEA (Faranah) - Kissi woman with a djabara

 

Kissi people live in Guinea (420,000), Liberia (176,000) and Sierra Leone (125,000), speak a Niger–Congo language, and are well known for making baskets and weaving on vertical looms, although are primarily farmers. In past times they were also famous for their iron working skills, the Kissi smiths producing the famous Kissi penny, an iron money widely used in West and even Central Africa. They live in small, self-governing villages that are tucked inside groves of mango or kola trees. Each village is compact, containing no more than about 150 people. Although they have converted to Christianity, most of them continue to practice their traditional ethnic religion. Ancestor worship or praying to deceased relatives is a common practice among the Kissi.

1384 MEXICO (Michoacán) - Indigenous festivity dedicated to the dead (UNESCO ICH)

1384 Dance of The Old Men in Janitzio

The town of Janitzio (which means "where it rains") is located atop the hill of the Isla de Janitzio, the main island of Lake Pátzcuaro (on the background of the postcard), whereof the natives believe that is the place where the barrier between life and death is the thinnest. On the island's highest point can be seen a 40m statue of José María Morelos, a great hero of Mexico's independence. The Lake Pátzcuaro basin is home to the Purépecha (Tarascan) people, who in pre-colonial times occupied most of the state of Michoacán, but also some of the lower valleys of Guanajuato and Jalisco. The Tarascan state was never conquered by the Aztec Empire, despite several attempts to do so, probably due to the Purépecha knowledge of metal working, which was superior to that of the Aztecs.

1353 SOUTH KOREA (Seoul) - Jongmyo Shrine (UNESCO WHS) and Royal ancestral ritual in the Jongmyo Shrine and its music (UNESCO ICH)

Jongmyo is a Confucian shrine dedicated to the perpetuation of memorial services for the deceased kings and queens of the Korean Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910), a symbolic structure that conveys the legitimacy of the royal family. Such shrines existed during the Three Kingdoms of Korea period (57-668), but few survived, Jongmyo being the oldest one. It is adjacent to Changdeokgung and Changgyeonggung, all three being connected in the Joseon period, but were separated with a road by Japanese colonialists. When was built in 1394 by King Taejo, first king of the dinasty, who moved the capital to Seoul, it was one of the longest buildings in Asia.

1278 MALDIVES - Boduberu Music

The most widely known form of indigenous music in Maldives, and also the most popular, especially in the Northern Atolls, is called boduberu.  It is likely that the music was introduced to The Maldives by sailors from the Indian Ocean region in about the 11th century, and that it may have East African origins. It evolved among the common citizens as an alternative to court music. In the early days, the people gathered together to perform boduberu, and it became widely accepted as the music of the common people. The performing of the music is often referred as "vibrating the island".

1265 BELARUS - Blowing in horn

1265 Belarusian blowing in horn

Generally speaking, the traditional musical instruments emerged from very simple objects of life that were used to produce sounds and developed into rather complicated mechanisms. One should not forget that original music instruments were used not primarily for entertainment, but as signal instruments by gatherers, hunters and shepards. Probably that the first instruments used to make sounds were the wind instruments and the percussion ones.

1141 ALGERIA - Women from the south of Algeria in traditional clothes

As in other Maghreb countries, the majority of people from Algeria are Berbers in origins, and many of them identifies with an Arabic-based culture. Even if nine out of ten algerians live along the northern coastal region, in the Saharan regions of the south there are still some nomadic or semi-nomadic communities. Most people speak a North African dialect of Arabic known as darja, but education and the written language are in classical Arabic.

1112 UNITED KINGDOM (Scotland) - A Highlander piper near the Eilean Donan Castle

For centuries the inhabitants of Scotland have been building fortifications and strongholds of one kind or another, so that at one time there were over 3,000 castles, larger or smaller. Many of them are in ruins or have disappeared completely, but hundreds still remained, to remind the tumultuous history of these lands. One of the most picturesque of them is the castle located on the Eilean Donan (Island of Donnán), a small tidal island where three lochs meet, Loch Duich, Loch Long and Loch Alsh, in Wester Ross.

0847 PHILIPPINES (Cordillera Administrative Region) - An Ifugao dance

Ifugao is a landlocked province in the Cordillera Administrative Region in Luzon, covering a mountainous region characterized by rugged terrain, river valleys, and massive forests, and is famous for its rice terraces (about which I wrote here), included among the UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1995. The terraces were constructed by the ancestors of the Ifugao people (people of the hill), who still live and work as in the past. They are named Igorot (mountain people) by non-Cordilleran, and are different from other tribes in the area in culture, tradition, language, and idealism. In the past they were feared head-hunters, just as other tribes in these mountainous regions. Igorots may be divided into two subgroups, who prior to Spanish colonisation didn't considered themselves as belonging to a single ethnic group: one who lives in the south, central and western areas (adept at rice-terrace farming), and one who lives in the east and north. They may be further subdivided into five ethnolinguistic groups: the Bontoc, Ibaloi, Isnag (or Isneg/Apayao), Kalinga, and the Kankanaey.

0841 CHILE - La Cueca

By Decree No. 23 published in the Official Journal on 18 September 1979, cueca became the national dance of Chile. Among other arguments, the main was that within the wide range of Chilean folk dances, this had the highest level of diffusion and historical significance. Their presence can be recognized throughout the country, varying the choreographic and musical forms as the geographical area in which it is interpreted, but always keeping a common pattern that makes it a dance unique and differentiated. It has had two predominant functions: first, entertainment, bailándose in boarding and parties with great fanfare, secondly, the documentary function, as it acts as a transmitter of the oral tradition of popular singers voice.

0761 KYRGYZSTAN - Komuz player in national clothes

The komuz (qomuz), an ancient fretless string instrument, is the best-known national instrument and one of the better-known Kyrgyz national symbols. It is generally made from a single piece of wood (usually apricot or juniper), has three strings traditionally made out of gut, and is used either as accompaniment or as a lead instrument in a wide variety of musical styles, including aytysh (a song competition between akyns), and the recitation of the lengthy verse epic Manas or other heroic and lyric poetry. The names of parts of the komuz are often allusions to body parts, particularly of horses.

0749 MOROCCO - Traditional clothes and musical instruments

Even if the 99.1% of the Moroccans have an Arab and / or Berber ethnic background (therefore the population has a high degree of homogeneity), the Moroccan folklore is very rich and diverse, and I dare to say that music and dance are keystones of Moroccan traditional culture. If I should choose a single Moroccan folk performance at that I could attend, one and only one, I would choose, without doubt, the dance, because it provides many elements of this culture: the dance itself, but also the music and musical instruments, as well as dancers and musicians costumes.