Category Archives: environmental portrait

The landscape around the Altai Mountains of far-western Bayan-Ölgii Province in Mongolia is as untamed as the people and animals who live there. The cold desert climate experiences dustings of snowfall – but little rain – and the measured temperatures – ranging from -22.6C (-8.68F) on a January night to 22.6° (72.7F) on a July afternoon – […]

View full post »

The dramatic landscapes of Nepal are stunning. Even so, it is the people that make Nepalese trekking such a joy! Everywhere I have been in the country, people have have been friendly and welcoming, and most amenable to having their pictures taken. A friend and I were hiking around the Eastern Rim of the Kathmandu […]

View full post »

“Music is the universal language of mankind.” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow  (Track: Narasirato – Roromera Dub Manasseh Remix) It doesn’t matter how remote from our experience people’s lives are: when they start to make music, we have an understanding of how they are feeling, and clues as to what they want to express. It is […]

View full post »

Rishikesh! For me, that is a name that conjures up the sound of sitars, images of pastel-coloured Hindu Gods, and memories of songs from the Beatles’ post-hallucinogenic phase. Can you believe it? It was 50 years ago, this February-past, that the Beatles followed their guru – their teacher – Maharishi Mahesh Yogi to his ashram […]

View full post »

(Double click for: Elkesh Herself by Kugyershin Family’s Songs) It is said that if you want to see traditional Kazakh culture, you should go to Bayan-Ölgii province in Mongolia, rather than to Kazakhstan. In the 1800s, the expanding Russian Empire pushed the semi-nomadic Kazakh tribes into neighboring countries, including Mongolia – where members of the Middle Jüz Kazakhs […]

View full post »