Tag Archives: people

She’s not the first, and she’s not the only one, but she is still a rarity these days: a female Kazakh eagle hunter. Hunting with golden eagles is a long-standing custom among the Turkic peoples (particularly the Kazakh and Kyrgyz) across the Eurasian steppe. During the 1930s, large numbers of Kazakhs fled from communist-controlled Kazakhstan through the Altai Mountains to Bayan-Ölgii Province in […]

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When I think of northern India, it is the incredible Rajput (Hindu) and Mughal (Islamic) architecture of Rajasthan that I remember: fortified walls and sandstone edifices climbing across hillsides; exquisite turrets floating in the hot, dusty air; delicate lattice work shielding windows and casting intricate shadow patterns in the cloistered rooms behind them. But, I also think […]

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How can one talk about “the people” or “the culture” of Papua New Guinea?  Papua New Guinea is one of the most culturally diverse nations in the world. Comprising the eastern half of the world’s second-largest island, it is home to hundreds of different ethnic groups and 852 known languages. And, who knows how many pockets […]

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We were trapped! Eleven photo-enthusiasts, photographer Karl Grobl, a couple of local guides and a bus driver – all trapped. We had been warned: Papua New Guinea is not the safest place to travel. But, it was not tribal conflict, or spill-over from the recent election upheavals, or even tourist-targeting raskols (bandits) that had us stuck […]

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I love Papua New Guinea. I love it with reservations; the same kind of reservations one has about a disordered cousin whose heart is in the right place, but whose life is always a tumult of chaos. I admit: I was cautious at first. I had been warned before I booked the flights for my […]

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