radiant and reverent: religious festivals in China and Tibet

October 30, 2008 6:52 PM

Armchair travel via three superb audio slide shows by photographer Reinhard Krause:
Monlam, the Tibetan Great Prayer Festival - Aba China
Catholics celebrate Christmas in rural China
Tibetan prayer meeting in Tongren

His portfolio is also quite excellent - here a few photos I particularly liked:
Window washer
Seated women in a park
Three cheerleaders
Chinese rock band
Young Chinese athletes
North Korean soldiers exercising
North Korean respect

posted by madamjujujive (9 comments total)

wow!
posted by vronsky at 7:25 PM on October 30, 2008

That is brilliant madamjjj. All of it. thanks.

( I spent a few months in Tibet when I was what... around 8 years old and this is how I remember it.)
posted by vronsky at 7:35 PM on October 30, 2008

vronsky - lucky you, what rich memories from childhood. Mine are all American pop culture ;-(
posted by madamjujujive at 8:51 PM on October 30, 2008

Very nice. It should be mentioned, in the spirit of the message of the Buddha spreading across the world in such idiosyncratic ways, that the thanka in the first link appears to represent Padmasambhava (Guru Rinpoche), the guy that brought Buddhism from India to Tibet in the eighth century. Then C'han in China, Zen in Japan, and who knows what God hath wrought in the West in the 20th and 21st centuries. Well, gods. Or no God. Or nothing. Nirvana. Or everything (including Tibetan Bon influences!).

And then there is the godless paradise of Scandanavia, to which Obama (I wish) aspires.
posted by kozad at 9:04 PM on October 30, 2008

This is lovely. Thanks, mjjj.
posted by homunculus at 11:04 PM on October 30, 2008

Wonder if that was a real policeman in the Mass congregation or just someone with the jacket? (Photo 20)
I visited the Catholic diocese in neighbouring Shaanxi Province as translator for an evaluator from an overseas aid agency; one of the projects they were working together on was an HIV prevention programme (blood-selling had become more prevalent there after the exposure and subsequent crackdown in Henan) that had nuns dishing out condoms (!) amongst other sound work. There were a lot of Catholic communities down in the south west when I worked down there years ago too; apparently the result of French missionary work in the 19th century.
posted by Abiezer at 12:00 AM on October 31, 2008

Oooh, this is beautiful!
posted by grapefruitmoon at 8:17 AM on October 31, 2008

These are gorgeous! Thanks so much. The photographer does a fabulous job capturing emotional expression.
I was struck by how young the Tibetan monks appear (in the first slideshow).
posted by Librarygeek at 5:21 AM on November 3, 2008

Librarygeek - I was struck by that too, as it's technically illegal in the PRC for a child to take up the monastic life before they've finished middle school (iirc); I knew that was widely ignored in many places but still surprised there were quite so many young boys there.
posted by Abiezer at 6:43 AM on November 3, 2008