~ Photography ~

Santiago Carralero BenítezTravels Notebook

NOMADS

Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia

At the beginning it was only water. Water and Salt.

The Earth remained barren for a long time.

Wadi Ram, Jordan

But a day, suddenly, life

arose...

Opuwo, Namibia

… and it got to perpetue itself...

Kaokoveld, Namibia

… in the nets made of mud,

Maasai Mara, Kenya

... of branchs and bushes...

Nyae Nyae, Namibia

… or of logs and bark of the trees.

Oroqen tent

Ethnic Museum, Beijing

The sons of the Earth made bows and arrows...

Kung! hunters, Namibia

… to hunt monkeys and fishes...

Indios yuqui, Bolivia

… and boats and harpoons

to catch seals.

Alberto Achacaz Walakial,

Kaweshkar indian. Chile.

They collected the fruits of the earth,

San gatherer. Kalahari, Namibia

which gave them the fiber to

weave hammocks and handbags.

Yuqui indian, weaving Ambaibo fiber. Bolivia

And so, step by step, hunters multiplied.

San children, Kalahari desert

Until then, animals always were free beings...

Llama, Perú

...looking for some food and shelter.

Yaks in Amnye Machen, Tibet

But, after, hunters tamed them.

Mongolia

First to a his loyal guardian, the dog.

Hongyuan, China

...then cows, goats and sheeps;

Transhumance in la Mancha, España

… and then camels and horses.

Amdo, China

They gave them milk and meat...

Khalkha woman, Mongolia

… and skin, dung

and hair...

Qinghai, China

…in return only for water and good pastures.

Pasiegos in Vega del Pas, Spain

With the wool they made dresses...

Aymara woman, Bolivia

...and others useful things;

Berber woman, Marocco

The walls of their portable houses...

Amdowa woman, Tibet

… erected as a daily monument dedicated to their animals.

Ba, the yak hair tent. China

With the collected dungs...

Gathering dungs

Zhongdian, China

...they got fuel,

Mongolia

to cook and to heat the tent.

Earthenware cooker in Tibet

The own beasts served them as a transport

Golok, China

A life where parents and

children cooperated...

Mongolia

...and everybody fulfiled his function.

Nomadic children of Mongolia

Nomadic kingdoms arose from

the north to the south.

Proud peoplesand

independents...

Khampa, Qinghai

..., with colourful dresses, old

customs and wise traditions.

Kham, China

Living in harmony with nature...

Drokpa, Eastern Tibet

...and united in a same love to earth.

Drokpa family, China

But when drought and extrem cold came,

Desierto de Jordania

...illness got into the tent...

Yushu, China

...or sedentaries stole their territories...

Bedus of Petra, Jordan

...the life of the nomad

hardly became as possible,

Ait Lassen, Sáhara

And the huts run out empty of life...

Tornavacas port, Spain

...changed by new tents bought in modern cities...

Amnye Machen, China

… which attracted nomads more and more.

Herders in Yushu, China

they felt the end come over to...

Jbel Sahro, Marocco

...with the sedentary kingdoms more and more near

Brañas of Piornedo, Spain

...and the old huts becoming in turistic places;

Winter headquarters of Saami, Norway

...and the old dwellings as museum items;

Laavu saami, Inari museum, Finland

... or in ragged remains of a better past.

Daora, Western Sahara

But, even so, they kept the same free

spirit;

Little drokpa in Golok, Tibet

… challenging the fences of the new owners of earth;

Transhumants of Guadalaviar, Spain

...crying out for returning to a natural world ;

A day in the Worldwide Gathering of Nomads, Madrid

… with the intention of celebrating the nomadic culture

Celebration of Transhumance in Piqueras, Spain

...and the wish of showing to others

the own identity signs and wise

ancient traditions.

Mongolian Festival in Wulan, China

Meanwhile, in the kingdom of sedentaries...

Gypsy encampment in Jodhpur, India

...there were other nomads living a

long time ago.

Bhat encampment in Agra. India

from a medieval order already outdated...

Khanabadosh, India

...and spread from the East to

the West, but always...

Albanian gypsy in Skopje, Macedonia

...living in the fringes of society which they gave

some services for.

Kalakar colony. Jaisalmer, India

Personalities between

fascination and margination.

Kalbelia girl in Pushkar, India

As hunters, all time looking for

potential customers.

Gypsy in a bus station, India

As shepherds, dealing with animals from centuries ago.

Livestock fair in Bharatpur, India

Skill craftmens at the service of the people.

Basket makers of Andhra Pradesh, India

Sharpeners in continual transit...

Xining, China

… who sharpening reached other

continent in their desire to prosper.

Julián, sharpener of Ramuín, Spain.

Blacksmiths families with their carts...

Gaduliya Lohar in Rajasthan, India

...rising the flame of hope tirelessly .

Lohar woman with the bellows. India

Masons hitting again and again,

Khumra in Shivpuri, India

...carpenters carving an illusion.

Suttare in Bijapur, India

Young apprentices pushed by the necessity and...

A Mochi in Jaipur, India

…patient and street-life experts.

Wulan, China

Hawkers with the floor as a counter.

Banjara woman in Jodhpur, India

The ones who feed the

necessities of the body.

Spronge cake seller, China

Spontaneous promoters of the

forest fruits.

Chengdu, China.

Competent shopkeepers on two wheels.

Kathmandu, Nepal

Staunch defenders of seasoning...

Rajasthan, India

...and shrewd businesswomen of seeds.

Xining, China

Other ones, nomads of the social rules.

Hijra in Jaisalmer, India

And that ones who feed the necessities of spirit...

Killekyatta family, India

...giving birth to the puppets to give them after some whiles of

life;

Bhatt in Jaisalmer, India

…with acrobatics of the

day by day;

Nat child in the streets of New Delhi

...reliving legendary epic as

shamans...

A drungpa or minstrel of Tibet

… or as a priest singing the deeds of his hero;

Bhopa minstrel in Pushkar, India

...blind musicians achieving to see

through time;

Chengdu, China

… and women dancers sick of rhythm...

Mother and daughter Kalbelia, India

...to the frenzied sound of an

evocative music.

Varanasi, India.

But also the nomad feels the necessity of

stopping and meditating.

Jogi in Pushkar, India.

Life indeed is a wheel revolving

and revolving while it´s

travelling...

Litang, easternTibet

… And we are castaways of time

and space;

Pilgrims in Maqen, China

...looking for the reconciliation with the destiny, because...

...it´s the time to feel that everybody is really a nomad in

the life with a returning ticket;

Lambani women, India

...that time where the

struggle to survive and the struggle for no

die mixed up;

Lao Ren, Chengdu

... where some people live

dead in life: no earth, no rights, no

identity;

San old womanosquimana. Ghansi, Botswana

… and other ones cling to every dawn light...

Lambani women in Varanasi, India

…or simply, they let time go pass away

Old people Chengdu, China

A time to contemplate the sunset.

Varanasi, India

A last journey towards an uncertain place,

Nepal

...some point in the Universe, perhaps...

Rishikesh, India

The End

Santiago Carralero BenítezNomadic Peoples Expert

sancarnomad@gmail.com

http://www.yurta.weebly.com/

http://www.carraleronomada.blogspot.com/