asean2015:

ASEAN Community
Nat Gadaw, Myanmar

Nat Gadaw is the “bride of the spirits”, usually a man dressed like an old lady, often a transvestite, sometimes a real old lady in the most traditional festivals. The Nat Gadaw is essential to Pwe festivals, she dances, sings and collects money to make the spirits talk to her, she then tells the people what the spirits say. This can involve hours of dancing and drinking which sometimes ends with a drama and ethylic death for the unfortunate Nat Gadaw.

asean2015:

ASEAN Community
Ream Eyso & Moni Mekhala, Khmer traditional dance, Cambodia

ohsnapshot:

Late upload… but here is the Khmer Arts Academy performing “Reay Eyso & Moni Mekhala” for their 10th year anniversary back in October.

paper-dragons:

The Mansoojat Foundation

The Mansoojat Foundation is a UK registered charity founded by a group of Saudi women with a passionate interest in the traditional ethnic textiles and costumes of Arabia.

Where We Go In The Future Is Determined
By Where We Have Been In The Past.

The Mansoojat Foundation’s mission is to revive and preserve the traditional ethnic designs and costumes of the various regions of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; to promote and conduct academic research important for the understanding of the history and culture of the region, and to raise public awareness for the appreciation of this unique heritage.

fyeahindigenousfashion:

From the River Collective has an awesome new page up with photos of traditional Klamath River fashion and how contemporary Native artists are utilizing and building off it in their own work! If you’re unfamiliar with Northern California aesthetics and materials, this is a really cool resource. Karuk artist and founder of FTRC Nisha Supahan describes the Collective as:

…an online store featuring Northern California Indian artists who make quality art and products that are inspired by our Native background, culture and traditions. We have traditional items as well as contemporary pieces. Many of the artists use old time technics, materials or designs to create contemporary pieces. 

I want to be able to sell the work of talented artists that may not have the ability to promote themselves or their amazing work. We are from a rural area where not every household has a computer let alone internet access. I want to show that Native people are still here and I want the outside world to see how the people of the Klamath and Trinity Rivers of Northern California have unique perspectives that are incorporated in to their creations. I have been trusted to be the bridge between the creations and the customer for these very talented Native people. We are working together to make a change for our Tribes, community, and our families.

dynamicafrica:

“Tchoodi” facial tattoos are a tradition of Fulani women performed throughout Mali and other parts of West Africa, usually for beautification and as a coming-of-age rite for teenage girls.

Watch a three-minute clip of a Tchoodi tattoo application (warning: not for the faint-hearted).

(via africaisdonesuffering)

xmorbidcuriosityx:

Honouring the lovely bones: Family observes ancient ritual of exhuming dead grandfather, tenderly washing his skeleton and then placing him in a skull house  

The ancient ritual of the Karo Batak tribe may appear macabre, but the exhuming of the skeletons of family members past is a sacred and centuries-long tradition.

Families of the tribe return to their ancestors’ graves to honour the bones of a beloved relative, buried on the hillsides of North Sumatra, Indonesia.

The Karo Batak tribe clean the skeleton before laying it in a new coffin and placing it in a specially-built skull house, known as a geritan.

Photographer Jefri Tarigan was privileged to capture the rare event as one family dug up the cloth-wrapped body of what was an elderly grandfather.

The relatives extract the skeleton from the cloth and clean the bones free of soil before carefully placing them in a wooden casket in a particular order.

After this, the family apply a special mixture of herbs, lime, coconut water and spices on the bones.

Once the skeleton is arranged in the crate it is then placed into the ‘skull house’ which is built specifically for the occasion and the family pray for the bones.

Jefri explains: ‘This is a ritual that is very rare. The removal of the bones from the old graves is done to honour ancestors with an act of love.

‘The bones are removed from graves that have been there a long time and moved to a new, better cemetery. This is a way to raise the status of the ancestors.’

Wow. More photographs here!

(via jangojips)

eclectic69:

Some ancestry