Kayapo, Brazilian Amazon, South America

Kayapo women ritual dancing. To be able to dance during festivals, many women use the abortificant kangara kane (Tanaecium Vulgara) which is drunk in a single dosage as a strong tea.

Mongolia

Polo Match at sunset, Kharakhorin District, Central Mongolia

Sadhu

A young sadhu reads holy scripture near the fire. Worship is part of daily life. Some sadhus chant powerful mantras. The Gayatri Mantra is one of several mantras that are sacred incantations or mystical formulas of ancient literature. The Gayatri Mantra was given by Brahma and mentioned in the Rigveda and is named after the consort of Brahma: "O that glory- of Savitri most high. Oh Divine let us mediate upon you. May it inspire understanding." The goal of the recitation is to attain God realization. Practice can lead the mind into a transcendental union with the deity.Pashupatinath, Kathmandu, Nepal

Sadhus-The Great Renouncers

AGHORI Shaivite sadhu drinks from his human skull bowl. A picture of Shiva can be seen behind him. Although the practice of taking all of one's food and drink from a human skull is rare nowadays, certain sadhus, particularly the Aghori sub-sect, still hold to it as a daily reminder of human mortality and as a challenge to transcend the duality of life and death. The Aghori sub-sect was founded by Brahma Giri, a disciple of Gorakhnath and are strict followers of Shiva. These ascetics remain naked and often wear a rosary made of bones around their neck and carry a human skull in the left hand and a bell in the right hand. Their sectarian tilaka, forehead mark denotes unity of the Hindu triad. Generally, they are recruited from the lower castes. Pashupatinath, Kathmandu, Nepal

MOKSHA-MERGING WITH SHIVA

Moksha, perfect inner freedom-is the soul's release from samsara, the cycle of birth and death, attained after dynamic and personal yogic realization of Parasiva and resolution of all seed karmas. Having known the Absolute, there is no fuller realization, no greater knowing, no higher "experience." Even when God realization is attained, the soul body continues to evolve in this and other worlds until it merges with the Primal Soul as a drop of water merges with its source, the ocean. -Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami Shiva Moon, Nepal

VAISHNAVA PREPARING TILAKA

Forehead designs, called tilakas, show a sadhu's religious and sectarian affiliations and range from a simple daub of color to complex designs involving the entire face. The application of a tilaka is usually done at the start of each day after bathing as a way to sanctify the body and prepare it to receive the divine. Pashupatinath, Nepal

AGHORA PATH

Pagalinanda demonstrates the Naga practice of 'penis yoga' in his den near the cremation grounds of Pashupatinath. This practice is based on the complete transcendence of sexual impulses, and involves a preliminary period of self-imposed celibacy for nine years. After this, the yogi is truly initiated during a ritual in which certain nerves of the penis are broken, thus enabling him to "lift" rocks weighing over one hundred pounds. However, the initiation ceremony for this practice makes it highly unlikely he will ever have another erection. Pashupatinath, Nepal

KELLY 287

Makuna Indians

A protrait of a young Makuna boy.

Xavante

Lean brown bodies glisten with red and black paint

Xavante-Initiation Rituals in Brazil

Painted hair of Xavante man. Xavante men assist one another painting face for a an initiation

Gabbra Nomad

Gabbra women dismantle tents for their next move. There is drama even in routine migrations. The tents are dismantled and the items rolled up and packed between poles bundled together and wedged between ropes on the camel. All of the packing and loading is done entirely by women. Men take no part in it other than to restrain the camels if they become unruly or to help life some heavy items.

Gabbra Nomads

Gabbra live their entire lives in unending cycles of migration. The movement is necessary in order to live off their land, but the Gabbra love their desert and see it as a supportive environment where people like themselves can live with dignity. They know how to use their land and to conserve its resources. They move even before they are forced to in order to ensure that the land is replenished for the future. People

Tibet-Yogi.Chodpa. Derge

Yogi.Chodpa. Derge Vajrayana is the tantric mahasiddha, who lives fearlessly in terrifying places like remote jungles and charnel grounds. Perched on a cliff, a Yogi chodpa practitioner, blows a thigh-bone trumpet scavenged from the funeral grounds, invoking spirits to dismember her body and sever all notions of self-cherishing. Performed in wild and haunted places, the practice of Chod liberates the yogin from cyclic existence by vanquishing the fear that stems from identification with the ego and the physical body. By summoning what is most dreaded and openly offering that to which we are most attached, new levels of awareness open within ourselves and others. As Lama Nima says: “ Chod reveals the intrinsic purity of all phenomena and emptiness. Just as fear magnifies its objects, so too does fearlessness bring confidence and joy… In Tantra there is nothing to renounce, rather we must relate to all things openly and directly…Striving for enlightenment, we should be like an eagle soaring off a high cliff attached to nothing, leaving nothing behind.”

Nepal-Humli Bride

Brides friend oiling her hair with straw. Nyinbas in Humla practice unique marriage, Polyandry, where one girl is married to all the brothers of a family Humla, North-West Nepal

Tibet

Tibetan women making tibetan milk tea.

Nepal-Polyandry Marriage

Humli marriage attendar sipping butter salt tea. Humla, North-West Nepal

Nepal-Jumping clown

Mani Mask Dancers at Mani festival marks the setting in of Spring season in Humla. A masked performer leaps in the air in a Mani Ballet . Man is no more than a temporary dwelling place of a divine presence to whom he lends his body so that the god might repeat his wonders. The performer does not actually become the god he portrays, but rather the god's instrument for good and evil. Humla, North-West Nepal

Nepal-Chhetrini Princess

An exhausted but proud Chhetrini, pauses from punding grain. In addition to beaded necklaces from trading trips in India, Silver coins from British-ruled India, fashioned by 'Kamis' the blacksmit caste of Humla. Humla, North-West Nepal

Nepal-Traditional Greetings

Bhotiyas greet one another in a traditional gesture of exchanging energy by touching heads Humla, North-West Nepal

Nepal-Bhotiya Kid

Bhotiya kids wearing peach flowers smiling at Photographer's camera. Humla, North-West Nepal

Swayambhunath

Swayambhunath a sacred power site, rises up from the floor of the Kathmandu Valley. According to a legend, Swayambhunath, the “Self-Created, ”rose from the middle of the lake that filled the valley before man. A crystal in the form of a light emanated “a ten thousand petalled lotus of gold adorned with diamonds, pearls, and rubies with a glittering stalk of lapis lazuli. Buddhist Bodhisattva Manjushri drained the lake by slicing outlets in the valley, and the Bodhisattva Vajrasattva “concealed the jeweled crystal light Swayambhu beneath a slab of stone.” Kathmandu, Nepal Museo Silver Rag (Color Digital Print) Dimension: 15.888” x 20” US$600, Edition1/25