Final night of the Minya Konka trek in the 500 year old Mount Gonga Temple for 30RMB. Kham, Tibet (Garzê Tibetan Prefecture, Sichuan, China) October 8, 2015.
A 35RMB/night, single room at a Tibetan guesthouse near Dzogchen Monastery, Kham, Tibet. (Garze, Sichuan, China) September 9, 2015.
Earthquake victims run below a high cliff to avoid falling boulders in a landslide area on the road connecting the villages of Kodari and Barabise.
Children play on a makeshift helipad while waiting for a rescue helicopter to land in the village of Kodari on the Nepal-Tibet border.
A resident of the heavily damaged Nepalese village of Kodari removes personal belongings from his house which he says is no longer safe to live in.
Earthquake victims who had been trapped in the village of Kodari for almost a week board a Nepalese Army helicopter.
A Nepalese Army soldier and an an earthquake victim are caught in the downdraft of an army helicopter as it takes off from the village of Kodari.
More the 1500 people are camping around the helicopter landing site in Kodari as they wait to be airlifted out of the village isolated by the earthquake.
Children and pregnant woman are the first to be evacuated from the destroyed Nepalese villages in the Kodari area, near the Tibet border. Lack of organization and limited space on the helicopters has made the rescue operation slow and difficult.
Destruction caused by massive landslides in the Nepalese village of Lipim on the border with Tibet.
Local authorities say they cannot confirm the number of casualties because the slides cover most of the village road.
A pool table that appears to be undamaged as seen through the open door of a building in the Nepalese village of Lipim. Local police report some looting from abandoned houses.
A resident of the Nepalese village of Lipim surveys the damage to a local shop caused by large rocks that fell from a cliff above the town during the earthquake.
A man salvages items from destroyed vehicles and the rubble of buildings near the Tibet border checkpoint in the Nepalese town of Lipim. Bankers and warm clothing are the most sought-after items because of the cold temperatures at night.
Nepalese police officers recover the body of an earthquake victim from the rubble of a building in the town Liping.
Some of the dead are claimed by families which pay for a private helicopter to transport the body of their relative to another location for a funeral.
The 'Friendship Bridge' border crossing to Chinese-controlled Tibet. The crossing in the Nepalese town Kodari was closed by China on May 3rd, eight days after the April 25th earthquake.
On April 27th a second earthquake with a magnitude of 6.5 struck in an area 17 km south of the village of Kodari on the Nepal-Tibet border. Massive landslides further blocked the already damaged Araniko Highway which connects the Nepalese capital Kathmandu to the border. A week after the natural disaster 1500 people were still isolated in Kodari where they survived by sleeping in vehicles and improvised shelters. Cold temperatures at night and uncertainty about when it will be possible for them to leave the dangerous area is taking a heavy toll on the local population. A few helicopters from the Nepalese Army are being used to transfer from 12 to 40 people a day to a safer places, but the small number of passengers per trip and a shortage of food is said to create chaos and further hunger for the people waiting to be airlifted. Some people decide to walk the 12 kilometers along the damaged highway that connects Kodari to the town of Barabise where it is possible to travel by bus to the capital.
A body of an unidentified earthquake victim on the road connecting the villages of Barabise and Kodari where hundreds of cars where crushed under landslides.
Police try to contain a mass of people pushing to get on board of one of the Nepalese Army helicopters that randomly land at the village of Kodari on the Nepal-Tibet border.
An helicopter of the Nepalese Army landing in the village of Kodari on the Nepal-Tibet border. Hundred of tourists on holiday when the earthquake struck have are waiting to go back to their homes.
A child in the village of Kodari seen through the window of a car where the child's family has been sheltering as they wait for rescuers to take them out of the isolated community.
Villagers and tourists share a shelter in Nepalese town of Tatopani near the Tibet border. The village was cut off when landslides triggered by the earthquake blocked roads.
Earthquake victims in the Nepalese village of Kodari have been living in their cars since the earthquake which destroyed their homes.
A woman prays at a Hindu shrine in front of her home in the heavily damaged Nepalese village of Kodari.
Elderly women made homeless by the earthquake sit under a small shrine dedicated to the victims of the disaster in the village of Kodari.
A very humble and cold room in a 3-level Tibetan home, shared with the elderly mother and her teenage daughter. Near Dengzha, Garze, Sichuan, China. October 5, 2014
A new room extension on a traditional 3 level Tibetan home, shared with a teenage girl home for China National Day. (Photographs of the Dalai Lama are forbidden and punishable by law.) Bogu, Dege, Sichuan, China. October 4, 2014.
A shared room with a Tibetan friend as the men complete their work on making a path through the mountains accessible by automobiles. Near Danba, Sichuan, China. September 28, 2014.
The private bedroom from childhood in Zhaxi's family home. Jingai, Sichuan, China. September 25, 2014.
The Dhahanu, also known as 'Brogpas', or 'Drogpas' live in Ladakh, the remotest part of India in the state of Jammu and Kashmir and claim to be the last of the Aryans. This claim continues to attract tourists, domestic and foreign, researchers and visitors, in search of the "last Aryan village." One theory says that the Aryans arrived from Gilgit, Pakistan in the seventh century. A popular theory is that they are descendants of Alexander’s army, while many argue that the Aryans are the indigenous inhabitants of India. Unlike the majority of the Ladakhis with Tibetan-Mongol looks, the Brogpas have Indo-Aryan features. They live in the villages of Dha and Hanu (commonly called as Dhahanu), Darchik, and Gahanu-- situated 163 kilometers south west of Leh, the administrative capital of Ladakh. The 5,000-strong community follows Tibetan Buddhism. According to Mona Bhan, associate professor of anthropology at DePauw University, Indiana, the theory of Aryan identity can be traced to "the British who were obsessed with racial categorization and conflated language with race.” She has been documenting the community for more than a decade. Bhan says the government of Jammu and Kashmir is promoting race-and-heritage tourism in the border areas of Kargil in an attempt to represent the region as peaceful and non-contentious, a political strategy that is packaged as livelihood opportunity for border communities. “Given that they (Brogpas) have long been marginalized from the social and political mainstream, reclaiming a racial identity that slots them as the purest Aryans creates a unique brand for race-obsessed tourists, something obviously the state is also invested in promoting,” Bhan says. For the community, tourism is an exciting proposition. She says, Brogpas do not associate their Aryanism with “its dirty and cruel” history in Germany and elsewhere though the two cannot be disassociated. “There is also an underlying current here to reclaim a particular kind of nationalist pride and masculinity that relies on Brogpa bodies to bolster the superiority of Indian genes,” she says. The stories about pregnancy tourism are exaggerated by outsiders “to fuel their continued obsession with race and exoticism,” she adds. For many locals, sustained curiosity brings additional income during the summer tourist season. “Now we charge $5 from tourists to pose for photos and more to wear traditional clothes and a lot more if you want to shoot videos,” says Thinley Aryan, who says he has recently changed his last name to Aryan to impress foreigners. When asked if he has received proposals for fathering children by German women— “We all have stories,” he adds with a smile.
The word "Himalaya" means “House of Snow” in Sanskrit. Home to the highest summits on the planet, the Himalayas span more than 1,500 miles through northern India, Nepal, Bhutan, Tibet, and China. This is majestic landscape of mountains, green valleys and glaciers are also home to many peoples who have managed to live in these harsh surroundings.
China is destroying Tibet’s unique culture and turning it into just one of many other provinces of its own.
In the countryside some Tibetans still live nomadic life like many years ago, wandering around for a few months with their animals. They still wear traditional outfits and pray, pray a lot.
Meanwhile in the cities, ethnic Han and other Chinese are outnumbering Tibetans, marginalizing them in economic, educational, political and social spheres. Chinese and their Communist ideology encourages this population transfer to take over Tibet easier, leaving local community abandoned, what Dalai Lama describes as “cultural genocide.”
Tibetans face human right abuses and their cultural identity is suppressed. Even monasteries are full of surveillance cameras, everything is in control. Monks play with mobile phones in the corners and don’t remind those devoted ones not even a bit. “All intelligent monks left, as it would be impossible for them to survive here”, Norbu, Tibetan living in Lhsaa, says.
Ethnic Uyghur Chinese are chopping and selling raw meat right in front of the Buddhist temple. “Chinese are like crocodiles”, Norbu says spitefully. “Because they guttle everything. Not like us, Buddhist”.
Stunning landscapes also face environmental challenges - deforestation, soil erosion, extinction of wildlife, overgrazing, uncontrolled mining and nuclear waste dumping. Life in harmony with the nature, an important element of Bhuddhist Tibetans's life and philosophy, has lost balance.
Tibetans look lost in time – they don’t seem to be able to adapt to all the changes and just keep on walking, whispering mantras and spinning praying wheels. They are left behind in their own land.
A man watching down from the roof in the centre of Lhasa, Tibet.
A man riding his bike full of merchandise and a schoolboy helping out from the back in the centre of Lhasa, Tibet.
Tibetans spinning their praying mills and whispering mantras in the temple of Lhasa, Tibet.
A Tibetan woman in rural Tibet.
A Tibetan boy playing pool in Xigatze city, Tibet.
Abandoned building and praying flags hung next to the mountain pass, which is over 5 thousand meters, on the "Firendship" highway, connecting Nepal and Tibet.
A poster of Chinese Communist revolutionary Mao Dzedong in the street of Lhasa, Tibet.
Han - a Chinese ethnic groups who is the majority in China - Chinese workers, investors, merchants, teachers and soldiers are pouring into remote Tibet, bringing with them their culture.
This new influx of money and people has brought new prosperity but it has also deepened the resentment among many Tibetans who feel they cannot compete with these educated immigrants and feel like second-class citizens.
Construction site in the old town of Lhasa, Tibet.
Tibet is undergoing a lot of changes - cities are being modernized.
The centre of Lhasa city has been turned into one big construction site, making the ritual difficult for prayers, who have to overcome obstacles. The original ‘Old City’ area of Lhasa, which is at least 1,300 years old, represents less than two per cent of the total area of Lhasa today. The rest of the city consists mainly of modern concrete buildings. Hundreds of historic Tibetan buildings have been razed to the ground over the past 20 years, including the village of Shol, once at the foot of the Potala Palace. A lot of Chinese from different ethnic groups are also moving into the region to start their business. Meanwhile locals struggle to survive in changing environment.
Men working in a construction site in Xigatze city, Tibet.
Tibet is undergoing a lot of changes - cities are being modernized.
The centre of Lhasa city has been turned into one big construction site, making the ritual difficult for prayers, who have to overcome obstacles. The original ‘Old City’ area of Lhasa, which is at least 1,300 years old, represents less than two per cent of the total area of Lhasa today. The rest of the city consists mainly of modern concrete buildings. Hundreds of historic Tibetan buildings have been razed to the ground over the past 20 years, including the village of Shol, once at the foot of the Potala Palace. A lot of Chinese from different ethnic groups are also moving into the region to start their business. Meanwhile locals struggle to survive in changing environment.