Articles in the Category: Asia

My Bhutan Slide Show

Submitted by Moe Witschard on Thu, 10/15/2009 - 12:31am

Check out this slide show of images from Bhutan. My wife, Heather, and I spent 23 days there last October. We spent 17 days trekking along the border of Bhutan and Tibet. The rest of our time was spent wandering through and near the towns of Paro, Punaka, and Thimphu.

Bhutanese Adventures Part 3

Submitted by Moe Witschard on Wed, 10/14/2009 - 4:26pm
As I waved goodbye to the chile lady (Bhutanese Adventures Part 2), I turned my attention back to the farmhouse that I was originally drawn to. Was anyone home? The front door was open. I wandered closer, admiring the attention that had been given to the upkeep of the house and grounds. Forever drawn to color, I snapped a few shots of some bundles of chiles drying near some closed windows. I stepped back and made a few shots of the house front with the melons, the neatly stacked lumber and firewood, and a cat.

I waited and watched and noticed a body move by inside the house. The person had not seen me. I continued to watch and the hunched over body of an old, white haired woman moved by the door again. I waved over my guide, Phuentsho. I told him that I’d seen the woman and I asked him to see if he might be able to engage her and get her into the doorway where I could stealthily make a photograph of her in front of her home.

Phuentsho marched up to the door and politely called for the woman. She came to the door, but stayed a few steps inside where she was still in the shadows. Now I could see her face. This woman has seen a lot I thought. She’s seen some change. I’ll bet she could tell some incredible stories. Phuentsho asked in Bhutanese “How much are the melons?” The woman stepped closer to the doorway and replied, “They’re not for sale”. This led to more conversation and the woman slowly stepped further and further forward until she was in the perfect, soft, wrap around light of the doorway. I shot away while she and Phuentsho chatted.

Pretty soon she was stepping out of her house and sitting down on the steps. She was tiny. Her mouth was stained red from a life of chewing bettlenut ( a common Bhutanese practice ) and she was dressed in the traditional female Bhutanese outfit, the kira. A kira is a large piece of woven cloth that is wrapped around the body in a series of folds. It is held in place by a two-part brooch with a connecting chain, the koma. This woman’s koma really caught my eye. It was beautifully and intricately hand crafted.

I asked Phuentsho to see if it was OK for me to continue photographing. She said it was fine. I was standing pretty close now, maybe 6 feet away from her. Regardless of the permission she’d given, part of me still felt the intrusiveness of the camera in my hands. I photographed quickly, capturing an image and then dropping the camera to nod and gesture, even though I could not understand a word of the conversation. She asked some questions about me to Phuentsho. I replied through him. When we were finished and left her home, I could see that a neighbor was going to drive some cows in front of her home. To complete the story, I positioned myself and snapped a last shot of the woman and her house in the distance with the cows in the foreground- another satisfying day of discovery in the “real Bhutan”.

Bhutanese Adventures Part 2

Submitted by Moe Witschard on Wed, 10/14/2009 - 4:16pm
Just find a unique and interesting background and wait for something good to happen. That’s the travel photographer’s mantra and it was my ticket to photographic adventure on this day in Bhutan. One day wandering through a rural agricultural area, I came upon this farmhouse. On first inspection, it looked like nobody was home. What really caught my eye were the ubiquitous chiles hanging to the right of the doorway and a group of melons lined up on a pile of wood. This could be good I thought to myself. Now all we need is some people.

I wandered downhill of the farmhouse and noticed a woman harvesting green chiles in a field. I wandered over to her with my guide and they exchanged small talk while I quietly assessed the shooting opportunities. Mmm….busy scene and the overcast conditions were making the sky quite a bit brighter than anything else. I held my fire while the woman handed me a chile to examine. Better wait until she’s done I thought. Just watch her. Maybe you’ll learn something. If I’m lucky, I’ll catch a shot of her walking in front of the farmhouse.

In time, she finished her harvest. All of her chiles filled a large burlap bag which she loosely stitched shut. There was a short, but steep trail leading up to the farmhouse. I’ll offer to carry her bag up. I gesticulated. She nodded. The bag was way heavier than it looked. Arms burning and heart pumping audibly, I made it to the top of the trail where I placed the bag on the ground and backed away to catch my breath.

My guide helped the woman put the bag of chiles on her back where she tied a makeshift harness with a piece of rope. As she walked in front of the farmhouse, I snapped my favorite shots of her. My patience had paid off. I already had my background in mind and I was delighted that this small, strong Bhutanese woman had gotten between me and it.

Stay tuned for Bhutanese Adventures: Part 3 to hear about what happened next.

Bhutanese Adventures: Part 1

Submitted by Moe Witschard on Wed, 10/14/2009 - 4:11pm

On the second day of my three week trip to Bhutan, I had to sit my guide down. “We’re not typical tourists. We’re different” I told him. “Rather than going to all the same places that every other tourist to Bhutan goes to, we want to see the real Bhutan”. That sitting down made all the difference for the remainder of our trip. Whenever we had a chance to get off the beaten path and just wander, we did! Once of my favorite things became wandering through rural agricultural areas and visiting with and photographing people while they did their day’s work.

This particular day, we were slowly making our way down the narrow, windy road from Cheli La pass and I spied a beautiful farmhouse surrounded by apple trees. “Phuentsho, can we go check that out?” Phuentsho, my guide, nodded: “Absolutely, let’s go!”. Tshering, our driver, quickly stopped the van, I grabbed my camera bag and we were off.

We spent about a half hour at and around the farmstead, chatting with the woman who lived there. She had many projects going. Phuentsho translated and after securing permission for me to photograph, my photography field day began. At last, the real Bhutan.

The family had recently harvested all of their red rice, a hearty, nutty tasting variety, and the woman had the rice drying on the concrete slabs in front of her home. Twice daily, she would turn the rice so that it dried properly. I photographed her as she did this. It took a while so I was able to shoot from several angles as well as shoot a bunch of verticals and horizontals from each spot. I ended with a lot to choose from when I was finished.

We then moved on to an area behind the house where the local distilled spirit called arra was being made. Home brewed arra remains the most popular liquor in Bhutan because it is natural and manufactured locally. For centuries arra has played a significant role in the Bhutanese way of life, being consumed on numerous occasions such as religious ceremonies, marriages and festivals. It is distilled from a fermented grain mixture. While we chatted, the woman changed the water in the Khataw, the aluminum condensing pot, which has to be kept cold for condensation to occur. A cold Khataw causes vapors from the heated fermented mixture below it to condense on its bottom. This fluid, arra, then drips down into a collection vessel.

This was all so fascinating to me. I photographed, recomposed and thought of little else. I was in the moment. I was in the zone. The “real Bhutan” was starting to unfold.