~ Photography ~

Santiago Carralero Benítez

Travels Notebook

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

Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia

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 peoples
and 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 Benítez
Nomadic Peoples Expert

sancarnomad@gmail.com

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