Photos sans frontières - Partager photos et commentaires sans aucune frontière : Travel : Asia

Asia Galleries

JAPAN - Beautiful Gardens :

Pictures from Japan taken from 2005 to 2008

REAL GARDENS - Gardens or "niwa" are achieving the peace that rulers desperately sought during the numerous conflicts. Most of today's famous gardens in Japan owe much to the Zen influence brought from China in the thirteenth century. The visual entities appearing as a design in the Western sense of forms and colors are less important than the invisible, religious, and symbolic elements. Some important Japanese cities have been initially buit-up and thought as a Garden.

TOKYO - The most important Japanese "Garden" is Tokyo. Paris, London, and New York have long-established urban cultures with central concentrations of multistory buildings. However, the majority of Tokyo properties were two-story single-family building. Even with the necessity to rebuild (following the 1923 earthquake and devastating attacks during the last two years of World War II), the scale and type of buildings never changed deeply. For decades, Tokyo resisted high-rise development. A new vision of the city is now evolving in the capital of the still World's second largest economy.

KYOTO - Formerly imperial capital of Japan, Kyoto is just now the capital of Kyoto Prefecture. At the end of World War II, United States decided to remove Kyoto from the list of atomic bomb targets due to the "beauty of the city". As a result, Kyoto is the only large Japanese city that still has an abundance of pre-war buildings.

HIDA - Besides two historical hotspots in Hida region (Takayama city and Shirakawa village), you will discover the fundament of the Japanese culture. The Japanese gardens concept allows us to understand better the Japanese culture as a whole.

JAPAN - Beautiful Gardens

CHINA - Canton, New start from old souvenir :

Guangzhou (November 2008) Always a center of trade to foreigners, Guangzhou was established during the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC). By the 200 AD, Indians and Romans were coming to Guangzhou and in the next five-hundred years, trade grew with many neighbors far and near from the Middle East and Southeast Asia.

Guangzhou today is struggling to overcome its image as Hong Kong little sister. An economic powerhouse in southern China, Guangzhou enjoys relative wealth compared with many other parts of China and is a bustling and vibrant city.

CHINA - Canton, New start from old souvenir

HONG KONG - Culture & Tradition :

Hong Kong appeared as a coastal island located in southern China. While settlements had taken place with archaeological findings dating back thousands years, written records were not made until the engagement of Imperial China and British Colony in the territory.

Starting out as a fishing village, salt production site and trading ground, Hong-Kong evolved into a military port of strategic importance. Then, the region has become an international financial centre that enjoys the world's 14th highest GDP (PPP) per capita, supporting 33% of the foreign capital flows into China.

HONG KONG - Culture & Tradition

HONG-KONG - So Natural! :

Lantau Island (winter 2008) - 40% of Hong-Kong territories are protected and included within one of the 23 National parks. Although famous for its high-rise buildings and shopping centers, HKG would desserve to be ranked as one of the top destination for hiking.

HONG-KONG - So Natural!

INDIA - Land of Contrast :

India (autumn 1997) - My first trip in India occured in 1997. Color, feeling, noise, smell but also culture and tradition were so strong and different from any other part of the world (as far as I knew at that time!). In spite of significant leaps made by India in economy, poverty is still a dominant reality. Majority of the population of India still lives in utter poverty without access to health care, housing, drinking water and education.

Major policy change has to be enforced, to do better than survive, for the benefit of millions of Indians.

INDIA - Land of Contrast

MACAU - Real Mirage :

Macau is a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the People's Republic of China. Portugal administered Macau for 442 years. Firstly managed as a trading post, Macau has been subsequently viewed as a Portuguese territory until its handover to China in 1999.

Latest European territory in Asia, Macau has become the Asian Las Vegas.

MACAU - Real Mirage

MONGOLIA - Someone missing :

July 2009 - Chenghis Khan came to power by uniting many of the nomadic tribes of northeast Asia. After founding the Mongol Empire and being proclaimed "Genghis Khan", he started the Mongol invasions and raids of the Kara-Khitan Khanate, Caucasus, Khwarezmid Empire, Western Xia and Jin dynasties. During his life, the Mongol Empire eventually occupied a substantial portion of Central Asia.

Mongolia is now ranked 164 (out of 229 countries) in terms of GDP with USD 3,200 per year (2008). With 3 million people (July 2009), Economic activity in Mongolia has traditionally been based on herding and agriculture. Soviet assistance disappeared almost overnight in 1991 at the time of the dismantlement of the USSR. The following decade saw Mongolia endure both deep recession because of political inaction and natural disasters, as well as economic growth because of reform-embracing, free-market economics and extensive privatization of the formerly state-run economy.

6 days in an orphanage at Ulan Bator then 4 days with a family under a Ger in little Gobi allowed me to have an original insight on Mongolian traditions and modern concerns.

MONGOLIA - Someone missing

MYANMAR - Golden Mystery :

Myanmar (spring 2008) - The former Burma has roughly as many monks as soldiers. Although the country is ruled by force, the monks retain ultimate moral authority. The lowest ranked soldier depends on them for spiritual approval, and even the highest generals have felt a need to honor the clerical establishment. Begging is a ritual that expresses a profound bond between the ordinary Buddhist and the monk. The people are feeding the monks and the monks are helping the people make merit. When you refuse, you have broken the bond that has tied them for centuries together.”

Last year, the country’s two largest institutions were confronting each other, the monkhood and the military, both about 400,000 strong, both made up of young men, mostly from the poorer classes, who could well be brothers. Rejected by both its spiritual and popular bases, the junta that has ruled for 19 years had little to fall back on but force. In Myanmar and other Buddhist nations, many join the monkhood as a lifelong vocation, but many other young men become monks for shorter periods, ranging from a few months to a few years. These young monks remain closer to the lives and concerns of the people whose alms they receive. That attack came as a shock to people who said the military would not turn violently against the monks, and it had the predictable effect of arousing the fury of a devout population.

The junta’s 2007 action shows that the generals are willing to go far to protect their power. However, it may be impossible for the regime to go back to normal daily legitimacy.

MYANMAR - Golden Mystery

PAPUA - Towards assimilation... :

Although Papua represents 22% of Indonesia, this region only welcome hundreds of tourists a year. Baliem valley channels more than 80% of Papua's visitors. The Grand Baliem Valley is 1600 meters high, 60 km long and 15 km wide. Over the last decades, Indonesion Government helped by missionaries have succeeded in their entrepreneurship to "civilize" Baliem and specifically the Dani people.

Although electricity is still missing in most villages, pants have replaced the "penis gourd" and concrete houses are now set-up at the place of straw and wood "honai". Christian doctrine is now everywhere. Traditional beliefs are disappearing. While Dani people remains very kind and nice, a moderate but continuous flow of trekkers during the peak season are doing their part. Fortunately, the Baliem festival still allows some "free" pictures few days a year.

PAPUA - Towards assimilation...

SIBERUT - Human paradise or military heaven? :

Indonesia (summer 2007) - Siberut is a wonderful destination within the Mentawai islands. Tattoo is one of the most important symbol for Mentawai people, its reflect maturity, manhood and status. The art of this body painting inherit from their ancestor. The tattoos ink naturally made from leaf. The present life of Mentawai people categorized as the legacy from Neolithic era and they have a strong believe in nature spirit, for their life strongly affected by nature. They believe that nature is the center of life. A 11-hour local standard cruise from Padang to Muara Siberut open the access to this memorable world from Siberut Island.

Few days of muggy and rainy trek leads to Butui. This traditional village has a simple and rare atmosphere. Inhabitants' friendliness please the traveller. Every opportunity is used to associate the visitor to the Mentawai's day-to-day life. With about 40 tourists a year, Butui's world come to see the current hosts at the uma they stay. Mentawai children play with them and are listening carefully any instruction provided while the adults supply to their guests hunting and fishing advise. The village of Butui may be a peaceful place to live.

SIBERUT - Human paradise or military heaven?

SUMATRA - No tourist anymore? :

Indonesia (summer 2007) - Things have been bad in Indonesia for a long time – the rupiah devaluated horribly in 1998 under President Suharto when he swindled the country out of 35 billion dollars. There were subsequent riots and killings at political demonstrations in the capital. Sumatra, located in the North Western corner of Indonesia, has the richest wildlife in entire Indonesia leading many people to describe it as "Africa of Asia".

With large rivers, great flora and fauna (including Orchyds), sunny beaches, and a great history, Sumatra is a complete tourist destination. The region could not keep up the pace with its neighbours like Java and Bali in attracting tourists due to political problems and internal violence. Moreover, on November 2nd, 2003 the flooding of the village of Bukit Lawang deeped in the tourism in the island of Sumatra.

SUMATRA - No tourist anymore?

TIBET - Buddhism, religion or philosophy? :

Tibet (summer 2005) - Distinct forms of Tibetan Buddhism, (incorrectly named) Lamaism, became firmly established across the World. The Tibetan Buddhism strongly relies on mudras (ritual postures), mantras (sacred speech), yantras (sacred art) and secret initiation rites. This gallery focuses on Lhasa palace and Ganden, Sera and Tashilhunpo Monasteries. Most of the tibetan considers monasteries as places to pray and Dalai Lama as a living God. Buddhism is more a religion than a philosophy, at least in Tibet...

5 main influential sects participated to the development of the concept of buddhism in Tibet.

TIBET - Buddhism, religion or philosophy?

TIBET - Lost Country :

Tibet (summer 2005) - The invasion of Tibet by troops from the People's Liberation Army in 1949-51 is described in official Chinese history as a "peaceful liberation". A 17-points agreement was signed between the Communist Government and the Tibetan officials in May 1951, which apparently "enjoyed the approval and support of the people from every ethnic group in Tibet". In fact, discrimination and suppression of traditional practices in eastern Tibet drove hundreds of Tibetans up into the mountains to conduct guerrilla warfare, while thousands more fled west to Lhasa to escape Chinese persecution.

In March 1959, growing Tibetan resistance exploded in an uprising against the Chinese occupation. The 14th Dalai Lama fled into exile in northern India, and the subsequent Chinese crackdown in Tibet was brutal. Even the figures from the Chinese Government record 87,000 deaths in the National Uprising and its aftermath. Being said that, this gallery will not focus on politics but on the wonderful geographical environment and people of Tibet.

TIBET - Lost Country

CHINA - Yangshuo Splendours :

CHINA - Yangshuo Splendours

website hit counter

Do not hesitate to give your Opinion

©Photossansfrontieres, 2005-2008. All rights reserved.

Available Feeds | What are feeds?

Recent Galleries:

Atom |

RSS

Recent Photos:

Atom |

RSS

Recent Videos:

Atom |

RSS |

AppleTV