Constantine Manos | Leica & Magnum

Here's a Leica Camera documentary on Constantine ("Costa") Manos, the Magnum photographer known for his photographs of Boston and Greece.

Let me share a story about Costa Manos.

In 2000, I joined a street photography workshop in Old Havana with Costa Manos as instructor. It was one of the foreign destination workshops by the Maine Photographic Workshops, and probably the only workshop I ever attended. It was just after the Elian Gonzales custodial battle, which made authorized travel to the island more difficult than usual...but the workshop went ahead, and a small group of hard-core photographers made it (somewhat circuitously because of our US passports) to Havana.

It was still pre-digital world at the time, and for Costa to edit our photographs, we had to use color film and have it processed at local photo processing stores. Naturally, the quality left much to be desired, but the processing was fast and cheap. I had just returned from Nepal and India, and was quite full of myself...and super proud of the portraits of sadhus and Nepali women that I displayed to the group and for Costa's critique.

He took his time looking at my photographs, and probably seeing I was getting a little anxious, he told me something I have never forgotten:

"Your pictures are technically fine, but they're too simple...I want you to bring me complicated pictures; pictures that tell stories; pictures that I can look at for a long time..."

If there's only one piece of advice that guided my photographs since 2000, it was this. And it was then I began trying to complicate my photographs, to complicate my compositions. and to try to insert and build layers upon layers in them. Sometimes I succeed...and sometimes I fail. Most of the time, it falls somewhere in the middle....but I never forgot Costa's advice.

Photo © Constantine Manos-All Rights Reserved

The above photograph is hanging in my office, and I bought it from Costa during the Havana workshop.

Rasha Yousif | Heaven's Gate

Rasha Yousif was on my Sufi Saints of Rajasthan & Kashmir Photo Expedition-Workshop, and documented the Urs of the Sufi saint Moin'Uddin Chisti which attracts thousands of devotees and pilgrims from the four corners of South Asia, including Pakistan and Bangladesh. She produced an audio-slideshow of the event, and titled it Jannati Darwaza; Urdu for Heaven's Gate.

There's the story, perhaps apocryphal, that whoever crosses the threshold of Jannati Darwaza seven times to circumambulate the saint's tomb, will secure a place in heaven...hence its name.

While most attending the event are of the Muslim faith, there are significant numbers of Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and members of other religious traditions who visit the shrine during this annual observance. 

Moinuddin Chishti is the more famous and revered Sufi saint of the Chisti order of the Indian Subcontinent. He was born in 1141 and died in 1230 CE, and is believed to be a descendant of the Prophet Muhammed. He interpreted religion in terms of human service and exhorted his disciples "to develop river-like generosity, sun-like affection and earth-like hospitality."

Rasha is from Bahrain, where she works in the finance industry. She graduated from the University of Bahrain, and obtained her Masters in Finance from DePaul University.

She's a passionate and prolific photographer, and her work can viewed on her website, and on her Vimeo page.

Kris Bailey | Threads For Prayers

"The highest form of devotion is to redress the misery of those in distress – to fulfill the needs of the helpless and to feed the hungry.” - Moin'Uddin Chisti

Here's a well made audio-slideshow of the annual Urs Festival commemorating the death of the Sufi Saint Khwaja Moin Uddin Hasan Chishti produced by Kris Bailey, a member in my Sufi Saints of Rajasthan & Kashmir Photo Expedition-Workshop. It's the third time Kris traveled with me...the first being on Kolkata's Durga Puja, and the second being The Oracles of Kerala Photo Expedition & Workshop.

The Sufi Saints Photo Expedition/Workshop's principal objective was to document the death anniversary held in Ajmer (Rajasthan) of Hazrat Shaikh Khwaja Syed Muhammad Moin'Uddin Chisti (1141- 1230 CE), the most famous Sufi saint of the Chishti Order of the Indian Subcontinent. He introduced and established the order in South Asia. He is also known as Gharib Nawaz or ‘Benefactor of the Poor'.

Kris chose to produce the audio slideshow (converted to video) in monochrome to avoid the divergence in colors arising from the harsh sunlight and the shadows created by the canopies in the shrine.

Threads for Prayers is an apt title for this Sufi religious observance, and underscores the syncretic commonality between Hinduism and Islam in South Asia. A Hindu practices is to tie red threads known as kalava or mauli in temples for their wishes to be fulfilled, and it's one of the practices also observed in Sufi shrines.

Apart from being an attorney in Northern California, Kris is a photographer who's keenly interested in South and South East Asia, and is particularly attracted to unusual rituals and religious festivals. She's already been on two of my most intense photo expeditions workshops, and that doesn't seem to deter her in the least.

A number of her projects can be viewed on her Vimeo page.

Kares Le Roy | Asia In 6 Minutes

I frequently find wonderful work by photographers on my ZITE, and this remarkable video by Kares Le Roy managed to temporarily distract me a little from following the horrific events in Egypt. I hope it will have the same effect if you feel the same way.

Kares is a French photographer and graphic designer. More of his background can be found on his blog (scroll down for the English version). He traveled and photographed in Tibet, Nepal, India, Bali, Cuba, Cambodia and Morocco. He traveled through 56 000 km of land and humans: faces, smiles, eyes, monuments, cultures, events and this 6 minutes video masterfully provides a bird's eye view of the Asian continent.

I have featured the work of Kares on The Travel Photographer blog already, but Beware Magazine also has an interesting interview with him.

Charlotte Rush Bailey | Prayers To A Pir

Charlotte Rush-Bailey has been on virtually all my recent photo expeditions-workshops (except for the one in Vietnam), and has completed her multimedia project of Gharib Nawaz's Urs festival during my Sufi Saints of Rajasthan & Kashmir Photo Expedition-Workshop.

Charlotte is a photographer who migrated to the world of photography from a corporate career that covered three decades of marketing and communications positions in a variety of global industries including energy, financial services, media, conservation, technology and professional services. This gave her opportunities to work with people all over the world, and to learn to appreciate cultural nuances and the influences of socio-political forces.

She's the third participant to send me her multimedia work of Gharib Nawaz's Urs festival, which captures the intensity of the event.  Prayers To A Pir was made using Adobe Premiere Pro instead of Soundslides which I favor,  but Charlotte found it to be easier to sequence and sync the audio with the stills.

Rasha Yousif | We Came For Peace

With all the turmoil caused by various strands of so-called 'political' Islam and far right Islamists, We Came For Peace is a welcome and timely reminder that Islam's message is that of peace and tolerance.

“We Came For Peace” is a very short multimedia story of Namreen and her mother. Rasha tells us she met them in the women’s section at a Sufi mosque in Srinagar, and was touched by the mother’s sincere prayers. She asked if she would say a prayer for her, and asked the daughter Namreen to translate it. When Namreen was asked as to why she came to the mosque, she answered “We came for Peace”.

Rasha Yousif recently returned from my Sufi Saints of Rajasthan & Kashmir Photo Expedition-Workshop, during which she was immersed in her favorite element, photographing Islamic rituals and traditions, particularly those we encountered in Srinagar.

As I wrote in another post, the Islam (and Sufism) we witnessed in Srinagar's various religious sites was calm and soothing, and while there were many manifestations of utter devotional zeal especially amongst by women, these were gentler than those we witnessed and documented at the Sufi shrine of Moin'Uddin Chisti where the exuberance of the pilgrims was mind-boggling.

Rasha is from Bahrain, where she works in the finance industry. She graduated from the University of Bahrain, and obtained her Masters in Finance from DePaul University.

Kainaz Amaria | On Being Zoroastrian

Here's an interesting, and well produced personal documentary on Parsi Zoroastrianism. As readers and followers of this blog know, I'm interested in documenting world religions...and their various rituals, and Zoroastrianism is a religious tradition that I've never thought of. The personal documentary is a tad long by my standards, but stay with it to witness some footage made inside a fire temple.

Zoroastrianism was founded by the Prophet Zoroaster (or Zarathustra) in ancient Iran approximately 3500 years ago, and is one of the world's oldest monotheistic religions. For 10 centuries, Zoroastrianism was one of the most powerful religions in the world, and was the official religion of Persia from 600 BCE to 650 CE.

Speaking of oldest monotheistic religions, I intrigued by the notion that Akhenaten (ca 1300 BC) of Pharaonic Egypt could've been the first in human history to subscribe to a form of monotheism He declared that Aten was not merely the supreme god, but the only god.

Ms Amaria makes the distinction that her documentary is on Parsi Zoroastrianism, rather than Iranian. The Parsis are members of Zoroastrian communities in India, and ethnically distinct from the Iranians even though both groups are Persian Zoroastrians. Zubin Mehta and Rohinton Mistry are two of the prominent Parsis I know of...but there are many others.

Kainaz Amaria has a B. A. in international relations and political science from Boston University and an M.A. in photography from the School of Visual Communication, Ohio University. In 2010 she was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to Mumbai, India. Her images and multimedia collaborations have been recognized by contests including CPOY, Women in Photojournalism, Atlanta Photojournalism Conference, the National Press Photographers’ Contest and the South Asian Journalist Association. Her clients include Vogue India, The New York Times, Reuters, National Public Road, Radio Netherlands Worldwide, GlobalPost, Marie Claire (USA), the St. Petersburg Times, US News & World Report, Inc. Magazine & Condé Nast Traveler.

She's a member of the multimedia team at National Public Radio (NPR) and is currently based in Washington, D.C.

Kaushik Ghosh | Meraj, The Last Qawwal

I'm serious about this...aficionados of photography, qawwali, sufism, history and Indian culture...this is especially for you.

It's a must-view audio-slideshow of a legendary qawwali singer and musician from Delhi produced by Kaushik Ghosh, that will assuredly garner your admiration. I predict we shall hear much more of Kaushik in the weeks, months and years to come.

In the late 13th century in India, Amir Khusro, a musician, scholar and poet as well as a follower of the Chisti order of Sufis, was instrumental in merging Persian and Indian musical traditions to create qawwali as we know it today.

Ustad Meraj Ahmed Nizami is the elder descendant of a close disciple of Khusro, and belongs to its well-known discipline known as "gharana". His extended family has been performing qawwali for the past eight centuries, and as such Khusro's style has passed unbroken across seven centuries and thirty generations.

Kaushik Ghosh is a self-taught freelance documentary photographer based in Delhi, India. Born and raised in Kolkata, he graduated with a medical degree from  the University of Calcutta, and received training in fine arts from All India Fine Arts Association.

Prior to becoming a documentary photographer in 2011, he worked in the Indian healthcare sector for 7 years in various positions ending as the Medical Project Head of East and Northeast India. In 2012, he became the editorial and creative contributor of Getty Images, and an editor for a multimedia production of a UNESCO supported documentary. His photographs were featured in The Times of India, Hindustan Times, Better Photography, The Travel Photographers Network, Muse Magazine and others.

Meraj, The Last Qawwal can also be viewed on Vimeo.

Shane Green | Slaves of Moinuddin Nawaz

Here's another very well made audio-slideshow of the annual Urs Festival commemorating the death of the Sufi Saint Khwaja Moinuddin Hasan Chishti as produced by Shane Green, a photographer and one of the group members in my just completed Sufi Saints of Rajasthan & Kashmir Photo Expedition-Workshop. It's the second time he travels with me...the first being in Vietnam last fall.

As evident in the audio-slideshow, Shane generally prefers an urban aesthetic style in his photographs to a purely ethnographic one. He claims that this only happens when he's had a few beers...but I can vouch that his beer consumption has nothing to do with it.

It's surprising how Shane managed to interview a pilgrim with a North England accent out of the many thousands pilgrims that visited the shrine while we were there. Himself from Sheffield and now living in Mallorca, Shane is influenced by Martin Parr,  Christer Strömholm, Weegee, Bruce Gilden among others.

The title of his audio-slideshow is how the pilgrim narrator described himself and others who came to commemorate the death anniversary of the  revered Sufi saint; a religious event in which some 700,000 pilgrims are said to have attended. Moinuddin Hasan Chishti is the most revered Sufi saint in South Asia, and known to have been a liberal religious figure, and have nurtured a universal acceptance of all faiths.

 Slaves of Moinuddin Nawaz can be viewed on Vimeo as well. 

Li Xinzhao | Through The Unknown Tashkurgan

I had never heard of Tashkurgan. You probably haven't either.

It turns out that it's an area on China's western frontier (Xinjiang Province), located in the eastern part of the Pamirs and on the so-called "roof of the world", and it has a long history as a caravan stop on the Silk Road. In the Uyghur language, tash kurgan means 'stone fortress'.

Li Xinzhao is a fine art photographer, who documented the inhabitants and way of life of the region since 2009. She stayed in Tashkurgan for several months photographing the Tajik nomads using a Hasselbald large-format digital camera and Profoto lighting. Being driven in an old pickup truck by a Tajik driver, she traveled the sparsely populated landscape searching for the nomads, staying with local families along the way.

She studied at the University of the Arts London, China Central Academy of Fine Arts and the International Center of Photography in New York, and began her photography career in 2007. Since then, she has completed projects in England, United States, Italy, Spain, Turkey, Cambodia, Nepal, Thailand, Tunisia, Kenya and others. She has won a number of awards and contests.

Photo © Li Xinzhao-All Rights Reserved

You can also watch the above video on Vimeo. It's posted by Photographie.

The Sacred And The Profane

The Sacred And The Profane is an audio slideshow made during the annual Urs of the Sufi saint Moin'Uddin Chisti in Ajmer, Rajasthan. It can also be viewed here (perhaps better quality).

The 'ecosystem' feeding off the shrine of the Sufi saint Moin'Uddin Chisti consists of pious pilgrims, vagabonds and charlatans, sightseers, mendicants and beggars, fakirs, shoppers, established and opportunistic vendors, pickpockets and thieves, the poor, the wealthy, the venal and the innocent...who come here during the Urs to seek spiritual salvation, riddance of 'jinns', money and entertainment. Even the transgendered hijras come to Ajmer to take part in the veneration of Gharib Nawaz.

Notwithstanding (or perhaps in a way because of it), it was uplifting to see Muslims (Shi'a and Sunni, Sufis and non Sufis), Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis, Christians and non-believers congregate to pay homage to the most important Sufi saint of South Asia.

And in spite of my repudiation of all religious traditions, I was also impressed by the piety and zeal that grip the pilgrims that surrounded me in the shrine. I have no doubts that Moin'Uddin Chisti is deserving of much reverence, and that he and many of the Sufi saints before and after him were instrumental in establishing Islam in South Asia through their liberal philosophy, tolerance and kindness towards the poor. It was not the orthodox and rigid Islamists of the time who spread the faith in this region of many ingrained beliefs, creeds and practices....but it was because of gentle Sufis like Gharib Nawaz.

In Delhi, adjacent to the dargah of Nizamuddin Auliya (one of Chisti's disciples), followers of the orthodoxTablighi sect have an office building, and frequently excoriate pilgrims and visitors to the shrine as being blasphemous.

In my view, nothing could be further from the truth.

Sufi Soul | William Dalrymple

In anticipation of my soon to start The Sufi Saints of Rajasthan & Kashmir Photo Expedition-Workshop, which I described in an earlier post as  the first and only photo expedition-workshop whose objective is to record the commemoration of the death anniversary of a Sufi saint, I thought I'd feature the first part of William Dalrymple's Sufi Soul which appeared on Channel 4 in Britain, and which traces his personal journey into the mystical and musical side of Islam as he describes traditions of Sufi music in Syria, Turkey, Pakistan, India and Morocco.

It starts rather brusquely and clumsily with snippets of Western media reports on radical Islam; presumably to highlight the disparity beween this and the pacifist nature of Sufism.

For the followers of Sufism, music is a way of getting closer to God. The documentary traces the shared roots of Christianity and Islam in the Middle East, and presents Sufism as a peaceful and intellectual offshoot of Islam. It features many acclaimed performers, including the legendary Abida Parveen and Youssou N’Dour. 

Sufism is deeply rooted in Islamic cultures across the globe -- the Middle East, North Africa and the Indian subcontinent particularly -- and in each region has local characteristics.

Islamists ban singing, dance and musical instruments and regard them as diversions from devotion and subservience to Allah. In contrast, Sufi cultures are rich in these traditions, and few are better qualified to present this than writer, historian and longtime resident of New Delhi, William Dalrymple.

My thanks to Stephanie Ravel for having shared this with me.

Dustin Cohen | The Shoemaker

While The Travel Photographer blog usually is travel/documentary centric and focuses on international subject matters, I am also extremely interested in photography and multimedia originating in the United States, and particularly in my city...New York City.

Vimeo recently highlighted the work of the very talented photographer/filmaker Dustin Cohen, who is based in Brooklyn.

There are a number of short documentaries on Dustin's website, and I chose to feature The Shoemaker, which is the story of a 91 year old shoemaker and repairer in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. Frank Catalfumo first opened the doors to F&C Shoes in 1945 and continues to work five days a week alongside his son Michael. I also loved the background music which sounds like it's by Sidney Bechet.

Don't miss the typical Italian gesture that Frank uses at some point...he brushes under his chin to show his dismissal of a point he was talking about.

This is one of the many lives that make up the huge mosaic of New York City, and reminds me of The New York Times' terrific One in Eight Million series, which I continuously rave about.

Dustin Cohen is a film director and a photographer, living in Brooklyn and whose client list include RollingStone, Respect, Details, Elle, Inked, XXL, Billboard, AOL Music, Atlantic Records, RCA Records, Warner Music, Kodak, Microsoft, Johnson & Johnson, Toshiba, Ray Ban, Sperry Top-Siders, Whole Foods, Casio G-Shock Watches, Colgate, Macy's, and others.

Chico Sanchez | La Antigua's Easter Week

Photo © Chico Sanchez- All Rights Reserved

La Antigua is a city with a UNESCO World Heritage Site appellation, and a city in central Guatemala, famous for its Catholic celebration of Holy Week, which commemorates the Passion, Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. 

All of Antigua participates in the annual event, and the entire week is replete with religious activities. These rituals arrived with the missionaries from Spain, who brought Catholic fervor to the local indigenous population during colonial times. The event begins on Palm Sunday, during which images of Jesus and the Holy Virgin of Sorrow are carried from their churches through the city on the shoulders of devoted followers who carry lanterns while dressed in purple robes with white waistbands. 

On Good Friday, the streets of Antigua are covered with natural, aromatic carpets of flowers, pines, clover, fruits and colored sawdust, which the residents put together and place in front of their homes. 

Chico Sanchez just produced an audio slideshow of the event, with ambient sound and narration/interview.

I've featured the work of Chico Sanchez, a freelance photographer based in Mexico City, on a number of occasions. Chico worked in Venezuela, collaborating with Reuters, European Pressphoto Agency, Agencia EFE, and currently freelances for various newspapers and magazines.

Dabbawala | The Perennial Plate

I would really love the opportunity of following one of these dabbawallas for a day, and documenting his journey with stills and audio!

The word "Dabbawala" in Marathi when literally translated, means "one who carries a box".  In Mumbai, 5000 dabbawallas deliver around 200,000 lunches every day from people's homes to offices, and are members of the officious-sounding Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Association. They are said to follow the the Varkari sect of Hinduism, and whose doctrine is the eagerness to serve others.

The concept of the dabbawala started in Mumbai during the Raj as many of the British bureaucrats and officials did not like the local food, and a service was set up to bring lunch (boiled potatoes and roast?) to them in their workplace directly from their homes. 

When the dabbawallas first started, a complex coding system of coloured threads and cloths was used, then this evolved to coloured paint, and now it's an alphanumeric code (which you can see in a sequence of the movie). The delivery system is highly dependent on Mumbai's railway lines as well as on bicycles..

The dabbawallas have been conducting the service for the last 125 years and incredibly have an error margin of just one in six million!

The Atlantic has more information of the dabbawallas.

The Perennial Plate is an online weekly documentary series documenting socially responsible and adventurous eating. Daniel Klein and Mirra Fine travel the world exploring the wonders, complexities and stories behind the ever more connected global food system.

Pind Daan In Baneshwar

An online conversation with photographer Cathy Scholl yesterday reminded me of one of my earlier audio-slideshows, which I had titled Pind Daan in Baneshwar.

I realized that it hadn't received the view number I had hoped it would; perhaps because it was on the final page of my Vimeo channel. So this is an attempt to goose it up a little.

The Baneshwar mela is popular tribal gathering held in the Dungarpur district in south Rajasthan. The gathering is followed by a fair held at a small delta formed by the river Soma and Mahi. It's a relatively modest event, without the hype and the attendance of the Kumbh Melas, but it's nevertheless a deeply religious gathering with simple and traditional rituals.

Bhil and Garasia tribals come from the neighboring states of Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat to offer prayers to Lord Shiva, to perform pind daan, and to socialize.

Dal Lake | Panidhar Revanur

I'm pleased to feature Venice of Asia (Dal Lake); a lovely video by Panidhar Revanur of the famous Dal Lake in Srinagar. The post is timed to show the beauty of the lake to the participants in my forthcoming Sufi Saints of Rajasthan & Kashmir Photo Expedition-Workshop.

According to Wikipedia, ancient history records mention a village named Isabar to the east of Dal Lake as the residence of goddess Durga. During the Mughal period, the rulers of India designated Kashmir, and Srinagar in particular, as their summer resort. The area around Dal lake in Srinagar was developed with Mughal-type gardens and pavilions.

Interestingly, during the British Raj though the Maharaja of Kashmir restricted house building in the valley, the British circumvented this rule by commissioning lavish houseboats to be built on the Dal Lake. The houseboats are generally made from local cedar-wood and measure 24–38 metres (79–125 ft) in length and 3–6 metres (9.8–20 ft) in width, and are graded in a similar fashion to hotels according to level of comfort.

Panidhar Revanur is based in Bangalore, and used a Canon 5D Mark II with Magic Lantern 17-40mm,  24-105mm, a Glidecam HD 4000, and graduated filters.

I'm not sure why the opening soundtrack is an Arabic song, especially as there is wonderful Kashmiri music which would have furthered the authenticity of the piece.

Adnan Abidi | Widows Refuge

Photo © Adnan Abidi-Courtesy Reuters

Reuters' The Photographers Blog featured an article and and a photo slideshow of Adnan Abidi's images made in Vrindavan of windows.

It is here, in the sacred and holy city of Vrindavan, that a segment of impoverished Indian widows find refuge after the death of their husbands. Being destitute, these women are often cast out of their family homes by her children and in-laws, unable or unwilling to feed an extra mouth.

The widows earn a meager keep by chanting devotional chants on behalf of pious families, and congregate in various ashrams in the city. Hindu widows, mostly from West Bengal, are viewed as being inauspicious by a segment of India's society, and are disallowed from wearing saris other than white.

I don't normally piggyback my own work on that of a photographer I feature on this blog, but I thought I'd supplement Adnan's work with my own White Shadows; an early multimedia production, which feature stills made when I visited Vrindavan. The project was promoted by the Women's United Nations Report.

I also wrote this:

"I am not a polemicist, nor an activist nor am I sufficiently knowledgeable of Indian social issues and culture, but I sense that religious tradition (in this case, Hinduism) is used to justify the dreadful treatment of widows, and that it is really poverty that lies behind the decision to force them out from their families."

NPR | Lisa Ross' Sufi Shrines in China

Photo © Lisa Ross-Courtesy NPR

Here's another Sufi-related blog post following the one of yesterday. It features the work of Lisa Ross, which recently appeared in NPR's The Picture Show. These photographs document the shrines created for and during pilgrimages by the Muslims of Western China, many of which have been maintained over several centuries.

Some of my readers will know that this is not a haphazard coincidence, but relates to my forthcoming Sufi Saints of Kashmir & Rajasthan Photo Expedition in May.

An important distinction to note is that orthodox Sunni Islam (as with Saudi Arabia's Wahabism) prohibits the worship or recognition of saints, and the erection of shrines or tombs for anyone is not allowed. This austere version of Islam forbids grave markers or tombs in burial sites and the building of any shrines. However, the burial practices (and the recognition of saints) varies from one Islamic country and sect to the other. Sufism, the more liberal of Islam's doctrines, does recognize saints, and sees no shirk (the sin of idolatry or polytheism) in such a practice.

I recall being in the Muslim area in Ahmedabad (Gujarat), and having been to Hindu temple a few days earlier, had around my wrist the red threads granted to those who make an offering or visit. A Muslim shopkeeper told me that wearing it was shirk. My facial expression in response was one of "get a life, buddy".

Sufi shrines are known as mazar, an Arabic word meaning ‘a place for visit’ or a ‘place of paying homage’. Its equivalent Persian word is ‘dargah’. In India and Pakistan, to name but two in South Asia, shrines are built on the graves of sufi saints.

Lisa Ross is one of the few foreign artists permitted access to the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region since it fell under Chinese rule in 1949. Via Ross' relationships with an Uyghur anthropologist and a French historian studying Central Asian Islam, she was allowed to explore the province for the past eight years as it modernizes and transforms.

Pierre Monégier | Sufi Night

I've been holding back on a number of Sufi-related posts, but thought the time has come to feature a short video of a Qawwali performance at the shrine of Nizzam Uddin in Delhi.

The video is by Pierre Monégier; the South Asia Correspondent (based in Delhi) for the French national television France 2. The soundtrack is Allahu by the late legendary and irreplaceable Qawwali singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.

Qawwali is the devotional music of the Sufis; primarily those of Pakistan and India. Nusrat Ali Fateh Khan is viewed as one of the greatest singers of qawwali, who extended the 600-year old tradition of his family. He is credited with introducing the music to international audiences, and is popularly known as "Shahenshah-e-Qawwali".

Although it's wonderful to listen to Nusrat's exquisite singing, I'm unsure about using the Allahu soundtrack to accompany the comparatively pedestrian qawwali ensemble seen in the video. I've seen similar performances at the Nizzan Uddin shrine, and they're quite good...nothing compared to Nusrat's virtuosity, but they're authentic.

I would've preferred viewing the video with the real audio, as compared to what it is...but that's me.