The Khasi Hills Unitarian Child Orphanage

Unitarian boy peering through the window.

After four days straight of traveling and sleeping on the floors of various train and bus terminals I finally arrived in the Khasi Hills of India's NE state, Meghalaya. Known as the Scottish highlands of Asia the Khasi Hills are just that; rolling hills of dried grass and barren rock, whipping wind and a thick fog.

Two years ago during my time as a camp counselor for Unitarian Universalist youth, a friend of mine mentioned a small Unitarian congregation somewhere in India. Unitarian Universalism is a liberal, all inclusive, non-denominational faith that teaches the morals of all faiths (without the dogma) while pushing for social change such as immigration and LGBTQ rights, and Unitarianism is it’s grandfather religion not commonly seen today. During one of my most recent projects in Varanasi I remembered this conversation and began looking around for contacts with hopes of finding the location of this community. One week later, through a series of emails from multiple contacts, I was introduced to a delightful man named Nangroi, who invited me to stay in his village and with the local Unitarian congregation of over 10,000 individuals.

Three 'brothers' eating lunch together.

Visiting each beautifully modest church house of the village allowed for discussion of hardships with the local, predominantly farmer population. With Nangroi and his wonderful family helping as translators I was informed about the rural difficulties of crop prices, medical aid and literacy.

Potatoes, the regional cash crop grown, yield a meager value when brought to market. The flooding of this mono-crop in the market place makes it very hard for families to raise their income and better their standard of living. Due to the rural location of the Unitarians in the Khasi Hills, medical aid rarely makes its way to the villages, forcing people to travel several hours to a hospital in the nearest city. With most families numbering from 5-10 people per household, it becomes a struggle to support everyone with their usual salary, which is equivalent to $400-$500(USD) per month.

Boy trying to find space away from the other children.

At the edge of Kharang village I was shown the Unitarian Child Orphanage for the Khasi Hills. Approaching the door I was introduced to each child with a bashful handshake and a lively, English, “How do you do?” The Unitarian Child Orphanage, currently housing 20 children (10 boys and 10 girls) ranging from ages 6-15 rests on a several acre plot with forested hills, jungle paths, small creeks and little pools. With a simple terrace garden, worm compost bin and their own personal water pump, Nangroi and other members of the UUNEI (Unitarian Union of North East India) hope to eventually raise enough money to build a health care center, school, community fishery and edible jungle garden to help with fresh fruit and medicinal herbs.

Dinner time in the kitchen.

Usually each child travels to the nearest school house each weekday but as I was lucky enough to visit during a winter break we were able to spend our time climbing through the forest, playing tag or getting in some quality fun on the swing and slide in the playground. Around meal time the older of the children who have been delegated more responsibility would join the two 'mothers’ of the house, helping prepare the main meal of rice and potatoes. After clean up play-time continued into the night and when the electricity would cut out the darkness would be filled with giggles and flickering candle light as play-time would scurry through the dark. After reading English books by candle, group songs and rhymes were sung before the nightly Earth, Wind & Fire dance party.

Learning to read English by candle light.

After such a long time on the road documenting poverty and child desperation it was such a wonderful time getting to know these brilliant youth. Even though each of them has lost at least one parent and still deal with emotional swings from pain it is a beautiful thing to see each of them come together to support one another and create an even larger family.

To the children at the Khasi Hills Unitarian Child Orphanage, thanks for making me a friend and teaching me to play Cricket; I promise I’ll do better next time.

Woman watching a storm fall outside the kitchen window.

Still Wandering Uttar Pradesh

I'm continuing with my work around the rural communities in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. As mentioned in my previous post I'm trying to observe and document the myriad of societal struggles facing these isolated villages without holding a targeted agenda. As I witness the many issues that have presented themselves to me I decided to use this weeks article to shed a little light on the overbearing hardships of starvation, medical illnesses, unemployment and poverty.

Man napping through the day due to unemployment - Mahoba.

A hungry woman pleading for help - Balidi Kala village.

A little girl caring for her dying sister - Balidi Kala village.

Child waiting in a field - Swati Bruara village.

Girl playing outside her home - Itwanduendaila village.

Wandering Uttar Pradesh

I'm often asked how I decide where to travel and which stories to cover. My response usually refers back to a conversation I had with another humanitarian photojournalist Zoriah Miller. We discussed that it is sometimes essential to enter a region without seeking a specific story or having a targeted agenda. We both agree that if a photographer or journalist has their focus fixed on a specific story than such a narrow view can marginalize or obscure an equally important social justice issues being played out right in front of them.

Most recently, this question of how I go about my work was posed to me by a reporter for the Hindustan Times. It was then that I checked in with myself only to realized that for the past four months I had been traveling in search of a specific story. Realizing this, I decided to cancel the story that I was traveling toward and got off at the next train stop. The following week was spent wandering among rural villages in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. Not knowing what I would find, I decided to observe the societal struggles caused by hunger, poverty, and a lack of education and clean drinking water which effects everyday life in these secluded regions.

Man struggling against hunger - Ramtikawa village.

A man worried about low crop prices - Nadin Kurmiyan village.

Mother holding her child - Ramtikawa village.

A family gathered outside of their home - Soti Kaprawa village.

Varanasi

The city of Varanasi in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh is considered by Hindus a holy place because of its connection with the sacred Ganges river. Even with the extremely dense urbanization of the city, religious icons and shrines still dot almost every other street corner and alleyway. Commuting along the ghats beside the river bank, I decided to dedicate an article to the temple keepers, holy men, and ceremonial performers. For it is these lay Hindu men who provide spiritually vital functions for their Hindu community as they lead public prayers, family pujas, and provide the blessings for the dead waiting to be cremated by the holy river.

Man performing a nightly puja.

A group of holy men reciting mantras.

A crowd begging for food blessings.

A Baba blessing people along the river bank.

Nightly fire ceremony along the Ganges river.
Temple keeper painting a shrine dedicated to Shiva.

Sadhus

Sadhus can often be seen as Hindu ascetics found throughout India. These men and woman who follow the holy Hindu scriptures, sometimes aligned with a specific god, abandon a life of material possessions and creature comforts with the goal of obtaining nirvana through suffering.

I believe the Muslim Sufi poet Latif describes them best when saying, “Yogis are many, but I love these wandering Sadhus. Smeared with dust, they eat little, never saving a grain of rice in their begging bowls. No food in their packs, they carry only hunger. No desire to eat have they. Thirst they pour and drink. These ascetics have conquered their desires. In their wilderness they found the destination from which they searched so long.”

Sadhu outside of a rural village shrine - Uttar Pradesh.

Sadhu in prayer - Varanasi.

Sadhu sitting next to his campfire alter - Haridwar.

Tibetans in Exile

Over 60 years ago, the People's Republic of China ordered its troops to spread into the region southwest of its borders to start campaign of “cultural cleansing.” The troops quickly invaded the sovereign nation of Tibet and seized control. As the following months turned to years and years turned to decades, Chinese government continues its campaign, committing relentless, terrible acts of violence on Tibetans forced to endure the brutal encounters. More than 1 million Tibetans have been killed.

The occupying Chinese military has destroyed 6,000 Buddhist monasteries, and the government currently holds an estimated 3,000 religious and political prisoners either in prisons or tortured and placed in work-camps. The XIV Dalai Lama, spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, fled his country after the 1959 Tibetan Uprising. For the past 53 years, he has lived in India as an exile. The mountain town of Dharamsala in the Indian province of Himachal Pradesh provides sanctuary to the Dalai Lama and has become his home as well as home to hundreds of Tibetan refugees who have founded the headquarters for the Tibetan Government in Exile.

Experiencing the bold friendliness of the Tibetan people as I walked the meditation path through the forest to the mountaintop temple has strongly instilled in me new concepts on how a collective of people can embrace and struggle against terrible injustices committed against them with astounding resilience and loving patience.

These thoughts stuck with me as I approached the Tsuglagkhang temple. Above a series of Buddhist prayer wheels, I saw a sign standing reading, "These wheels containing Avalokiteshvara's mantra 'Om Mani Padme Hum' are built with the prayer that his holiness, the Dalai Lama, lives for many eons and all all his wishes be fulfilled. Pray and show our solidarity for those brave men and woman of Tibet who lost their lives for the cause of Tibet. Pray for the happiness of all sentient beings".

Hours later when leaving the monastery I couldn't help but smile when passing a roadside sign that read, "Better late than never."

A Tibetan doctor diagnosing a patient by feeling their pulse - Dharamsala.

A faithful Buddhist woman in prayer - Gyuto Ramoche Monastery.

Monks in prayer- Tsuglagkhang Temple.

Child monk ascends the monastery stairs - Gyuto Ramoche Temple.

Studying Tibetan scripture - Mcleod Ganj.

Urban Slums of Srinagar, Kashmir

With the cold winter weather approaching fast I decided to travel into Kashmir with the hopes of documenting the lives of the struggling lower class before the inevitable snow storms hit the region. Although I was lucky enough to avoid the incoming storm, the weather was still freezing with temperatures dropping to -7 degrees at night. Trudging through the frozen mud I made my way through the urban slums Naidyar and Sheikh colony in Kashmir's capital city, Srinagar. According to the locals I conversed with, the main struggle of the lower class is not owning land (most families have land and houses passed down from previous generations) but finding a job with a high enough income to support the entire family. Life inside the Naidyar and Sheikh colony slums is a hard one and can be considered modest at best. Many of the houses are held up by tin sheets or torn tarps stung up to make an impromptu wall. For those living in the center of the slums, clean water is hard to come by and each family is tightly packed together in the maze of small, squalor soaked alleyways.

Even with the current lull in violence from the Indian army the effects of a constant military occupation on a region's economy is still very clear as life can become a day to day battle for the lower class.

Man walking down a waterway path - Naidyar slum.

Boy in an alleyway - Naidyar slum.

Brother and sister - Sheikh colony slum.

Girl being lectured by family in candle light - Naidyar slum.

Photo shy girl - Sheikh colony slum.

Kashmir: 65 Years of Occupation

Since the independence of India and Pakistan in 1947 the state of Kashmir has been divided and controlled by both countries. Over the past 65 years Kashmir has fluctuated between moments of peace and revolt. Violence has been committed by both sides with the killing of Indian soldiers from nationalist rebels or religious extremists (Kashmir is predominantly Muslim compared to the southern Hindu region of Jammu or the eastern Buddhist region of Ladakh). As with most military occupations, whenever there is militancy against the ruling power it is almost always the civilian population that suffers the consequences. Military checkpoints are placed along the roads and night raids into private homes can be frequent. There has also been reported incidences of mass rape (Kunan Poshpora village) committed by the Indian army as well as thousands of civilian arrests and imprisonments without a stated cause or due process.

My next post will cover the lives of people living in the urban slums of the Kashmiri capital city of Srinagar. For the few days it took to set up that story with my contacts I lived on the outskirts of the city in a small village nestled on an inlet of Dal Lake to do a small story on rural life. This massive lake dominates the landscape and many of the local farmers and fishermen rely on this body of water for their livelihoods.

A woman transporting her crops.

A man farming for edible underwater roots.

A woman rowing into town.

The Golden Temple of Amritsar, Punjab

I was on my way to Kashmir to document a story on the urban slums when I passed through the city of Amritsar along the Pakistan border. The city is home to the most sacred sight for the Sikh religion, The Golden Temple. This being my first time encountering a large Sikh community I was profoundly humbled by the openness and compassion showed to pilgrims and travelers alike. Everyone is welcome to stay and room on the temple grounds and a 24 hour free kitchen is offered to all. Dozens of volunteers sit chopping and pealing vegetables to feed the hoards of people eating together in several row on the floor in a great hall. People walk up and down the rows gifting food to whoever holds out their hand. No one is allowed to go hungry. Rich business men sit and eat with the poor. There is no difference in class; we are all equal.

Man admiring the Golden Temple.

Sikh pilgrim by the sacred pool.

Sikhs are historically known as strong warriors.