The continent of India/文明之路:印度

Kashmir, India
“A 16th-century fortress looms over the dawn-burnished waters of Dal Lake in the Vale of Kashmir. India controls this densely populated, predominantly Muslim area. Pakistan depends on rivers flowing out of Kashmir—the Jhelum, the Chenab, and the Indus—to irrigate fields and generate electricity.”


Near Kathmandu, Nepal
"Instead of cars carrying workers, Nepal has workers carrying cars on the rocky, hilly trail from Kathmandu. Here automobiles, stripped of wheels and bumpers, are shoulder-borne to and from the capital, the only Nepalese city with modern roads. This old German-made Mercedes is going to India as a trade-in on a shiny American model. Some 60 coolies, moving to the rhythm of a chant, balance it on long poles."


Patan, Nepa
"In 1934 a violent earthquake shook one of Earth's oldest surviving kingdoms, destroying priceless icons and threatening a 200-year heritage of Hindu and Buddhist art. Almost no one outside the realm noticed. In fact, almost no one remembered that this country even existed. Its lands, suspended among daunting Himalayan mountains and ruled by a xenophobic dynasty, had been closed to the outside world since 1816.


Jodhpur, India
"Revered enough by Hindus to roam the streets of Jodhpur, a bull is still not as sacred as a cow, which is surrounded by a great mythic aura. An ancient Hindu verse says that he who kills, eats, or permits the slaughter of a cow will 'rot in hell for as many years as there are hairs on the body of the cow so slain.'"


India
A young child catches a ride as Indian women pull a cart through urban traffic.


Thimphu, Bhutan
“Church and state entwine in Bhutan, where King Jigme Singye Wangchuck (at left) wears a yellow scarf, symbol of his authority, as he consults with Buddhist leaders on matters of public policy. His audience this day: the four lopons, or masters, of the central monastic body in Bhutan.


Agra, India
Women harvest wheat near the Taj Mahal, a tomb built in the mid-1600s for Mogul Emperor Shah Jahan's wife Mumtaz Mahal.


Tongsa, Bhutan
At the time of this photograph, senior monk Tharpa Tashi had been confined to the Tongsa Dzong (“Tongsa fortress”) watchtower for six years. He was to remain there for four more years, when he was to retire at 60.


Near Darjiling, India
"Young Buddhist students at a monastery near Darjiling play the English game of cricket before a wall of Tibetan script. An infinite interplay of cultures, histories, and dreams propels a young nation as old as time."


Varanasi, India
“Once in every lifetime an observant Hindu hopes to make a pilgrimage to the holy city of Varanasi. Some come to wash away sickness and sin in the Ganges River. Others bring their dead to be burned. Still others come to live their last days here, for to die and be cremated in Varanasi guarantees eternal release from the cycle of birth and death.”


India
Students of the ancient Indian dance form Kathakali exercise their eye muscles.


Ganges River, India
"Locals...use the [Ganges River] in ordinary ways, doing laundry or washing hair. Devout Hindus are reluctant to believe that a river as holy as the Ganges is 'polluted.' Some environmentalists now use softer language to suggest that Mother Ganges is 'suffering.'"


Agra, India
Workers gathering grain in view of the Taj Mahal, which was built in the mid-1600s as a tomb for Mogul Emperor Shah Jahan’s wife Mumtaz Mahal. Later he was buried beside her.


India
“Doing the dirty work like sweeping streets is usually left to those once called untouchables, now known as Dalits, meaning ‘oppressed.’ The constitution prohibits discrimination by caste; government-set quotas aid the lower castes.”


Jodhpur, India
"Memories of maharajas past loom large in Jodhpur, where, on its outskirts, green chilies spice dinner."


Afghanistan-Pakistan border (left) and Pakistan (right)
1984 (left) and 2002 (right)
In 1984 photographer Steve McCurry immortalized the haunted eyes of a 12-year-old Afghan refugee in a camp on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. Her image (left)—first published on the cover of a 1985 National Geographic—became a symbol of the plight of refugees.


Srinagar, India
"Muslim martyrs of the Kashmiri separatist movement fill a graveyard in Srinagar, summer capital of the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Since 1990 perhaps 20,000 people have been killed in Kashmir, a region claimed by both India and Pakistan."


Kashmir region, Asia
"Raising their children in Pakistani refugee camps, Kashmiri parents rely on makeshift schools to help preserve a Muslim heritage that faces growing hostility in India."


Mumbai, India
"Blatant acts of illegal discrimination—denying Untouchables access to temples and wells, forcing them to live in separate settlements—often disappear in India's chaotic cities. All social groups mingle at a market in Mumbai, a magnet for Untouchables escaping village prejudices."


Punjab State, India
"Sweeping clean, workers prepare unmilled rice for sale at Punjab’s Khanna grain market, one of the largest in Asia. Self-sufficient in grain production by 1980, India is the world’s second largest exporter of rice, after Thailand."


Delhi, India
"Her fate scripted by Hindu law, an Untouchable girl can imagine little else than working along the Yamuna River in Delhi as a Dhobi. Members of this clothes-washing caste handle items 'polluted' by blood or human waste."


Gujarat state, India
A second- or third-grade student raises her hand at her village school in Vadgam. This village will be submerged under a man-made lake created by the Sardar Sarovar dam, if the project is completed. The Sardar Sarovar dam is one in the series of Narmada River dam projects intended to create sources of electricity, drinking water, and irrigation water.


India
"Boys peer through a carpet loom in India. There are more than 300,000 Indian children working in the carpet industry—most of them slaves."


India
An Indian man relaxes with a cigarette while his child naps against his back.


Villivakkam, India
"These women in the southern Indian town of Villivakkam, nicknamed 'kidney village,' each traded a kidney for cash. In their 20s at the time, married, and eager to pay off crushing family debts, they were easy marks for transplant agents who promised 50,000 rupees—about a thousand [U.S.] dollars—for an organ. The women got half the money in advance, but after their kidneys were removed, the rest of the fees were never paid. India has outlawed commerce in human organs, though that has not stopped the trade."


Allahabad, India
"A sadhu or holy man mortifies his body in a tradition recalling Allahabad's ancient name, Prayaga—'place of sacrifice.' He controls his breathing using techniques of yoga."


Kashmir region, Asia
Two horseback riders stop for a smoke in the Himalaya mountains.


Kashmir, India
“‘Home is where the heartbreak is,’ reads a headline in a Kashmiri newspaper. Wedged between two enemies—India with its Hindu majority and Muslim Pakistan—Kashmir has been caught in the cross fire for a half century. Kashmiri Muslims struggle violently against India’s rule and in the process turn Hindu Kashmiris, like anguished Sartha Devi, into refugees.”


Agra, India
"Reflecting the passions of Mogul Emperor Shah Jahan, the Taj Mahal in Agra was built in the mid-1600s as a tomb for his wife Mumtaz Mahal. Later he was buried beside her. Covering most of India—and known under Shah Jahan’s grandfather Akbar for religious tolerance—the Mogul Empire collapsed in the early 1700s."


Jodhpur, India
"Jodhpur’s Mehrangarh Fort, a walled city built in the 15th century, evokes the days when India was divided into hundreds of princely states, each with its own laws and taxes, and some with their own currency. After independence princes relinquished their power but were allowed to retain their personal property."


Amritsar, India
“The Golden Temple in Amritsar serves as the spiritual center for the world’s 20 million Sikhs. ‘From Hindus and Muslims have I broken free,’ said Arjan Dev Ji, the fifth Sikh guru, in the 1590s. The faith holds all people equal in the eyes of God.”


Ahmedabad, India
"In history’s shadow, students unwind hand-spun yarn at Gujarat Vidyapith, a coeducational school founded by Gandhi in 1920. One key component of the school’s program is weaving khadi, a coarse fabric that became a symbol of self-reliance during the struggle for independence. If Indians would spin and wear their own cloth, Gandhi reasoned, they could get rid of the textiles imported from big British mills—and get rid of the British too."


Mumbai (Bombay), India
"Celebrants powder their faces for the Ganesh Chaturthi Festival in Mumbai, formerly called Bombay."


Kashmir, India
"Slumped in grief, a Muslim cleric leads funeral prayers for his son—militant leader Shariq Bakshi—killed by Indian security troops. Some call Kashmir's insurgents mujahidin, holy warriors for Islam. Others call them criminals, whose victims—of kidnapping, extortion, and rape—are often other Kashmiris."


Sonpur, India
"At dawn elephants lumber into the river at Sonpur. Their keepers will scrub them clean with porous stones, decorate them with paint, and sell them at the giant fair."

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• Very good indeed! Thanks a lot -techtest- ♀ (0 bytes) () 09/26/2004 postreply 19:27:06