ROWING IS A BIG LEG-PULL IN BURMA

Rowing a boat with your leg is quite a difficult feat, but the leg-rowers of Inle Lake are well balanced men.

Inle Lake lies in in the Shan state of north-east Burma at a height of 880 metres above sea level. The shallow blue lake, covering an area of 116 sq kms, is known for its unique leg-rowing fishermen who are never known to fall overboard.

Known as Inthas, local people numbering about 70,000, live in four towns bordering the lake, in stilt-perched villages around the edge, and on floating islands on the lake itself.

Micro-gardens flourish in the mud beneath their houses where chickens and other livestock forage for food. There are also large floating vegetable gardens made from lashed reeds and anchored by bamboo poles which rise and fall with changes in the water level, and so are resistant to flooding.

The Intha’s basic diet is rice and fish. Fruits and vegetables along with necessities are sold in the ywa-ma, a miniature floating market which circles the lake, visiting all the villages, every few days.

When not cooking and gardening, Intha women weave colourful tote bags which are sold to visitors in the corridor leading to the Phaungdaw-U pagoda overlooking the lake. They also produce hand-woven silk textiles and the cotton longyi, a sarong-type garment worn by men.

Intha men have a constant battle to keep the pagodas above water level as the floating islands on which many are built slip beneath them. Graceful leg-rowers glide by carrying mounds of mud to prop them up. Water hyacinth, a major problem, must also be cleared.

In October a spectacular water carnival takes place when a golden Buddha accompanied by flower-laden hlays is taken in a procession around the lake. Leg-rowing races with 10-12 men, all rowing on one leg to a boat, are a highlight.

With tourism on the rise, the best advice is to visit this special part of Burma before it changes. A luxury hotel with bar, spa and bicycles for hire has already been built on the lake-shore. Access is from HeHo Airport, 35 kms via a domestic flight from Rangoon or Mandalay.

Images: www.copix.co.uk

RELIGIOUS PHOTOGRAPHY

SENSITIVITY IS A KEY ELEMENT

Capturing people in the private act of worship is the most sensitive and difficult aspect of any genre of photography. The opposite of “celebrity photography,” where the subject generally wants to be seen, a person in communication with their “higher power` prefers to be left in peace.

Patience is an asset. One is often advised of location only to arrive and find nothing happening. Or that the ceremony was held last Sunday. Or that it is rescheduled for next Sunday. Or that despite the priest-imam-rabbi`s- blessing, someone objects to being photographed.

With permission to photograph Sunday Mass in Havana Cathedral, I was waiting discreetly behind a column when another photographer walked in and began blitzing the congregation with a powerful flash.

“Will the photographer behind the pillar please stop taking pictures!” said the priest, in the middle of dispensing the Holy Sacraments. He had assumed it was me, and I slunk out without a single picture.

There were many moments like this during the years it took to build up a stock of world faiths, but helped by contributing photographers, the World Religions Photo Library celebrates its tenth anniversary in 2009.

The collection features the mainstream religions - Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Judaism and Sikhism, as well as other faiths and cults searchable on-line. Subjects include traditional religious life in various contexts and locations worldwide, notably people practising their faith, rites of passage, sacred foods, festivals and pilgrimage, worship and dress. The site is linked to a second website focussing on faith travel and sacred sites, many of which feature on the World Heritage List.

c. Christine Osborne

Image: A temple in Mandalay Burma

www.worldreligions.co.uk

www.religious-tourism.com