Monthly Photos　December 2010

Photos taken by ILCAA staff and associates are posted here once a month; most of them are taken during their field research in Asia and Africa.

(The copyright belongs to the photographers.)

Jinghpaw Hymn Book

It is taken for granted that most of Kachin people are Christians. But I had never seen how they celebrate Christmas. Because I had chance to stay in Myitkyina during Christmas, I asked an acquaintance to take me to a church nearby.

Assembling in the church hall decorated appropriately for Christmas, singing hymns, pastor's speech... nothing special. Serving meal after the ceremony is also not limited to Christmas here. For Kachin people, Christmas is only a part of everyday religious activity. Rather, that I expected something special about Christmas might expose my lack of religious feeling.

When observing and taking photos of people around singing hymns, I was handed a hymn book of Jinghpaw, lingua franca of Kachin, by a woman sitting beside me. It seems that she could not leave me be, even though I looked like a foreigner to her.

25 DEC 2009
in Tatkon Baptist Church, Tatkon, Myitkyina, Kachin State, Myanmar
Photograph by Hideo Sawada

Go back to Back Issues of Monthly Photos’ page