Monthly Photos　October 2019

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.)

Reconstruction of Latse

Days of Tibetan herders begin and end with praying to local deities. Local deities are said to live in mountain peaks. Their dwellings are called ‘Latse’. When doing fieldwork relating to ‘Dictionary of Tibetan pastoralists,’ which is being compiled as a result of the joint research project of ILCAA I am participating in, I encountered the reconstruction of a Latse, which was previously burnt by lightning. Only men are allowed to come close to Latse. The men brought long ‘arrows’ with colored flags, and were setting them up. After arrows were set up, the mountain top was decorated vividly.

‘Dictionary of Tibetan pastoralists’
https://nomadic.aa-ken.jp/search/

3 AUG 2019
Tsekog county, Qinghai province, China
Photograph by Shiho EBIHARA