Shaivite sadhu drinks from his human skull bowl. A picture of Shiva can be seen behind him. Although the practice of taking all of one's food and drink from a human skull is rare nowadays, certain sadhus, particularly the Aghori sub-sect, still hold to it as a daily reminder of human mortality and as a challenge to transcend the duality of life and death. The Aghori subsect was founded by Brahma Giri, a disciple of Gorakhnath and are strict followers of Shiva. These ascetics remain naked and often wear a rosary made of bones around their neck and carry a human skull in the left hand and a bell in the right hand. Their sectarian tilaka, forehead mark denotes unity of the Hindu triad. Pashupatinath, Kathmandu, Nepal

2007, Santa Fe, New Mexico, www:VerveFineArts.com Native Graces. A retrospective photographic exhibition 40 pigment prints.

On 100% archival Mueso silver rag paper. Printed at Santa Fe Editions, Santa Fe, New Mexico/ Gary Mankus.
14X20 inch image size on 17X22 inch paper size
20X30 inch image size on 24X 36 inch paper size

Or, on Kodak professional matt paper with 100 year archival quality made on Noritsu LPS 24 pro Japanese Kodak printer in Kathmandu, Nepal
16X20 inch paper size
20X30 inch paper size

(Shipping of the prints are done in a PVC tube)

Please contact tkelly@photo.wlink.com.np for Price inquiry and further information.

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Thomas Kelly > The idea of the interconnectedness of all things is central to the tribal way of
looking at the world. Practical knowledge of the environment, of crops and medicines, of hunting and fishing, is a byproduct of it. The Makuna believe that human beings, animals, and all of nature are parts of the same One. Animals and fish live in their own communities, which are just like human communities, with their chiefs, their shamans, their dance houses, their songs, and their material possessions. When human peoples dance in this world, the shaman invites the animal people to dance in theirs. If humans do not dance and shamans do not offer spirit food to the animal people, the animals will die out and there will be no more game left in the world. For the Makuna the radical disjunction so characteristic of Western thought between nature and culture, men and animals, dissolves.

Eastern Colombia Amazon, Vaupes region, Population: 600

Thomas Kelly > For centuries the Amazonian forest has been a nourishing mother
for the Kayapo, who survive mostly on hunting, fishing and gathering.

Gorotire Kayapo Reserve, Brazilian Amazon

Thomas Kelly > Wearing tree bark –cloth masks and skirts, dancers representing fish spirits are invited during the season of the peach palm harvest to drink the juice. It is a feast and ritual exchange: the host group offers the spirits large quantities of peach
palm juice, smoked meat and fish, and shaman-blessed coca and snuff. The
visitors are the costumed dancers impersonating animal spirits. People eat the
meat and fish, animal spirits receive the fruits of peach palm, which are
cultivated, harvested, and processed by humans. This exchange expresses the
idea that people and animals depend on each other for survival and reproduction.

Vaupes Basin, Eastern Colombia Amazon, Population: 600

Thomas Kelly > Paulo’s hair bangs being painted with urucum dye. Rites of passage clearly
define the transitions each individual must pass through to become an adult,
a full person with a new social role. Each initiate has a sponsor, an older relative.

Mato Grosso, Brazil

Thomas Kelly > The Xavante live in the rolling hills of Mato Grosso, in central Brazil. Their society is based on a system of age sets: the men are divided into groups comprising all those of a similar age. Each group spends five years in each category. The youngest set is the bachelors, the second youngest the warriors. Over the next 30 years, the men pass through six “mature” stages, moving up every five years as a new group
of bachelors is initiated in the wai’a. Once they have passed through all eight sets, the men move back and are “twinned” with the youngest group. The black and red faces represent the duality in nature, the opposing forces. Red is the pure or ‘tamed’ force, black—the dark or ‘untamed’ force.

Mato Grosso, Brazil

Thomas Kelly > Sexual activity is regarded among the Kayapo as a natural and desired
part of life. Rules regarding sexual activities are complex and vary between
different sex and age groups; sexual faithfulness is a matter of individual
choice rather than a common rule. "There are those men who do not like their
women to be with someone else; there are others who do not mind" says Kwyra
Ka "Those who do not mind stay together, those who mind separate".
It is a normal custom for Kayapo Indians to marry, split up and remarry
several times, and as a rule chiefs have several sexual partners at the same time.

Gorotire, Xingu Reserve, Brazilian Amazon

Thomas Kelly > The prejudice against nomads is very old. While sedentary peoples have often envied nomads their freedom and political independence, nomads are often stigmatized as being “obstacles to development.” In Africa, nomadic pastoralists
are accused by their governments of contributing to ecological degradation by overgrazing their animals. In fact, nomads like the Gabra take elaborate care of their grazing lands. Their very survival depends on it. People become restless once the decisions to move has been made, and women often get up in the middle of the night to begin dismantling their households. All of the packing and loading is done entirely by women. Gabra live their entire lives in unending cycles of migration. They know how to use their land and to conserve its resources. They move even before they have to in order to ensure that the land is replenished for the future.

Kenya, East Africa Population: 30,000

Thomas Kelly > The Gabra philosophy of life is summed up in their idea of finn, meaning
fertility and plenty. Human beings contribute to finn as they care for the
earth and their animals, as they exchange livestock, nourish friendships, tell
tales, or sing songs. Finn is the earth and the cycle of life that takes place upon it.

Northern Kenya, Chalbi Desert

Thomas Kelly > Yoruba women dance in trance at a sacred water festival to honor their
animistic spirits.

Nigeria, Africa

Thomas Kelly > In the 13th Century, the golden age of the Mongol Empire, a sport
resembling polo became a training game for the Mongolian cavalry
throughout High Asia. Horsemen learned to bend low at speed, like
acrobats to finish off fallen enemies with sabres, looting their prey
on the ground by scooping up jewels that caught their eye. There are
stories, too, of Genghis Khan knocking about an enemy's head as if it
were a ball.

Orkhon Valley, Central Mongolia

Thomas Kelly > These Reindeer Peoples’ entire existence is based around their herds of reindeer, which provide milk, skins for clothes, horn for carving and medicine, transport
and occasionally, meat. The Tsaatan are part of the Tuvan ethnic group, which inhabits the Tuvan Republic of Russia. There are only about 200 Tsaatan in total, spread over 100,000 sq km of northern Mongolia. They are nomadic, often moving their small encampments every three to four weeks, searching for special types of grass and moss loved by the reindeer. The Tsaatan are strong practitioners of shamanism.

West Taiga, Northern Mongolia

Thomas Kelly > Bayan-Olgii, is a “Kazakh province’ and it is here that their culture
persevered despite communist oppression for much of the 20th century.
The dominant feature of western Mongolia is the Mongol Altai
mountain range, which stretches from Russia through Bayan-Olgi
down to the Gobi desert. One of the oldest, most revered and spectacular
activity for the Kazakh people, passed down from generation to generation,
is hunting with trained eagles.

Bayan Ulgii, Mongolia

Thomas Kelly > Moksha, perfect inner freedom-is the soul’s release from samsara, the cycle
of birth and death, attained after dynamic and personal yogic realization of Parasiva and resolution of all seed karmas. Having known the Absolute, there
is no fuller realization, no greater knowing, no higher “experience.” Even when
God realization is attained, the soul body continues to evolve in this and other worlds until it merges with the Primal Soul as a drop of water merges with its source, the ocean. -Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami

Kakani, Nepal

Thomas Kelly > A young sadhu reads holy scriptures near the fire. Worship is part of daily life.
Some sadhus chant powerful mantras. The Gayatri Mantra is one of several mantras which are sacred incantations or mystical formulas of ancient literature. The Gayatri Mantra was given by Brahma and mentioned in the Rigveda and is named after the consort of Brahma. The goal of the recitation is to attain God realization. Practice can lead the mind into a transcedental union with the deity.

Pashupatinath, Kathmandu, Nepal.

Thomas Kelly > Shaivite sadhu drinks from his human skull bowl. A picture of Shiva can
be seen behind him. Although the practice of taking all of one's food and
drink from a human skull is rare nowadays, certain sadhus, particularly
the Aghori sub-sect, still hold to it as a daily reminder of human mortality
and as a challenge to transcend the duality of life and death. The Aghori
subsect was founded by Brahma Giri, a disciple of Gorakhnath and are
strict followers of Shiva. These ascetics remain naked and often wear a
rosary made of bones around their neck and carry a human skull in the
left hand and a bell in the right hand. Their sectarian tilaka, forehead
mark denotes unity of the Hindu triad.

Pashupatinath, Kathmandu, Nepal

Shaivite sadhu drinks from his human skull bowl. A picture of Shiva can
be seen behind him. Although the practice of taking all of one's food and
drink from a human skull is rare nowadays, certain sadhus, particularly
the Aghori sub-sect, still hold to it as a daily reminder of human mortality
and as a challenge to transcend the duality of life and death. The Aghori
subsect was founded by Brahma Giri, a disciple of Gorakhnath and are
strict followers of Shiva. These ascetics remain naked and often wear a
rosary made of bones around their neck and carry a human skull in the
left hand and a bell in the right hand. Their sectarian tilaka, forehead
mark denotes unity of the Hindu triad.

Pashupatinath, Kathmandu, Nepal