Photographs from the Field

These old men live in southwestern Gansu Province. They are members of the Dongxiang minority group. The Dongxiang are Muslims, quite similar to Hui in most ways. They are said to be descendants of one of Genghis Khan's military outposts in China, and to speak a kind of Mongolian-Chinese creole. These two men live in an extremely arid and eroded mountain environment. I interviewed them in 1995 as part of a World Bank poverty relief project.

These are villagers in a small valley of the Shule River in northwestern Gansu. They live at the edge of the Gobi desert. The village is fairly prosperous because of the water, although it is also in a very remote spot near the old silk route. They will be moved as a result of dam construction. This was also taken as part of a World Bank mission in 1995. I never knew why the police were there.

These are minor gods from Taiwan. The one on the right is the Mountain God (soa: sin), who is guarding the entrance to Sanxia's Co Su Kong temple during a major annual ritual in 1978. He is made of paper and will be burnt after the ceremony is over. The one on the left is a costume worn in religious parades (here shown resting under a tree). He is part of a pair--the other one is short and black. Like many minor deities he died violently. In his case he committed suicide by hanging himself (thus the long tongue, which waggles as he walks) in remorse for letting his short friend drown when he was late for an appointment.

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