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Bhutan Material World Revisit

58 images Created 28 Mar 2013

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  • From coverage of revisit to Material World Project family in Bhutan, 2001. Nalim and Namgay's family, with whatever new possessions they have acquired since the shooting of the photograph of the family with all of its possessions for the 1994 book Material World: A Global Family Portrait.
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  • Traditional three-story houses built of rammed earth in the hillside village of Shingkhey, Bhutan. Nalim and Namgay's house is center, top. Their neighbor (to the right) is building a new house for his family directly in front of the old one. Carpenters from another village build the wooden structures such as doorways, rafters, windows, and lintels. From coverage of revisit to Material World Project family in Bhutan, 2001.
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  • Namgay with his daughter Zekom, right, and his granddaughter Choeden and baby grandson Wangchuck in the kitchen of their home in Shingkhey, Bhutan. From coverage of revisit to Material World Project family in Bhutan, 2001.
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  • Bhu.mw2.6.xs.A portrait of Namgay, 57, family patriarch of the Material World family, in Shingkhey, Bhutan. From coverage of revisit to Material World Project family in Bhutan, 2001.
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  • The caretaker of the Shingkhey village Buddhist temple blows a conch shell at the temple window at nightfall, a ritual to ward off evil spirits in the village. From coverage of revisit to Material World Project family in Bhutan, 2001.
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  • Electricity comes to the Bhutanese village of Shingkhey in 2001. There is an electricity usage meter mounted on the earthen wall of Nalim and Namgay's house in the village.
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  • Electricity comes to the Bhutanese village of Shingkhey in 2001. A district dignitary participates in the celebration of the coming of electricity to Shingkhey Village, Bhutan. From coverage of revisit to Material World Project family in Bhutan, 2001.
    Bhu_mw2_47_xs.jpg
  • Electricity comes to the Bhutanese village of Shingkhey in 2001. Dancers help celebrate the coming of electricity to Shingkhey Village, Bhutan.
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  • Nalim and Namgay's grandson, Geltshin, watches a wood worker cutting traditional shapes into a piece of wood for a new Bhutanese house. The carpenters, from another village, have set up camp and live at the work site while they do the woodwork for a new house in the village of Shingkhey, Bhutan. Traditional three-story houses built of rammed earth dot the hillside village of Shingkhey, Bhutan. Nalim and Namgay's neighbor is building a new house for his family directly in front of his old one. Carpenters from another village build the wooden structures such as doorways, rafters, windows, and lintels. Villagers from each family come to help pound the dirt into wooden forms day after day, creating the walls of the earthen house. From coverage of revisit to Material World Project family in Bhutan, 2001.
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  • Market in Wangdi Phodrang From coverage of revisit to Material World Project family in Bhutan, 2001.
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  • Prayer flags above the town and district center of Wangdi Phodrang. Buddhist prayers are imprinted onto flags that are attached to tall hand hewn poles. The prayers are said to disperse into the winds for the protection of people living or dead. Some are wind flags, which are erected on mountaintops and hillsides for personal wishes on behalf of the erector. Others are prayer flags, which are erected by families to cleanse the sins of their deceased family members. From coverage of revisit to Material World Project family in Bhutan, 2001.
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  • The most esteemed sport in Bhutan is archery and is practiced by young and old. Nalim and Namgay's grandson Chato Geltshin practices the Bhutanese national pastime in his village of Shingkhey, Bhutan From coverage of revisit to Material World Project family in Bhutan, 2001.
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  • View of Trashi Chhoe Dzong in Bhutan's capital city of Thimphu. From coverage of revisit to Material World Project family in Bhutan, 2001. The Dzong?or fortress?is one of many in the country that historically provided sanctuary for the country's people during war and strife. Trashi Chhoe Dzong was rebuilt when the country capital was moved to Thimphu in the early 1960's. Architecture. From coverage of revisit to Material World Project family in Bhutan, 2001.
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  • Young Buddhist monks read holy scripts aloud at the Gangte Goemba (monastery) in Phobjikha Valley, Bhutan. The monastery dates back to the 1600's and includes one of the largest prayer halls in the tiny Himalayan country and a meditation center for monks. The government financed the building of a Buddhist college here in the 1980's.
    Bhu_mw2_134_xs.jpg
  • A young Buddhist monk reads holy scripts aloud at the Gangte Goemba (monastery) in Phobjikha Valley, Bhutan. The monastery dates back to the 1600's and includes one of the largest prayer halls in the country and a meditation center for monks. The government financed the building of a Buddhist college here in the 1980's.
    Bhu_mw2_135_xs.jpg
  • Young Buddhist monks read holy scripts aloud at the Gangte Goemba (monastery) in Phobjikha Valley, Bhutan. The monastery dates back to the 1600's and includes one of the largest prayer halls in the country and a meditation center for monks. The government financed the building of a Buddhist college here in the 1980's.
    Bhu_mw2_148_xs.jpg
  • Young Buddhist monks read holy scripts aloud at the Gangte Goemba (monastery) in Phobjikha Valley, Bhutan. The monastery dates back to the 1600's and includes one of the largest prayer halls in the country and a meditation center for monks. The government financed the building of a Buddhist college here in the 1980's.
    Bhu_mw2_146_xs.jpg
  • The interior of Jakar Dzong, east central Bhutan. The Dzong?or fortress?is one of many in the country that historically provided sanctuary for the country's people during war and strife. Today they are used as administrative offices for government and housing for Buddhist monks. Architecture. From coverage of revisit to Material World Project family in Bhutan, 2001.
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  • Prayer wheels at the entrance of Jambey Khakhang are filled with prayers, which are said as the wheels are spun by observant Buddhist visitors.
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  • Typical fertility painting on the wall of a house in Jakar, east central Bhutan. Architecture. From coverage of revisit to Material World Project family in Bhutan, 2001.
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  • Buddhist prayer flags flutter over pedestrians crossing the Bumthang Chhu (river) on a frosty late winter morning in Jakar in Bumthang District, eastern central Bhutan. From coverage of revisit to Material World Project family in Bhutan, 2001.
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  • The exuberant young son of a yak herder suddenly appears roadside in the Phobjikha Valley [some call it the Gangte Valley] basin, Bhutan. The government and international conservation groups protect the valley because of its winter population of endangered black-necked cranes. From coverage of revisit to Material World 1994 book Project family in Bhutan, 2001.
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  • Electricity comes to the Bhutanese village of Shingkhey in 2001. The view of Namgay and Nalim's house lit with electricity for the first time, Shingkhey, Bhutan. Now, even the cows have a nightlight.
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  • Well-worn and water damaged copy of Material World: A Global Family Portrait that was given (new) to Nalim and Namgay's family after it was published in 1994. From coverage of revisit to Material World Project family in Bhutan, 2001.
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  • Trongsa Dzong in central Bhutan, originally built in 1644, is the seat of power for the future monarch, who begins his rise to power as the governor of the Trongsa district. The Dzong?or fortress?is one of many in the country that historically provided sanctuary for the country's people during war and strife. From coverage of revisit to Material World Project family in Bhutan, 2001. Architecture. From coverage of revisit to Material World Project family in Bhutan, 2001.
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  • Phobjikha Valley [some call it the Gangte Valley] basin, Bhutan. The government and international conservation groups protect the valley because of its winter population of endangered species of black-necked cranes. From coverage of revisit to Material World Project family in Bhutan, 2001.
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  • Truck accident. There is no room for mistakes on the winding narrow one lane "highway" that traverses the Himalayan country of Bhutan. It is used most frequently by large trucks hauling goods and people. The driver here was fortunate that the truck didn't plunge down the mountainside from this section of road between the airport town of Paro and the national capital Thimphu. From coverage of revisit to Material World Project family in Bhutan, 2001.
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  • Young girls in Jakar Village, east central Bhutan, are wearing the female Bhutanese national dress, called a kira, with a traditional over-jacket. The King of Bhutan has decreed that adults must wear the country's traditional dress.  From coverage of revisit to Material World Project family in Bhutan, 2001. .
    Bhu_mw2_153_xs.jpg
  • Buddhist prayers imprinted onto flags that are attached to tall hand hewn poles are said to disperse into the winds for the protection of people living or dead. (Those seen here are in the Ura Valley, east central Bhutan). Some are wind flags, which are erected on mountaintops and hillsides for personal wishes on behalf of the erector. Others are prayer flags, which are erected by families to cleanse the sins of their deceased family member. From coverage of revisit to Material World Project family in Bhutan, 2001.
    Bhu_mw2_87_xs.jpg
  • In the past, weavers of the Ura Valley village of Ura traded weavings for food to supplement the limited crops that would grow in the subsistence farmer's poor soil. Today, they might just as well be selling the weavings to a wholesaler or a passerby for currency to purchase the foods they need. The village has electricity now, powered by a hydroelectric plant. Work.  From coverage of revisit to Material World Project family in Bhutan, 2001.
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  • A visitor spins one prayer wheel then moves to another until all four in an entry at Jambey Khakhang are spinning. The spinning cylinders are filled with prayers, which are ?said? as the wheel turns. Bumthang Valley, Bhutan. From coverage of revisit to Material World Project family in Bhutan, 2001.
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  • Gangte Goemba (Monastery) in Phobjikha Valley, Bhutan. Young Buddhist monks practice reading holy scripts aloud in an entryway. The monastery dates back to the 1600's and includes one of the largest prayer halls in the tiny Himalayan country and a meditation center for monks. The government financed the building of a Buddhist college here in the 1980's. From coverage of revisit to Material World Project family in Bhutan, 2001.
    Bhu_mw2_133_xs.jpg
  • Photograph of Nalim and Namgay's family with one week's worth of food constructed for the book Hungry Planet: What the World Eats. From coverage of revisit to Material World Project family in Bhutan, 2001.
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  • Bhu.mw2.47.xs.Electricity comes to the Bhutanese village of Shingkhey in 2001. A district dignitary participates in the celebration of the coming of electricity to Shingkhey Village, Bhutan. From coverage of revisit to Material World Project family in Bhutan, 2001. .{{See also: Bhu.mw2.51.xs. Now, even the cows have a nightlight. The celebration of electricity coming to Shingkhey Village included local dignitaries from the government, the local lama, speeches, dancing, and special food. There is an electricity usage meter outside of the earthen house, mounted on the wall. We saw the counter move from zero onward and wondered how they will pay for the electricity use that we watch being monitored on the rammed earth house. The first night of electricity, the family slept with bare light bulbs burning over their heads; even the cows has an illuminated stall. Though the government will charge rural families less than more affluent town residents, it is unknown how the Material World family of Nalim and Namgay will pay for the electric bill or the light bulbs for the fixtures, as they don't know themselves. Central portrait of family with all possessions from original Material World 1994 book project is named Bhu.mw.01.xxs.}}
    Re-visiting Bhu_mw2_47_xs copy.jpg
  • Bhu.mw2.35.xs.The exuberant young son of a yak herder suddenly appears roadside in the Phobjikha Valley [some call it the Gangte Valley] basin, Bhutan. The government and international conservation groups protect the valley because of its winter population of endangered black-necked cranes. Children, Child. {{From coverage of revisit to Material World 1994 book Project family in Bhutan, 2001.}}.
    Re-visiting Bhu_mw2_35_xs.jpg
  • The Namgay family's 3-legged cow by their 3-story rammed-earth home. (Supporting image from the project Hungry Planet: What the World Eats.) The Namgay family living in the remote mountain village of Shingkhey, Bhutan, is one of the thirty families featured, with a weeks' worth of food, in the book Hungry Planet: What the World Eats.
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  • (MODEL RELEASED IMAGE). Nalim, 53, family matriarch and wife of Namgay. (Supporting image from the project Hungry Planet: What the World Eats.) Her teeth are discolored from years of chewing betal nut. The Namgay family living in the remote mountain village of Shingkhey, Bhutan, is one of the thirty families featured, with a weeks' worth of food, in the book Hungry Planet: What the World Eats.
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  • Namgay's guests have their meal in front of the earthen wood-fired cooking stove, inside their three storey rammed earth home. The light bulb hanging from the ceiling is a novelty because it is the first day electricity has come to this remote, mountain village of Shingkhey, Bhutan as well as the surrounding region. (Supporting image from the project Hungry Planet: What the World Eats.) The Namgay family living in the remote mountain village of Shingkhey, Bhutan, is one of the thirty families featured, with a weeks' worth of food, in the book Hungry Planet: What the World Eats.
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  • (MODEL RELEASED IMAGE). Namgay (left, by fire) and his wife Nalim (right, by fire) eat a lunch of red rice and a small cup of cooked vegetables with their family and friends in the kitchen area of their earth-walled house in Shingkhey, a remote village in the mountains of Bhutan. The kitchen and adjoining rooms are often smoky because the cookstove/fireplace is inside the house and doesn't vent to the outside. Nalim says that she would like to build a kitchen in a different building but can't afford it. Hungry Planet: What the World Eats (p. 39).
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  • (MODEL RELEASED IMAGE). Chato Namgay in Shingkhey, Bhutan standing with a lamp inside the prayer room of his family's house. (Supporting image from the project Hungry Planet: What the World Eats.) The Namgay family living in the remote mountain village of Shingkhey, Bhutan, is one of the thirty families featured, with a weeks' worth of food, in the book Hungry Planet: What the World Eats.
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  • (MODEL RELEASED IMAGE). Namgay, a village elder (at left), and Chato Namgay, his 14-yearold monk son (at far right) perform a greeting ceremony with visiting monks in the family prayer room at the beginning of the village electricity celebration. (Supporting image from the project Hungry Planet: What the World Eats.) The Namgay family living in the remote mountain village of Shingkhey, Bhutan, is one of the thirty families featured, with a weeks' worth of food, in the book Hungry Planet: What the World Eats.
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  • On the ledge of their house, Sangay, holding Tandin Wangchuk, watches government workers complete the electrical connections from a new small hydroelectric dam in a neighboring valley. This is the first electricity that has been brought to this region of Bhutan. Hungry Planet: What the World Eats (p. 42). The Namgay family living in the remote mountain village of Shingkhey, Bhutan, is one of the thirty families featured, with a weeks' worth of food, in the book Hungry Planet: What the World Eats.
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  • (MODEL RELEASED IMAGE). As part of the celebration that marks the first electricity to come to this region of Bhutan, Chato Namgay (in red robe) lights the ritual butter lamps on an altar below the transformer on the power pole. Above a photo of the king, a sign reads: "Release of Power Supply to Rural Households Under Wangdi Phodrang Dzon Khag to Commemorate Coronation Silver Jubilee Celebration of His Majesty, King Jigme Singye Wangchuk." (Supporting image from the project Hungry Planet: What the World Eats.) The Namgay family living in the remote mountain village of Shingkhey, Bhutan, is one of the thirty families featured, with a weeks' worth of food, in the book Hungry Planet: What the World Eats.
    BHU01_0036_xf1bs.jpg
  • (MODEL RELEASED IMAGE). Nalim's brother Drupchu (looking out from the doorway) and Sangay (standing behind the electrical worker) watch with wonder and excitement as the first light bulb is being installed in their house. This is part of the first electricity to come to this remote, mountain village of Shingkhey, Bhutan as well as the surrounding region. (Supporting image from the project Hungry Planet: What the World Eats.) The Namgay family living in the remote mountain village of Shingkhey, Bhutan, is one of the thirty families featured, with a weeks' worth of food, in the book Hungry Planet: What the World Eats.
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  • Sitting in lawn chairs under a tent with other guests of honor, a lama takes a swig of Pepsi during the electricity celebration. Chato Namgay (in red robe) has just lit the ritual butter lamps on an altar below the transformer on the power pole. Above a photo of the king, a sign reads: "Release of Power Supply to Rural Households Under Wangdi Phodrang Dzon Khag to Commemorate Coronation Silver Jubilee Celebration of His Majesty, King Jigme Singye Wangchuk." Hungry Planet: What the World Eats (p. 43). The Namgay family living in the remote mountain village of Shingkhey, Bhutan, is one of the thirty families featured, with a weeks' worth of food, in the book Hungry Planet: What the World Eats.
    BHU01_0008_xxf1s.jpg
  • As part of the celebration that marks the first electricity to come to this village in central Bhutan, ritual butter lamps and food offerings on an altar with lightbulbs. (Supporting image from the project Hungry Planet: What the World Eats.) The Namgay family living in the remote mountain village of Shingkhey, Bhutan, is one of the thirty families featured, with a weeks' worth of food, in the book Hungry Planet: What the World Eats.
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  • During a celebration of the first electricity to come to this region of Bhutan, visiting dignitaries join village member Namgay (in gray with blue cuffs at the table) at a buffet of red rice, potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, beef, chicken, and a spicy cheese and chili pepper soup. The villagers have been stockpiling food for the event. (Supporting image from the project Hungry Planet: What the World Eats.) The Namgay family living in the remote mountain village of Shingkhey, Bhutan, is one of the thirty families featured, with a weeks' worth of food, in the book Hungry Planet: What the World Eats.
    BHU01_0037_xf1bs.jpg
  • During a celebration of the first electricity to come to this region of Bhutan, visiting dignitaries join village member Namgay (at the head of the table) at a buffet of red rice, potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, beef, chicken, and a spicy cheese and chili pepper soup. The villagers have been stockpiling food for the event. (Supporting image from the project Hungry Planet: What the World Eats.) The Namgay family living in the remote mountain village of Shingkhey, Bhutan, is one of the thirty families featured, with a weeks' worth of food, in the book Hungry Planet: What the World Eats.
    BHU01_0035_xf1bs.jpg
  • During a celebration of the first electricity to come to this region of Bhutan, visiting dignitaries join village member Namgay (at the head of the table) at a buffet of red rice, potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, beef, chicken, and a spicy cheese and chili pepper soup. The villagers have been stockpiling food for the event. Hungry Planet: What the World Eats (p. 42). The Namgay family living in the remote mountain village of Shingkhey, Bhutan, is one of the thirty families featured, with a weeks' worth of food, in the book Hungry Planet: What the World Eats.
    BHU01_0007_xxf1s.jpg
  • During a celebration of the first electricity to come to this village in Bhutan, visiting dignitaries join village elder Namgay at a buffet of red rice, potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, beef, chicken, and a spicy cheese and chili pepper soup (close-up of table shown here). The villagers have been stockpiling food for the event. (Supporting image from the project Hungry Planet: What the World Eats.) The Namgay family living in the remote mountain village of Shingkhey, Bhutan, is one of the thirty families featured, with a weeks' worth of food, in the book Hungry Planet: What the World Eats.
    BHU01_0039_xf1bs.jpg
  • The day after the electrifying celebration in the village, life returns to normal. Singing as they walk, Bangam (third from the right) joins other village girls in collective women's work: cleaning out the manure from the animal stalls under the houses and spreading it on the fallow fields before the men plow. All wear the traditional kira worn by all Bhutanese women: a rather complicated woven wool wrap dress. Men wear a robelike wrap called a gho. Hungry Planet: What the World Eats (p. 45).  The Namgay family living in the remote mountain village of Shingkhey, Bhutan, is one of the thirty families featured, with a weeks' worth of food, in the book Hungry Planet: What the World Eats.
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  • Nalim (in green jacket) talks to her daughter Bangum about prices before buying dried chili peppers from the vendors who line the wall at the Sunday market in Wangdi Phodrang, Bhutan. The large town is a two-hour walk from Shingkhey village. Nalim and her children and grandchildren walk there and back unless they can hitch a ride on a passing vehicle. (Supporting image from the project Hungry Planet: What the World Eats.) The Namgay family living in the remote mountain village of Shingkhey, Bhutan, is one of the thirty families featured, with a weeks' worth of food, in the book Hungry Planet: What the World Eats.
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  • Young market vendor weighs potatoes for a customer at the Sunday market in Wangdi Phodrang, Bhutan, a two-hour walk from Shingkhey village. (Supporting image from the project Hungry Planet: What the World Eats.) Grocery stores, supermarkets, and hyper and megamarkets all have their roots in village market areas where farmers and vendors would converge once or twice a week to sell their produce and goods. In farming communities, just about everyone had something to trade or sell. Small markets are still the lifeblood of communities in the developing world.
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  • Betel nuts for sale at the Sunday market in Wangdi Phodrang, Bhutan, a two-hour walk from Shingkhey village. Betel nut is a mildly narcotic seed eaten with lime paste and a green leaf. Over time it decays the teeth and dyes the mouth of the user red. Although it's not considered a food, it is a plant item chewed by many all over Asia, and kept in the mouth like chewing tobacco. (Supporting image from the project Hungry Planet: What the World Eats.)
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  • The spit-out remains of a chewed-up betel nut, found at the Sunday market in Wangdi Phodrang, Bhutan. Betel nut is a mildly narcotic seed eaten with lime paste and a green leaf. Over time it decays the teeth and dyes the mouth of the user red. Although it's not considered a food, it is a plant item chewed by many all over Asia, and kept in the mouth like chewing tobacco. (Supporting image from the project Hungry Planet: What the World Eats.)
    BHU01_0027_xf1bs.jpg
  • Young market vendors tend their family's cabbage, tomatoes, and onions in the Sunday market in Wangdi Phodrang, Bhutan, a two-hour walk from Shingkhey village. Hungry Planet: What the World Eats (p. 40). This image is featured alongside the Namgay family images in Hungry Planet: What the World Eats.
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  • Friends and neighbors come to join in a housewarming ceremony for the new rammed earth house behind them, in Gangte, Bhutan. (Supporting image from the project Hungry Planet: What the World Eats.)
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  • Above the municipal market in Bhutan, a shopkeeper's TV satellite dish doubles as a dehydration rack for red chili peppers. Hungry Planet: What the World Eats (p. 41). This image is featured alongside the Namgay family images in Hungry Planet: What the World Eats.
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Peter Menzel Photography

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