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Remi Benali: The Khampa Horsemen

Photograph © Remi Benali-All Rights Reserved
Here's a presentation of photographs by Remi Benali, a photojournalist and travel photographer from France, on The Khampa Horsemen of Tibet.

The Khampas are the inhabitants of the Kham region,the eastern third of Tibet. Marco Polo described the Kham as "thieves and caravan raiders practicing all sorts of magic". Many of them adhere to their religious and cultural traditions. The Khampas' spectacular Yagi Summer Festival is held in Litang, in China's western Sichuan province, one county over from Tibet proper. Tibetans make up 90 percent of the people who live in Litang. The NPR website has further background (including some audio) on the Khampa Horsemen and the festival.

Remi Benali worked with the photo agency Gamma for twelve years and has been working independently since 2002 and currently lives in Provence. His journeys have led him to 70 countries--from the North Pole to the Sahara Desert and the remote jungles of Sumatra to Indian rituals in the Andes mountains. Specialized in travel photography, his personal work celebrates the living remnants of a vanishing past, with a focus on rituals and traditions, tribal cultures and UNESCO World Heritage sites.