Dunhuang, Gansu Province, P.R. China
In August of 2002, Tangchun Wu, Robert and Antoine Tanguay and I traveled to the far west of China. We flew from Beijing to Urumqi to Kashgar, where we spent a week. We took a day trip west of Kashgar along the Karakoram Highway, which follows one of the ancient silk roads. Then we made our way back east to Urumqi and then Dunhuang. We checked into the Silk Road Dunhuang Hotel near the Mingsha Sand Dunes and Crescent lake, and using this city as a base, we visited the Mogoa Caves and the fort at Jiayuguan. The photos in this gallery are from our unforgettable visit. Later we boarded a train for Lanzhou.
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Kyoto, Japan
In the fall of 2009, I visited Kyoto, Japan. One of my destinations was the Kiomizudera, Pure Water Temple, a Kyoto landmark. A crowd of tourists and visitors packed the square in front of the temple steps. In the midst of this throng was a very calm Shinto Monk holding out his begging bowl. He was the only person I saw wearing straw sandals that day. I later learned that some Buddhist monks and priests still wear straw sandals. See the NPR story entitled “Monks Enlightenment Begins with a Marathon Walk”. Mitsunaga walked a total distance equal to the circumference of the Earth wearing straw sandals!
The gallery below contains images taken by me and my travel companion and photographer Robert M. Tanguay. My Straw Sandals Project illustrator, Zanna Aristarhova, based her original pencil drawing on the image preceding her drawing in the gallery below.
