honorable mention
Jesse Vad united states
title
The Nomad Children of Kham
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entry description
Development in China is constant and every part of the country has been witness to massive change in recent years. The rural Kham region of Tibet is no exception. What were small towns and villages less than five years ago are now modernized, restructured, oftentimes booming settlements. The rapid development in Kham has brought with it an influx of non-Tibetan residents and workers which has inevitably had an impact on Tibetan traditions and ways of life. Now, the Tibetan people must adjust and adapt to their continually changing environments. But there is one arena of existence in Kham that has managed to persevere relatively unchanged in the face of the far reaching arms of development: nomadism. Nomad life is central to Tibetan culture in much of the region and in many cases is representative of Tibetan identity in Kham. This is not to say that nomad life hasn't changed over the years. There are far fewer nomad families now than there were in years past and aspects of modernity have influenced nomad life. But, relative to the rest of Kham, nomads have been able to retain their traditions and remain true to their age-old lifestyle. Here, I present a series of images of Tibetan nomad children. These children are the current generation of nomads in Kham and represent an amalgamation of the traditional and modern aspects of life on the edge of an ever-growing society. As they age, some of these children may continue the nomad traditions and some may abandon it, the future of Tibetan nomad culture is uncertain. Regardless, these youth illustrate the current state of nomad life in Kham. Images were taken in July, 2018.about the photographer
Jesse Vad is a teacher and amateur photographer based out of New Orleans, LA. He is passionate about exploring the world in order to use photography as a storytelling tool.back to gallery