Derek Boniecki

July 10, 2007

India - North

Derek Boniecki

July 10, 2007

Personal space - non existent at the New Delhi fort

New Delhi main railway station - a fascinating cross road of Indian cultures and people

This kid had amazing European features with blue eyes

At the animal market in New Delhi - very easy going people

Matura is full of fascinating people - pilgrims and wanderers

Hard life - this can not be good for you…

Street food in Matura, not the healthiest but very cheap

Derek Boniecki

July 1, 2007

Zanskar Ladakh Traverse in India

Derek Boniecki

July 1, 2007

The road from Manali to Dacha - our starting point

On the way to Lakung, descent from Shingo La with Mt. Guburajon 5, 320m behind

Descent from Shingo La not he way to Lakung

Lakung Village, the first village after Shingo La. Mt. Gumburajon 5,320m dominates the horizon.

Lakung Village with Mt. Guburajon on the horizon.

The incredible Phuktal Gompa where we spent the night.

The Phuktal Gompa is literally built into the mountain.

The fields around Karsha from Karsha Monastery.

The view from Hanuma La 4,724m with Lingshed below.

The view of Lingshed Monastery from Hanuma La 4,724m

Descent from Hanuma La 4,724m to Lingshed.

Singge La 5,009m looking towards Photoksar Village

Road construction between Hannupatta and Phengila

Derek Boniecki

June 1, 2007

Uzbekistan - The Heart of the Silk Road

Derek Boniecki

June 1, 2007

We flew from Tashkient to Khiva, took a car from Khiva to Bukhara, a train from Bukhara to Samarkand and a traimn again from Samarkand back to Tashkient.

Derek Boniecki

January 18, 2007

Mali - Timbuktu and Djenne

Derek Boniecki

January 18, 2007

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M. Cocheteaux, the French Resident Administrator of the Mopti region, directed the construction of the Great Mosque in 1935. This new mosque was built on the site of a previous one dating from 1908. He is credited with its design as well, basing his efforts on the Great Mosque of Djenne, which had been reconstructed about thirty years earlier. Imitating this "Sudanese" style was a priority for Cocheteaux, but his design is significantly more vertical and symmetrical than Djenne and other regional mosques. The Resident Administrator was also keenly aware of the tourist experience of approaching and viewing the Mosque. Cocheteaux even built two nearly identical facades with this in mind, maintaining the mosque's orientation towards Mecca and its position in the urban environment while creating dramatic views from the city and the river.

The Great Mosque of Djenné is the greatest achievement of Sudano-Sahelian architecture (Sudano-Sahelian refers to the Sudanian and Sahel grassland of West Africa). It is also the largest mud-built structure in the world. Djenné was founded between 800 and 1250 C.E., and it flourished as a great center of commerce, learning, and Islam, which had been practiced from the beginning of the 13th century. Soon thereafter, the Great Mosque became one of the most important buildings in town primarily because it became a political symbol for local residents and for colonial powers like the French who took control of Mali in 1892. Over the centuries, the Great Mosque has become the epicenter of the religious and cultural life of Mali, and the community of Djenné. It is also the site of a unique annual festival called the Crepissage de la Grand Mosquée (Plastering of the Great Mosque).

The Great Mosque that we see today is its third reconstruction, completed in 1907. According to legend, the original Great Mosque was probably erected in the 13th century, when King Koi Konboro—Djenné’s twenty-sixth ruler and its first Muslim sultan (king)—decided to use local materials and traditional design techniques to build a place of Muslim worship in town. King Konboro’s successors and the town’s rulers added two towers to the mosque and surrounded the main building with a wall. The mosque compound continued to expand over the centuries, and by the 16th century, popular accounts claimed half of Djenné’s population could fit in the mosque’s galleries.

At the top of the pillars are conical extensions with ostrich eggs placed at the very top—symbol of fertility and purity in the Malian region. Timber beams throughout the exterior are both decorative and structural. These elements also function as scaffolding for the re-plastering of the mosque during the annual festival of the Crepissage. Compared to images and descriptions of the previous buildings, the present Great Mosque includes several innovations such as a special court reserved for women and a principal entrance with earthen pillars, that signal the graves of two local religious leaders.

The entry into the Djenne Mosque is forbidden for non Muslims. However, for 500CFA Cadieux we were granted access. Unfortunately half way through our tour, the imam made an appearance and we had to run for our lives not to be scolded or worst.

The inner courtyard of the great mosque of Djenne

Luck for us, we were in Djenne on the market day. It was a busy place with many people hiking in from surrounding villages.

Kola nuts are the currency of the Sahel. Kola nuts are used as a religious object and sacred offering during prayers, ancestor veneration, and significant life events, such as naming ceremonies, weddings, and funerals. They were used as a form of … — Kola nuts are the currency of the Sahel. Kola nuts are used as a religious object and sacred offering during prayers, ancestor veneration, and significant life events, such as naming ceremonies, weddings, and funerals. They were used as a form of currency in such West African groups as the Malinke and Bambara of Mali and Senegal. They are still used as such today in certain situations such as in negotiation over bride prices or as a form of a respect or host gift to the elders of a village should one move to a village or enter a business arrangement with the village.

The Djenné Manuscript Library is housed in a handsome two-storey traditional Djenné mud building just to the south of the Great Mosque. It was built in 2006 with the support of the European Community Fund and the Embassy of the United States o… — The Djenné Manuscript Library is housed in a handsome two-storey traditional Djenné mud building just to the south of the Great Mosque. It was built in 2006 with the support of the European Community Fund and the Embassy of the United States of America. In 2007, a management committee made up of notable Djenné residents was put in place; their task was to ensure that the library remained the property of the whole population of Djenné, and continued to provide a safe repository for the manuscripts from private family collections. The deposited manuscripts remained the property of their owners. The library is therefore a public space housing private collections: an original model, entirely different from that of Timbuktu which has in the region of fifty small separate private family libraries which are housed in the individual homes of the collectors.

Mount Hombori, the highest point in Mali

Preparing for the evening prayer. Sahara desert near Timbuktu.

Timbuktu - town square. Djingareyber mosque main minaret is behind.

Located at the gateway to the Sahara desert, within the confines of the fertile zone of the Sudan and in an exceptionally propitious site near to the river, Timbuktu is one of the cities of Africa whose name is the most heavily charged with history.

Founded in the 5th century, the economic and cultural apogee of Timbuktu came about during the15th and 16th centuries. It was an important centre for the diffusion of Islamic culture with the University of Sankore, with 180 Koranic schools and 25,000 students. It was also a crossroads and an important market place where the trading of manuscripts was negotiated, and salt from Teghaza in the north, gold was sold, and cattle and grain from the south.

The Djingareyber Mosque, the initial construction of which dates back to Sultan Kankan Moussa, returning from a pilgrimage to Mecca, was rebuilt and enlarged between 1570 and 1583 by the Imam Al Aqib, the Qadi of Timbuktu, who added all the southern part and the wall surrounding the cemetery located to the west. The central minaret dominates the city and is one of the most visible landmarks of the urban landscape of Timbuktu.

Built in the 14th century, the Sankore Mosque was, like the Djingareyber Mosque, restored by the Imam Al Aqib between 1578 and 1582. He had the sanctuary demolished and rebuilt according to the dimensions of the Kaaba of the Mecca.

The Sidi Yahia Mosque, to the south of the Sankore Mosque, was built around 1400 by the marabout Sheik El Moktar Hamalla in anticipation of a holy man who appeared forty years later in the person of Cherif Sidi Yahia, who was then chosen as Imam. The mosque was restored in 1577-1578 by the Imam Al Aqib.

The three big Mosques of Djingareyber, Sankore and Sidi Yahia, sixteen mausoleums and holy public places, still bear witness to this prestigious past. The mosques are exceptional examples of earthen architecture and of traditional maintenance techniques, which continue to the present time.

The Djinguereber Mosque is a famous learning center of Mali built in 1327, and cited as Djingareyber or Djingarey Ber in various languages. Its design is accredited to Abu Es Haq es Saheli who was paid 200 kg (40,000 mithqals) of gold by Musa I of Mali, emperor of the Mali Empire. According to Ibn Khaldun, one of the best known sources for 14th century Mali, al-Sahili was given 12,000 mithkals of gold dust for his designing and building of the djinguereber in Timbuktu.

Derek Boniecki

January 11, 2007

Mali - The Niger River

Derek Boniecki

January 11, 2007

Derek Boniecki

January 1, 2007

Mali - Dogon Country

Derek Boniecki

January 1, 2007

The principal Dogon area is bisected by the Bandiagara Escarpment, a sandstone cliff of up to 500 m (1,640.42 ft) high, stretching about 150 km (90 miles). To the southeast of the cliff, the sandy Séno-Gondo Plains are found, and northwest of the cliff are the Bandiagara Highlands. Historically, Dogon villages were established in the Bandiagara area a thousand years ago because the people collectively refused to convert to Islam and retreated from areas controlled by Muslims.

Dogon insecurity in the face of these historical pressures caused them to locate their villages in defensible positions along the walls of the escarpment. The other factor influencing their choice of settlement location was access to water. The Niger River is nearby and in the sandstone rock, a rivulet runs at the foot of the cliff at the lowest point of the area during the wet season.

Among the Dogon, several oral traditions have been recorded as to their origin. One relates to their coming from Mande, located to the southwest of the Bandiagara escarpment near Bamako. According to this oral tradition, the first Dogon settlement was established in the extreme southwest of the escarpment at Kani-Na.

Celebration of Tabaski in Kani Kombole on Dec 31

We travelled on an ox cart from village to village

Villages are built along escarpments and near a source of water. On average, a village contains around 44 houses organized around the 'ginna', or head man's house. Each village is composed of one main lineage (occasionally, multiple lineages make up a single village) traced through the male line. Houses are built extremely close together, many times sharing walls and floors.

Dogon villages have different buildings:

Male granary: storage place for pearl millet and other grains. Building with a pointed roof. This building is well protected from mice. The amount of filled male granaries is an indication for the size and the richness of a guinna.
Female granary: storage place for a woman's things, her husband has no access. Building with a pointed roof. It looks like a male granary but is less protected against mice. Here, she stores her personal belongings such as clothes, jewelry, money and some food. A woman has a degree of economic independence, and earnings and things related to her merchandise are stored in her personal granary. She can for example make cotton or pottery. The number of female granaries is an indication for the number of women living in the guinna.
Tógu nà (a kind of case à palabres): a building only for men. They rest here much of the day throughout the heat of the dry season, discuss affairs and take important decisions in the toguna. The roof of a toguna is made by 8 layers of millet stalks. It is a low building in which one cannot stand upright. This helps with avoiding violence when discussions get heated.
Punulu (a house for menstruating women): this house is on the outside of the village. It is constructed by women and is of lower quality than the other village buildings. Women having their period are considered to be unclean and have to leave their family house to live during five days in this house. They use kitchen equipment only to be used here. They bring with them their youngest children. This house is a gathering place for women during the evening. This hut is also thought to have some sort of reproductive symbolism due to the fact that the hut can be easily seen by the men who are working the fields who know that only women who are on their period, and thus not pregnant, can be there.

During the eleventh century, a hunter-gatherer group known as the Tellem constructed dwellings high on the cliff face as protection from raiders and hostile neighbors. Along with occupying caves on the escarpment face, the Tellem built cylindrical granaries in shallow recesses of the rock. Possibly as a result of conflict with the Dogon and neighboring groups, the Tellem---described by the Dogon as “the ones we found”---abandoned the escarpment sometime in the 1800s, leaving behind pottery, baskets, leather bags used to carry water, jewelry, and other items.

A goat being prepared for the celebration of Tabaski

Tógu nà (a kind of case à palabres): a building only for men. They rest here much of the day throughout the heat of the dry season, discuss affairs and take important decisions in the toguna. The roof of a toguna is made by 8 layers of millet stalks… — *Tógu nà* (a kind of *case à palabres*): a building only for men. They rest here much of the day throughout the heat of the dry season, discuss affairs and take important decisions in the toguna. The roof of a toguna is made by 8 layers of millet stalks. It is a low building in which one cannot stand upright. This helps with avoiding violence when discussions get heated.

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