Mojotrotters » Sounds

Inside an Indian Ashram

Bianca M. Saia — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 18:44:02 +0000

How’s this for a holiday: getting up before sunrise, no alcohol, and wearing modest, unremarkable clothing. This is what hundreds come to do at an ashram in the south of India.

Every year, they come, mostly young Western women, to medicate, practice yoga, and follow an acetic lifestyle. I spent 12 days at the Yoga Vacation of the ashram Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Dhanwantari, whose founder, Swami Vishnudevananda, had the mission of popularize the practice in the West.

Listen to the report.

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A funeral in Papua New Guinea

Bianca M. Saia — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 05:25:53 +0000

When someone dies Highlands of PNG, the village gathers for days in collective mourning, called a haus krai. To attend a funeral, where the bereaved wail loudly and publicly, is a journey that tries one’s body and emotions. That’s what we learned when we were invited to grieve for a man that was recently beheaded. Listen to the report.

The sound of Fiji’s music

Roberto Rocha — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 08:13:28 +0000

We were seduced by Fiji’s music the moment we first heard it: rich harmonies, soulful singing, simple melodies.

Here’s an interview with musicians from the White Sandy Beach Lodge in Fiji’s Naviti Island.

Interviewing Kesaia Stark of the White Sandy Beach Lodge in Naviti Island