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<h2>Joe Englander Photography Workshops and Photo Tours</h2>
<h2>
Bhutan Photo Tour</h2>
<h3>Himalayan Kingdom of the Clouds</h3><p>Bhutan is what people imagine Tibet to be. The best of Bhutan represents the last unspoiled remnants of the quickly disappearing Himalayan culture and environment. The culture of Himalayan Buddhism, not only as a religion but as a unified way of life, inspires calm, openness, warmth, and happiness on the part of its people, making it a delight to be among them and a privilege to photograph there. Villages are centered around temples where paintings,
carvings, mandalas, and religious scrolls gleam within dim, incense-filled rooms, where the hypnotic chanting of monks murmurs through balconied courtyards.</p>
<h2>Harvest Festivals</h2>
<p>This will be a photographic and cultural tour of a remote and wonderful dreamland that its own people call Kingdom of the Clouds. One of the most remote cultural islands in the world, the kingdom of Bhutan has only allowed
2,500 foreign visitors into their country each year. Road building was prohibited by law until the 60s; foreigners were not admitted until the 70s. In many ways conditions are still the same: One main road is in a constant
state of construction; the number of foreigners admitted is still restricted but now mainly due to the lack of accommodations. Both lack of access and restricted access have allowed this tiny country to maintain its traditional
identity. This is the last of the Himalayan Buddhist countries. The entire country is an "endangered species." Unlike neighboring Nepal, which is littered with the detritus of tourists and trekkers, by limiting access and
clinging to traditional values the Bhutanese have, to a large extent, managed to preserve the model of Shangri La that their country embodies. The recent introduction of TV, the Internet, and cell phones are quickly
changing Bhutan! Its unique photographic opportunities will not last much longer. The capital city of Thimphu already has motorized traffic congestion, while in the eastern part of the country where until recently motorized traffic was almost non-existent, is becoming thick with SUVs. Cell phone service already exceeds the quality of that in the USA.</p>
<p>Our trip will encompass unique festivals with colorful handmade masks, complicated dances, and beautifully embroidered silk robes. Religious festivals such as those we will visit are the only moments of rest and
celebration punctuating the agricultural calendar year. With 90 percent of the population engaged in agriculture, Bhutan remains a rural country almost devoid of industry and mechanization. The beauty of the pastoral landscape can seem unreal to travelers from the industrialized world: houses with brightly decorated window frames and shingled roofs, patchworks of green and
golden paddy fields, plots of tawny buckwheat, oak forests, covered bridges, fences of intricately woven bamboo, a man leaning on a wooden rail trampling his harvest, a woman weaving in the open air, a baby laced into a horse's saddle bag, yaks browsing in a grove of giant rhododendron, and colorful prayer flags everywhere. We will photograph the people and their elaborate Dzongs, hand-built multi-story houses, terraced hillsides, and
mountains—this is the Himalayas, after all.</p>
<p>While most tourists go no further than the airport city of Paro or at most the nearby capital, Thimphu, we will travel to far more remote areas requiring special government permits. Our trip is planned to
encompass TWO traditional and completely authentic masked-dance festivals. Although we will be welcomed guests, these festivals are held for the people themselves; they are not pow-wows put on for tourists. This is the real deal.</p>
<p>This will not be a trek. We will not stay in tents. Nor will it be a race across the entire country; the roads are arduous. Distances are measured in switchbacks and time, not miles; sometimes traveling only 100 kilometers can
require an entire day.</p>
<p>You don't need to be athletic, but you need to be able to carry your own cameras and walk through markets and villages where there may not be roads. Where there are roads, we will travel by small motorbus and stay in government-approved hotels, resorts, or guesthouses. During my previous trips, the average amount of film exposed was 100 rolls per person, more recently 160 GB! The place is, in Jeff Lava's words, "a Disneyland for
photographers," a photographer's paradise, a photograph at every turn at every moment. The level of photographic skill required is minimum, the level of interest and enthusiasm maximum.</p>
<p>Rather than spending all our time bouncing on a bus, we will stay at each of
several locations for several days, using Thimphu, Wangdi, and Bumthang as our bases of operations. We'll tour the towns, villages, and areas around them: Paro, Punakha, Trongsa, Jakar, the Tang Valley, and Ura. Some of the villages we will visit are very small. Rather than overwhelm the inhabitants with a large number of invaders, our group, too, will be unusually small.
Small groups are a requisite for great images on a tour like this.</p>
<p>Once in Bhutan, our trip will be the best possible in an emerging country. Almost all of your expenses—meals, transportation, lodging, translators, guides, the government's daily tariff, etc.—are covered. Dates are
"in-country" and do not include days for international transportation to
Bangkok.</p><hr>
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