Living Legends
The loss of roots means the loss of cultures that flower from those roots.
Cultural Crossroads Asia celebrates the Wisdom-Keepers, past and present, who serve as the living links in an unbroken chain of collective knowledge that has provided guidance from the first ancestors to the present generation on living in balance with others, with spirits, with nature.
In cultures that continue to practice oral tradition, valuing the ear above the eye, spiritual intermediaries, ritual specialists, headmen, wise elders, musicians, master craftsmen, and villagers embody a vast repository of everything a people needs to know about their world—their origins, history, sacred beliefs, life lessons, survival skills, arts, and sacred ceremonies.
Whether from shaman to apprentice, father to son, or mother to daughter, or from documentarian to the wider ethnic diaspora, students and educators, or international followers, these men and women bring to life the voices of knowing ancestors. And very importantly, they represent the protective shield that staves the loss of thousands of years of wisdom. May the lore and lyrics of these Living, Legendary Cultural Guardians endure.
To meet CCA’s Living Legends, our Cultural Heroes, please click on their images.
Tria Lee
(Rhiav Lis)
White Hmong Shaman
Laos
Chebeu
Huli Pulai Akha Shaman
Laos
Apa Ayi
(Arpaq Arnyi)
Ulo Akha Shaman, Musician
Thailand
Miju Manpo
(Miqjur Manqpov)
Pawmee Akha Musician
Thailand
Richard Diran
with Daw Aung Saan Suu Kyi
Photographer, Author
The Vanishing Tribes of Burma
