Saturday, August 26, 2017
     10 a.m. Refreshments 10:30 a.m. Program

      Festivals, Fairs & Rituals:
      Textiles, Costumes and Carpets
        of the Eastern Grasslands of Tibet

with

Cheri Hunter
              Photographer, Writer and TMA Program Chairman
Los Angeles
 

          East of the official Tibetan Autonomous Region, Kham and Amdo are remote, culturally Tibetan districts in China. The landscape consists of snowy peaks and rolling grasslands on the Tibetan Plateau, where nomadic peoples have maintained grazing cultures with sheep and yaks for centuries. Just as at American county fairs and rodeos with cowboys, the Tibetans love to come together for colorful annual festivals and wild horsemanship competitions. Tibetan Buddhist culture, which appears in large regional as well as in smaller local monasteries throughout the grasslands, and which is often mixed with the local animistic shamanic practices, also presents opportunities for seasonal celebrations. In 2006, Cheri Hunter traveled in a group with 4-wheel drive vehicles, photographing these festivals and rituals; her article and photo spread was originally published in HALI magazine (Issue 154.) Although she is not an expert in this area, she will present a photo talk which will emphasize both the local and imported textiles and rugs in use throughout the grasslands, as well as the shaman festivals and horse fairs, where the participants, including the horses, are wearing their best.

 A charter member of TMA/SC, past President and current Program Chairman, Cheri Hunter has organized more than 225 speaker programs for TMA/SC. She is a graduate of UCLA in art and cinema, and was a career film editor in Hollywood for nearly thirty years, which entailed evaluating, selecting and organizing images shot by world-class cinematographers on a daily basis. She has been an avid still photographer since her teens, and since then has focused mostly on adventure travel photography while enjoying rug and textile "culture" and textile-oriented world travel. Cheri has written many articles with photospreads for HALI magazine, including on her travels in Morocco, Laos, Tibet, Syria, Thailand, Turkey and most recently, Iran. Please note that this program does not purport to be a scholarly presentation, but is a cultural travelogue, with an emphasis on textiles, costumes and rugs. She invites TMA members to bring examples of Tibetan rugs and textiles for show & tell.


.                         Luther Hall, Lower Level      St. Bede’s Episcopal Church
                                3590 Grand View Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90066-1904
Just south of the10 freeway, and west of the 405, near the intersection of Centinela and Palms                                                                  Free parking.

                              Admission: TMA/SC Members Gratis . . . . . Guests $10