This year’s (2002) Smithsonian Folklife Festival on the Mall is the most ambitious ever. It’s theme is “The Silk Road,” featuring the cultures along that famed ancient trade route between the East (China & Central Asia, with extensions to the Indian subcontinent) and the West (Italy and Western Europe), through the Middle East (Turkey, Iran, Iraq).
More than 300 musicians, dancers, and artisans from some 25 nations along the fabled Silk Road are present on the Mall for the two weeks of the Folklife Festival, demonstrating the living culture of their regions.
Last Saturday (June 29th), it was my good fortune to wander the Eastern portion of the Silk Road Folklife Festival, taking a few photos which I now share with you:
Nomads – Man with camel
Beijing Opera make-up
Beijing Opera
Beijing Opera
Urhoy choir
Unknown performer
Ethnos Shingigaku mask dancer
Asian mask dancers
Asian mask dancer
Asian mask dancer
Asian mask dancer
Asian mask dancer
Asian mask dancersr
Asian mask dancer
Asian mask dancer
Mask dancer
Asian Mask Dance Theater
Mask dance musicians on stage
Painted Pakistani truck (side panel)
Pakistani truck (grille) – (July 7th)
To see images of the Silk Road fashion show, click:
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