Eclectic crime fiction & informed, irreverent non-fiction from Asia & beyond
My latest story in Nikkei Asia is about the face tattoos of Chin women in Myanmar, documented by German photographer Jens Uwe Parkitny for the past 15 years. The traditional practice of face tattoos is often misunderstood by Western observers who regard them as ugly. BANGKOK — The woman’s eyes are closed. She looks content, […]
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Fantastic evening at Bangkok’s Foreign Correspondents Club with Jens Uwe Parkitny who has been photographing the facial tattoos of Chin women in Myanmar for the past 15 years. I added some context on the universality of face tattoos and on the western taboo on tattooed faces.My story on indigenous face tattoos, with Jens Uwe’s images […]
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My latest story in Nikkei Asia is about ‘Endless Escape’, an exhibition currently at BACC in Bangkok, documenting the plight of refugees trying to flee fighting and government repression in Myanmar by crossing into Thailand and getting trapped, pushed back or killed along the border. BANGKOK — “If you exhibit a photo like this (of […]
Continue ReadingBurmese army soldier in the hills above Myauk-U, Rakhine State, looking for Muslim ‘terrorists’ 400000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Burma in the past couple of weeks. Overwhelming evidence suggests that the Burmese military, along with civilian militias, is engaging in ethnic cleansing, driving people from their homes, torching their villages, raping their children and murdering […]
Continue ReadingMy account on how I wrote Burmese Light, the illustrated book by photographer Hans Kemp in InDepth Magazine. Read the story on pages 20-23. Or read it right here… It really hit me while I was walking amongst the giant stone ruins of the former kingdom in Mrauk-U, which ruled much of Burma from the […]
Continue ReadingMy story on the last Chin women in Rakhine state in northwest Burma who have face tattoos is out this month in the French magazine Rise Tattoo.
Continue ReadingLaure Siegel reports on Yangon‘s tattoo scene and one of its shops – Jerry Ink. Photos by me and Rāj Hegde for French magazine RISE TATTOO this month. We had a great time spending a day with tattooists Jerry Api and Sweetz Sweetz. Big thanks to Mg Mg Tha Myint for the connect.
Continue ReadingBurmese Light, the beautiful illustrated book by photographer Hans Kemp with a text by myself, gets a great review at Woasis this week. “…both a wonderful introduction to as well as a useable memoir of a country that is increasingly the focus of travelers seeking to explore a world less traveled.” Read the full review […]
Continue ReadingI feel incredibly humbled to have witnessed the first semi fair and almost free election in Burma in decades. I was at the NLD’s headquarters tonight where an exuberant and chaotic party atmosphere prevailed throughout. But as one Burmese told me, ‘the military are like chess players and they are planning their next move.’ That […]
Continue ReadingI spent the day on the back of a motorbike today in Kayan State. Beautiful bucolic countryside, nice people, more Buddhas than you can shake a 1000 incense sticks at. There are even some backpackers here and there, gormless young people with selfie-sticks who enter temples in hot pants and seem oblivious to almost anything. […]
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