Annual Reading Competition at Banphed School in Issan

Just got back from the 3rd annual reading competition that my wife, photographer Aroon Thaewchatturat organizes in Banphed Village, Issan, Thailand. This year, three publishers and several donors took part. 25 students won prizes and the school library was restocked with new titles. I got to read a short story, The Monkey in a Murder […]

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Sacred Skin at Wat Bang Phra: An interview with Aroon Thaewchatturat

Aroon Thaewchatturat, photographer and co-author of Sacred Skin, my book on Thailand’s spirit tattoos – sak yant in Thai – is interviewed in this short film at Wat Bang Phra, during the annual Wai Kru (Respect your teacher) festival, during which thousands of tattoo devotees descend on this temple famous for its tattooing monks, an […]

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Risky Bangkok by Vinai Dithajohn

Check out the excellent photo essay Risky Bangkok by seminal Thai photographer Vinai Dithajohn. Vinai Dithajohn is a Bangkok-based photojournalist covering news and documentary stories in Thailand and Southeast Asia for the past ten years. He has been shooting Thailand’s political turmoil as well as Bangkok’s dark underbelly and subcultures, often risking his life to […]

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Aroon Thaewchatturat and Tom Vater interviewed on Sacred Skin by CNN!

“Achan Thoy [pictured above] is a highly respected Dabot Ruesi, a hermit sage of Hindu origin, known as a Rishi or Yogi in India, a man with the power to apply sacred and magic tattoos to a devotee’s skin,” says ‘Sacred Skin’ author Tom Vator. “He is a sak yant tattoo master.” Photographer Aroon Thaewchatturat […]

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In Heiligen Höhen – Leseprobe – Aus dem Leben der Anglo-Inder

Hier ein Auszug aus meinem Buch, In Heiligen Höhen – Unterwegs zur Wiege des Ganges, im Wiesenburg Verlag erschienen. Das folgende Kapitel beschreibt mein Treffen mit Hugh und Colleen Gantzer, Ehepaar, Schriftsteller, Fotografen und Filmproduzenten, zu Hause in Mussoorie, Nordindien. Die Gantzers sind Anglo-Inder und beschäftigen sich vor allem mit der eigenen Identität im heutigen […]

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Zur Quelle des Ganges – Bildband von Aroon Thaewchatturat (Text: Tom Vater)To the Source of the Ganges – Photobook by Aroon Thaewchatturat (Text: Tom Vater)

Ein neuer Panorama Bildband von Fotografin Aroon Thaewchatturat und Autor Tom Vater führt zur Quelles des Ganges im Zentralhimalaya und ist im Juni 2008 bei Reise Know How erschienen. Der Ganges mag nicht der längste Strom Indiens sein, aber in der hinduistischen Glaubenskultur ist er der heiligste. Jedes Jahr reisen Millionen Pilger an die wichtigste […]

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