Tengri’s Children
Tengrism is a shamanistic religion that emerged out of the steppes of ancient Eurasia, worshipping Tengri, known as the supreme deity of the Sky and the creator of all things. Shot in the rural steppes of Khustai National Park in Mongolia, Tengri’s Children is a series of photographs focused on the children who continue to be raised in the traditional ways of nomadic herders for thousands of years, separate and distant from much of the conveniences and attributes of the modern developed world today. Unlike children raised in Mongolia’s urban cities like Ulaanbatar, the biggest sights in the steppe are not manmade skyscrapers, but the vast, infinite sky and stretches of mountains and hills that naturally inspire a sense of wonder and mysticism. Children that grow up in the steppe are raised not only by their parents, but also by the earth, the sky, the farm animals, and the steppe itself. Finding both joy and hardship, life and death in the land, the children of the steppe are not sheltered from difficulty, but paradoxically, their joy and childlikeness is not any less vibrant and rich because of it. Tengri’s Children is an homage not only to nature, but to the nature of children, and how growing up in a deep relationship to the earth and the land effortlessly nurtures the creative, playful, and curious spirit inherent in kids.