The NamJya Family
In May 2015, I was commissioned to document an expedition to the icy Tangula Mountains of Tibetan plateau. During that trip, we were hit and stranded by a severe snowstorm and rescued by a group of native yak herders. They were the NamJya - a native Tibetan family who reside in the deep snow as nomadic yak herders.
The Nam Jya family took us in, and provided us with warmth and food with the simple resources they had. They are completely self-sustained, and their diet consists of powdered highland grass mix with tea, and consume only one yak per year for essential meat protein, as they are devoted Buddhists who believe in minimum harming.
In Summer, they allow their yaks and sheep to roam freely, yet never long enough in a region to overgraze; in Winter they move back to the foot of the glacier, where it is safe from blizzard and spend the season in solitude.
We could not communicate through language, but it didn't take long to be comfortable as we talked with our eyes and hands. From timid smiles on the first day to sitting side by side and eating meat off a bone; the NamJya children showed me how to herd their sheep while I showed them how to use my camera, and everything felt natural as any daily task.
On the last day, our guide translated the NamJya elder’s wish to be photographed, and added “Most of them had never seen their reflections” I photographed her family and showed to their beautiful daugher named Dawa, in Tibetan meaning "the Moon", her face lit up as she saw herself, then blushed and hid her face behind her sleeves - like a crescent moon, half unveiling her beauty.