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2016 Pictures of the Year

30 images Created 6 Dec 2016

Some of my favorite photos from 2016.

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  • 02 JANUARY 2016 - KHLONG LUANG, PATHUM THANI, THAILAND: A woman prays at Wat Phra Dhammakaya on the first day of the 5th annual Dhammachai Dhutanaga (a dhutanga is a "wandering" and translated as pilgrimage). More than 1,300 monks are participating pilgrimage through central Thailand. The purpose of the pilgrimage is to pay homage to the Buddha, preserve Buddhist culture, welcome the new year, and "develop virtuous Buddhist youth leaders." Wat Phra Dhammakaya is the largest Buddhist temple in Thailand and the center of the Dhammakaya movement, a Buddhist sect founded in the 1970s. The monks are using busses on some parts of the pilgrimage this year after complaints about traffic jams caused by the monks walking along main highways.          PHOTO BY JACK KURTZ
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  • 22 FEBRUARY 2016 - KHLONG LUANG, PATHUM THANI, THAILAND: Monks and novices file into the chedi before the evening service for Makha Bucha Day at Wat Phra Dhammakaya.  Makha Bucha Day is a public holiday in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand. Many people go to the temple to perform merit-making activities on Makha Bucha Day, which marks four important events in Buddhism: 1,250 disciples came to see the Buddha without being summoned, all of them were Arhantas, Enlightened Ones, and all were ordained by the Buddha himself. The Buddha gave those Arhantas the principles of Buddhism, called "The ovadhapatimokha". Those principles are:  1) To cease from all evil, 2) To do what is good, 3) To cleanse one's mind. The Buddha delivered an important sermon on that day which laid down the principles of the Buddhist teachings. In Thailand, this teaching has been dubbed the “Heart of Buddhism.” Wat Phra Dhammakaya is the center of the Dhammakaya Movement, a Buddhist sect founded in the 1970s and led by Phra Dhammachayo. The temple is famous for the design of its chedi, which some have likened to a flying saucer or UFO.            PHOTO BY JACK KURTZ
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  • 11 MARCH 2016 - LUANG PRABANG, LAOS:  Lao women wait to present monks with alms during the tak bat in Luang Prabang. Luang Prabang was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995. The move saved the city’s colonial architecture but the explosion of mass tourism has taken a toll on the city’s soul. According to one recent study, a small plot of land that sold for $8,000 three years ago now goes for $120,000. Many longtime residents are selling their homes and moving to small developments around the city. The old homes are then converted to guesthouses, restaurants and spas. The city is famous for the morning “tak bat,” or monks’ morning alms rounds. Every morning hundreds of Buddhist monks come out before dawn and walk in a silent procession through the city accepting alms from residents. Now, most of the people presenting alms to the monks are tourists, since so many Lao people have moved outside of the city center. About 50,000 people are thought to live in the Luang Prabang area, the city received more than 530,000 tourists in 2014.      PHOTO BY JACK KURTZ
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  • 02 APRIL 2016 - NA SAK, LAMPANG, THAILAND:  A man cooks fish he trapped in Mae Chang Reservoir in what used to be Sobjant village. The flats he's cooking should be under two meters of water at this time of year. He trapped the fish in a puddle about 500 meters from his cooking fire. The village of Sobjant in Na Sak district in Lampang province was submerged when the Mae Chang Reservoir was created in the 1980s. The village was relocated to higher ground a few kilometers from its original site. The drought gripping Thailand drained the reservoir and the foundations of the Buddhist temple in the original village became visible early in 2016. Thai families come down to the original village to pray in the ruins of the temple and look at what's left of the village.     PHOTO BY JACK KURTZ
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  • 02 FEBRUARY 2016 - THUNG KHOK, SUBPAN BURI, THAILAND: A migrant farm worker from eastern Thailand in a sugar cane field during the harvest in Suphan Buri province, in western Thailand. Thai sugar cane yields are expected to drop by about two percent for the 2015/2016 harvest because of below normal rainfall. The size of the crop is expected to increase slightly though because farmers planted more sugar cane acreage this year. Thailand is the second leading exporter of sugar in the world. Thai sugar growers are hoping a good crop would make up for shortages in global markets caused by lower harvests in Brazil and Australia, where sugar yields have been stunted by drought. Because of the drought in Thailand, sugar exports are expected to drop by up to 20 percent, contributing to a global sugar shortage. The drought is is also hurting the quality of Thai sugar, because sugarcane grown in drought is less sweet than normal so mills need to process more cane to make the same amount of sugar. Thai sugar farmers have lost 20 percent to 30 percent of their output this year because of the drought.        PHOTO BY JACK KURTZ
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  • 31 MAY 2016 - SIEM REAP, CAMBODIA: The foreman of the repair crew working the Tara walks to a small shop in a village near the beached boat. The Tara is a river freighter and passenger boat assembled in Vietnam, then a French colony, in 1927. Most recently it's used to take tourists on dinner cruises on the Tonle Sap Lake. Because of the drought in Cambodia, the Tara is beached and unable to navigate the nearly empty canals that lead to the Tonle Sap Lake. The boat's owners are repairing and refurbishing it while it's beached and hope that the coming rainy season will flood the canal enough to let the Tara get back to the lake.     PHOTO BY JACK KURTZ
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  • 02 JUNE 2016 - SIEM REAP, CAMBODIA:  LERN, who has been farming all his life, rests on the side of his rice fields near Seam Reap. Cambodia is in the second year of  a record shattering drought, brought on by climate change and the El Niño weather pattern. Lern said this is driest he has ever seen his fields. He said he is planting because he has no choice but if they rainy season doesn't come, or if it's like last year's very short rainy season he will lose his crops.     PHOTO BY JACK KURTZ
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  • 03 JUNE 2016 - SIEM REAP, CAMBODIA: A child carries an empty water jug to a water distribution point in Sot Nikum, a village northeast of Siem Reap. Wells in the village have been dry for more than three months because of the drought that is gripping most of Southeast Asia. People in the community rely on water they have to buy from water sellers or water brought in by NGOs. They were waiting for water brought in by truck from Siem Reap by Water on Wheels, a NGO in Siem Reap. Cambodia is in the second year of  a record shattering drought, brought on by climate change and the El Niño weather pattern. There is no water to irrigate the farm fields and many of the wells in the area have run dry.     PHOTO BY JACK KURTZ
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  • 10 FEBRUARY 2016 - BAN LAEM, PHETCHABURI, THAILAND:  A worker empties his basket of salt in a salt barn during the salt harvest in Phetchaburi province, Thailand. The salt harvest in Thailand usually starts in February and continues through May. Salt is harvested in many of the provinces along the coast, but the salt fields in Phetchaburi province are considered the most productive. The salt fields are flooded with sea water, which evaporates off leaving salt behind. Salt production relies on dry weather and producers are hoping the current drought will mean a longer harvest season for them.     PHOTO BY JACK KURTZ
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  • 30 JANUARY 2016 - NONTHABURI, NONTHABURI, THAILAND: A likay performer gets ready for a "likay" show at Wat Bua Khwan in Nonthaburi, north of Bangkok. Likay is a form of popular folk theatre that includes exposition, singing and dancing in Thailand. It uses a combination of extravagant costumes and minimally equipped stages. Intentionally vague storylines means performances rely on actors' skills of improvisation. Like better the known Chinese Opera, which it resembles, Likay is performed mostly at temple fairs and privately sponsored events, especially in rural areas. Likay operas are televised and there is a market for bootleg likay videos and live performance of likay is becoming more rare.     PHOTO BY JACK KURTZ
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  • 20 JULY 2016 - KUSAMBA, BALI, INDONESIA:  Balinese Hindu women gather for a procession to a nearby temple after a ceremony on Kusamba beach. Several hundred Balinese Hindus gathered on the beach in Kusamba, Bali, for a ceremony to honor the full moon. They prayed for more than hour and then community leaders threw an offering into the ocean.      PHOTO BY JACK KURTZ
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  • 14 JULY 2016 - UBUD, BALI, INDONESIA: Traditional Balinese legong dancers mimic the movements of a bird during a performance at the mass cremation in Ubud. Local people in Ubud exhumed the remains of family members and burned their remains in a mass cremation ceremony Wednesday. Thursday was spent preparing for Saturday's ceremony that concludes the cremation and included traditional Balinese Legong dances performed in the evening. Almost 100 people will be cremated and laid to rest in the largest mass cremation in Bali in years this week. Most of the people on Bali are Hindus. Traditional cremations in Bali are very expensive, so communities usually hold one mass cremation approximately every five years. The cremation in Ubud will conclude Saturday, with a large community ceremony.   PHOTO BY JACK KURTZ
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  • 06 JULY 2016 - BANGKOK, THAILAND: Women participate in Eid services behind a privacy screen at Bang Luang Mosque in the Thonburi section of Bangkok. Eid al-Fitr is also called Feast of Breaking the Fast, the Sugar Feast, Bayram (Bajram), the Sweet Festival or Hari Raya Puasa and the Lesser Eid. It is an important Muslim religious holiday that marks the end of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting. Muslims are not allowed to fast on Eid. The holiday celebrates the conclusion of the 29 or 30 days of dawn-to-sunset fasting Muslims do during the month of Ramadan. Islam is the second largest religion in Thailand. Government sources say about 5% of Thais are Muslim, many in the Muslim community say the number is closer to 10%.        PHOTO BY JACK KURTZ
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  • 09 MARCH 2016 - BANGKOK, THAILAND: A motorcycle taxi driver watches his fighting cock spar in a training bout in the Pom Mahakan community in Bangkok. The birds wore tiny muzzles and had their legs padded to prevent injury. The community of about 50 families was once known as the cockfighting center of Bangkok. Gambling is now prohibited by the military government and cockfighting is not as popular as it once was. Cockfights are still staged in clandestine pits in Bangkok but outside of Bangkok cockfights are common.    PHOTO BY JACK KURTZ
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  • 09 MARCH 2016 - BANGKOK, THAILAND: A craftsman engraves the base of a statues of the Buddha on Thanon Bamrung Muang in Bangkok. The street is lined with workshops that make statues of the Buddha and revered Thai Buddhist monks. Once located just outside Bangkok's city walls, it's now in the heart of the city.      PHOTO BY JACK KURTZ
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  • 18 JUNE 2016 - DON KHONE, CHAMPASAK, LAOS:  A fisherman jumps into the Mekong River after clearing his fish traps at Khon Pa Soi Waterfalls, on the east side of Don Khon. It's the smaller of the two waterfalls in Don Khon. Fishermen have constructed an elaborate system of rope bridges over the falls they use to get to the fish traps they set. Fishermen in the area are contending with lower yields and smaller fish, threatening their way of life. The Mekong River is one of the most biodiverse and productive rivers on Earth. It is a global hotspot for freshwater fishes: over 1,000 species have been recorded there, second only to the Amazon. The Mekong River is also the most productive inland fishery in the world. The total harvest of fish from the Mekong is approximately 2.5 million metric tons per year. By some estimates the harvest in the Tonle Sap (in Cambodia) had doubled from 1940 to 1995, but the number of people fishing the in the lake has quadrupled, so the harvest per person is cut in half. There is evidence of over fishing in the Mekong - populations of large fish have shrunk and fishermen are bringing in smaller and smaller fish.        PHOTO BY JACK KURTZ
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  • 23 JUNE 2016 - MAHACHAI, SAMUT SAKHON, THAILAND:  Burmese migrant workers block a road in Samut Sakhon while they wait for Aung San Suu Kyi  to arrive. They were upset because they couldn't get in to the venue to Suu Kyi. They stopped several busses of invited guests from using the main road in to the venue. Tens of thousands of Burmese migrant workers, most employed in the Thai fishing industry, live in Samut Sakhon. Aung San Suu Kyi, the Foreign Minister and State Counsellor for the government of Myanmar (a role similar to that of Prime Minister or a head of government), is on a state visit to Thailand. Even though she and her party won the 2015 elections by a landslide, she is constitutionally prohibited from becoming the President due to a clause in the constitution as her late husband and children are foreign citizens       PHOTO BY JACK KURTZ
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  • 18 JULY 2016 - KUTA, BALI, INDONESIA: Workers carry yellowfin tuna to buyers waiting to weigh and grade the fish at Pasar Ikan pantai Kedonganan, a fishing pier and market in Kuta, Bali. Yellowfin are extremely popular with Japanese consumers for sushi and sashimi and the best yellowfin caught in Indonesian waters are sent directly to Japan.    PHOTO BY JACK KURTZ
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  • 20 JULY 2016 - TAMPAKSIRING, GIANYAR, BALI:  Women harvest rice in a rice paddy in Tampaksiring. New homes built as rental properties for foreign tourists and retirees are in the background. Many rice fields around Ubud are being sold to real estate developers who are building expensive homes in the paddies. Rice is an important part of the Balinese culture. The rituals of the cycle of planting, maintaining, irrigating, and harvesting rice enrich the cultural life of Bali beyond a single staple can ever hope to do. Despite the importance of rice, Bali does not produce enough rice for its own needs and imports rice from nearby countries. Because of its dependable growing weather and number of micro-climates, rice cultivation is a year round activity in Bali. Some farmers can be harvesting rice, while farmers just a few kilometers away can be planting rice. Most rice in Bali is still harvested by hand.     PHOTO BY JACK KURTZ
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  • 05 AUGUST 2016 - BANGKOK, THAILAND: YINGLUCK SHINAWATRA walks through a mob of supporters at the Supreme Court of Thailand Friday. She appeared in court to start her legal defense. She was deposed by a military coup in 2014 and is being tried on corruption and mismanagement charges related to a price support plan for Thai rice farmers that was instituted while she was Prime Minister. More than two years after her government was deposed by a military coup, she is still a popular figure and hundreds of her supporters packed the area around the courthouse to greet her when she arrived at the Court.       PHOTO BY JACK KURTZ
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  • 03 SEPTEMBER 2016 - BANGKOK, THAILAND: Pom Mahakan residents tussle with Bangkok code enforcement officials at a back entrance to the Pom Mahakan community. Hundreds of people from the Pom Mahakan community and other communities in Bangkok barricaded themselves in the Pom Mahakan Fort to prevent Bangkok officials from tearing down the homes in the community Saturday. The city had issued eviction notices and said they would reclaim the land in the historic fort from the community. People prevented the city workers from getting into the fort. After negotiations with community leaders, Bangkok officials were allowed to tear down 12 homes that had either been abandoned or whose owners had agreed to move. The remaining 44 families who live in the fort have vowed to stay.      PHOTO BY JACK KURTZ
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  • 27 SEPTEMBER 2016 - BANGKOK, THAILAND:  A woman and her daughter in their canoe near the floating market in Damnoen Saduak, Thailand. The market is famous because vendors cruise the canals around the market selling produce and tourist curios. It is one of the best known tourist attractions in Samut Songkhram province.     PHOTO BY JACK KURTZ
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  • 30 SEPTEMBER 2016 - SAI NOI, AYUTTHAYA, THAILAND:  A boy swims in the flood waters that surround his home in Sai Noi. The Chao Phraya River, the largest river that runs through central Thailand, has hit flood stage in several areas in Ayutthaya and Ang Thong provinces. Villages along the river are flooded and farms are losing their crops due to the flood. This is the same area that was devastated by floods in 2011, but the floods this year are not expected to be as severe. The floods are being fed by water released from upstream dams. The water is being released to make room for heavy rains expected in October.     PHOTO BY JACK KURTZ
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  • 09 OCTOBER 2016 - JEMBRANA, BALI, INDONESIA: Makepung (buffalo racing) in Tuwed, Jembrana, Bali. Makepung is buffalo racing in the district of Jembrana, on the west end of Bali. The Makepung season starts in July and ends in November. A man sitting in a small cart drives a pair of buffalo bulls around a track cut through rice fields in the district. It's a popular local past time that draws spectators from across western Bali.     PHOTO BY JACK KURTZ
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  • 13 OCTOBER 2016 - BANGKOK, THAILAND:  People at Siriraj Hospital cry and comfort each other Thursday afternoon after Bhumibol Adulyadej, the King of Thailand, died. Thousands of people came to the hospital to pray for the beloved monarch. Bhumibol Adulyadej, the King of Thailand, died at Siriraj Hospital in Bangkok Wednesday, October 13, 2016. Bhumibol Adulyadej, 5 December 1927 – 13 October 2016, was the ninth monarch of Thailand from the Chakri Dynasty and is known as Rama IX. He became King on June 9, 1946 and served as King of Thailand for 70 years, 126 days. He was, at the time of his death, the world's longest-serving head of state and the longest-reigning monarch in Thai history.      PHOTO BY JACK KURTZ
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  • 20 OCTOBER 2016 - BANGKOK, THAILAND: Royal Thai Police officers watch the crowd of mourners on Sanam Luang. The walls of the Grand Palace are behind the police officers. Sanam Luang, the Royal Ceremonial Ground, is packed with people mourning the Monarch's death. The King died Oct. 13, 2016. He was 88. His death came after a period of failing health. Bhumibol Adulyadej was born in Cambridge, MA, on 5 December 1927. He was the ninth monarch of Thailand from the Chakri Dynasty and is also known as Rama IX. He became King on June 9, 1946 and served as King of Thailand for 70 years, 126 days. He was, at the time of his death, the world's longest-serving head of state and the longest-reigning monarch in Thai history.        PHOTO BY JACK KURTZ
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  • 26 OCTOBER 2016 - NUPO TEMPORARY SHELTER, MAE CHAN, TAK, THAILAND: A family of Burmese refugees in the Nupo Temporary Shelter refugee camp waits to be repatriated back to Myanmar. Sixtyfive Burmese refugees living in the Nupo Temporary Shelter refugee camp in Tak Province of Thailand were voluntarily repatriated to Myanmar. About 11,000 people live in the camp. The repatriation was the first large scale repatriation of Myanmar refugees living in Thailand. Government officials on both sides of the Thai / Myanmar border said the repatriation was made possible by recent democratic reforms in Myanmar. There are approximately 150,000 Burmese refugees living in camps along the Thai / Myanmar border. The Thai government has expressed interest several times in the last two years in starting the process of repatriating the refugees.     PHOTO BY JACK KURTZ
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  • 26 OCTOBER 2016 - NUPO TEMPORARY SHELTER, MAE CHAN, TAK, THAILAND: A woman being repatriated from the the Nupo Temporary Shelter refugee camp looks out the window of her bus before it leaves the camp. Sixtyfive Burmese refugees living in the Nupo Temporary Shelter refugee camp in Tak Province of Thailand were voluntarily repatriated to Myanmar. About 11,000 people live in the camp. The repatriation was the first large scale repatriation of Myanmar refugees living in Thailand. Government officials on both sides of the Thai / Myanmar border said the repatriation was made possible by recent democratic reforms in Myanmar. There are approximately 150,000 Burmese refugees living in camps along the Thai / Myanmar border. The Thai government has expressed interest several times in the last two years in starting the process of repatriating the refugees.     PHOTO BY JACK KURTZ
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  • 09 NOVEMBER 2016 - BANGKOK, THAILAND:  A woman watching US election results in Bangkok reacts to news that Donald J. Trump had taken the lead in the Electoral College vote. Democrats Abroad Thailand met at the Roadhouse Barbecue, an American restaurant in Bangkok, to watch election results come in. It was a somber election watch party as what was expected to be a Clinton victory turned into a Trump win.     PHOTO BY JACK KURTZ
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  • 16 NOVEMBER 2016 - GEORGE TOWN, PENANG, MALAYSIA: Boys play in an alley in the Little India section of George Town, Penang, Malaysia. George Town is a UNESCO World Heritage city and wrestles with maintaining its traditional lifestyle and mass tourism.       PHOTO BY JACK KURTZ
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Jack Kurtz, Photojournalist & Travel Photographer

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