Spiritual Practices and Rituals

Authentic representations of diverse spiritual practices and ceremonies from around the world, illustrating the deep cultural roots and traditions.

Asia, Papua New Guinea, Tari Valley. Huli Wigmen

Sadhu contemplating a skull; Varanasi, India

Dani Tribesmen; Iryan Jaya, Indonesia

Mbukushu tribe witch, Kwando Traditional Village, Zambezi Region, Namibia

Botswana, Makgadikgadi, San bushmen healers prepare for a traditional trance dance.

Asia, Papua New Guinea, Mount Hagen. Ceremonial dancer's Sing Sing ceremony

PAPUA NEW GUINEA, SEPIK RIVER, LOCAL MAN IN TRADITIONAL DRESS CLOSE-UP

PAPUA NEW GUINEA, SEPIK RIVER, VILLAGE SING-SING, (TRADITIONAL DANCE CEROMONIES)

Himba women perform the otjiunda dance, stamping their feet, clapping and chanting while one of them gyrates in the centre of the circle. The Himba are Herero speaking Bantu nomads who live in the harsh, dry but starkly beautiful landscape of remote northwest Namibia.

Asia, Papua New Guinea, Tari Valley. Huli Wigmen

Portrait of Huli wigman's tribal spiritual person, Tari, Southern Highlands, Papua New Guinea

ASIA, Indonesia, West Papua (Irian Jaya), Asmat Region, Ocanep Village. Asmat Warrior, portrait (Editorial Usage Only)

Melanesia, Solomon Islands, Guadalcanal Island, capital city of Honiara. Detail of traditional high quality wood carving.

Melanesia, Papua New Guinea, Sepik River area, Village of Kopar. Typical sing-sing welcome dance with villagers in traditional attire. Village chief singing, large boar tusk necklace.

Masked Dogon dancers perform a traditional ceremony, in the village of Nombori, Mali, Africa (MR)

Africa, Kenya, Sumburu, Sumburu tribes people

A masked dancer at the Dogon village of Nombori, in Mali, Africa.

Men dancing in preparation for the Pentecost land diving, Pentecost, Vanuatu, Pacific

Melanesia, Papua New Guinea, Bismarck Sea area, Tuam Island, Tuam village. Traditional village sing-sing. Male dancers in elaborate headdresses.

Papua New Guinea, native man with bright colored paint, headdress, and necklace NO MODEL RELEASE

Kenya, Tribal People, Portrait Of Samburu Warrior Wearing Ochre Body Paint.

Portrait of a married Himba woman, Kunene District, Kaokoveld, Namibia, Africa

Melanesia, Solomon Islands, Santa Cruz Island group, Malo Island. Village elder in native tapa cloth headdress and palm leaf attire performing traditional folkloric dance.

Colombia, North West Amazon, Tukano Indigenous People, 'Barasana Manioc Festival. Line Of Male Dancers Wearing Full Ceremonial Regalia Royal Crane Macaw And Toucan Feather Head-Dresses Bodies And Faces Painted With Dark Purple ''We'' Leaf Juice And Red Achiote Fruit Dye Painted Bark-Cloth Aprons, Monkey Fur And Monkey Teeth Belts Tukano Sedentary Indian Tribe North Western Amazonia American Colombian Columbia Hispanic Indegent Latin America Latino Performance South America Tukano '

Papua New Guinea, Oro Province, Tufi Island, Baga Village. Traditional welcome sing-sing. Traditional drum with lizard skin cover.

A Maasai warrior blows a trumpet fashioned from the horn of a Greater Kudu. The strap is decorated with cowrie shells. Kudu-horn trumpets are only sounded to call men to arms or on ceremonial occasions.

Urueu-Wau-Wau Indian wears feather headdress and capybara incisor necklace

Fight ritual, Dani, warrior, Yiwika, Baliem Valley, Irian Jaya, New Guinea, West Papua, Indonesia, Southeast Asia, Asia

Hamar women dance, sing and blow small tin trumpets during a Jumping of the Bull ceremony. The semi nomadic Hamar of Southwest Ethiopia embrace an age grade system that includes several rites of passage for young men.

Australia, Queensland, Cairns. Indigenous dancers at Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park.

JUJU DANCE, CAMEROON. Mount Oku, Bamenda Highlands. Juju Dance for the environment. Juju dancers, dressed as forest animals, depict the destruction of the forest. . Juju is an intrinsic part of the culture and promotes a powerful conservation message to the audience.

A Samburu blacksmith fashions a spear from an iron rod. Blacksmiths have their own special clan within the tribe and are not allowed to marry girls from other clans. Their skills are handed down from father to son. This man will take two days to make a spear for which he will be paid a goat.

Huli wigman

Once married Mursi women pierce their lower lip and stretch it by inserting increasingly large plugs until they can wear a clay lip plate.

Tribal dancers at a festival in Cameroon, Africa

Dani man with headdress and penis gourd, Yiwika, Baliem Valley, Irian Jaya, New Guinea, West Guinea, Indonesia, Southeast Asia, Asia

Africa, West Africa, Mali, Kondou. Dogon men wearing traditional colored grass clothes and wooden masks perform a traditional mask dance.

Lower Congo Chief in royal robes. 19th century. Photogravure by André & Sleigh from a photograph by the Rev. S.D. Darby. Colorised.

Karo warrior with body painting and rifle, Omo Valley, Southern Ethiopia, Karo

An Asmat man sleeping with his head resting on a skull in Papua New Guinea, Pacific

Pacific Islands, Melanesia, Papua New Guinea, Southern Highlands. Tari. Huli Tribemen Wigmen Dressed In Costume With Painted Faces And Elaborate Headresses

Africa, Malawi, The Chewa people, Malawi's largest ethnic group, live on the west side of Lake Malawi. Despite years of missionary influence, they still cling to old beliefs and rituals.

Zulu tribal dance group, Dumazula Cultural Village, South Africa, Africa

Surma warriors during Donga ceremony Ethiopia

For two to three months after their circumcision, Pokot boys sing and dance in a special seclusion camp while undergoing instruction from tribal elders. During this time, they must wear goatskins, conceal their faces with masks made from wild sisal (sansevieria) and carry bows with blunt arrows.

Chang Naga tribe in traditional dress during Moatsu festival of sowing, Chuchuyimlang village, Nagaland , North East Frontier States , India

Chenmoho Village on the 3rd day of Aoleang Monyu festival, Nagaland, northeast India, Naga man dressed up in traditional warrior dress with rifle

Africa, Gabon, Mboka A Nzambe Village, Bwiti Ceremonies, The Shaman Adumangana In His Patients' Room, For Him Mysticism And Psychology Are Inseparable

Africa, Gabon, Mboka A Nzambe Village, Bwiti Ceremonies, Forest, Before Getting To The Heart Of The Sanctuary, Patients Make Offerings To The Spirits

Back view of male Fijian Dancer in traditional clothing - head and shoulders

Sadhu contemplating a skull; Varanasi, India

Vruniga, Rwanda. Traditional Intore dancers perform at the annual gorilla naming ceremony, Kwita Izina.

Man of the Korowai people, West Papua, West New Guinea, Irian-Jaya, Tree people, Indonesia, Asia

Priest in pushkar fair, Rajasthan, India NO MR Copyright: xSafatxAli/DinodiaxPhotox

Christ of humility in procession. Holy Week

Maya dressed Indian, Yucatec-Maya archaeological site, Ek Balam, Yucatan, Mexico, North America

Africa, Mali, Dogon Region, Tireli village. Masked dancers (Editorial Usage Only)

Long dreadlocks, sign of many Shiva sadhus, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India, Asia

Traditional medicine man (witch doctor who is known as the God Thief) and dream intrepreter, Gamara Moida, practices in Gaho village, Konso tribe, Omo region, Ethiopia.

A Samburu blacksmith fashions the head of a spear in his workshop.

Dani chief with Kurulu mummy, Baliem Valley, West Papua, Mummy, Indonesia, Asia

India, Tamil Nadu, Tanjore, 'Instrument Maker Finishing A Veena, A Traditional Stringed Instrument Consisting Of A Hollow Wooden Body And Long Neck. '

Karo warrior with body and facial paintings and a rifle in front of a hut, Omo river valley, Southern Ethiopia, Africa

Huli wigman

Oceania, Indonesia, Irian Jaya. Asmat people.

Africa, Malawi, The Chewa people, Malawi's largest ethnic group, live on the west side of Lake Malawi. Despite years of missionary influence, they still cling to old beliefs and rituals.

Aborigines, Northern Territory, Australia, Pacific

South Africa, Pondo Tribe Warrior

Tarahumara spotted dancers at Easter, from the Sierra Madre, in Mexico, North America

Ethiopia - Ceremony of Donga among Surma: tribe of south west Ethiopia. Fighting between the baton warriors. Village around the town of Kibisch Ethiopia.

Hawaii, Ka´alau Sticks detail, Hula Instruments.

Hindu holy man with streaming dreadlocks at prayer in Boudhnath; Kathmandu Valley, Nepal

Native American medicine man dressed in ghost shirt (MR)

Sudan famine

Africa, Ghana, Accra. La Palm Beach Hotel. Traditional ritual folkloric show, the leaf in the mouth shows that the tribesman will keep a secret or be silent.

Africa, Gabon, Mboka A Nzambe Village, Bwiti Ceremonies, Forest, In The Sanctuary Called 'God'S Village', Healing Rituals Are Made At Night, The Smoke Purifies The Sick People Lying On A Table Named The 'Traditional Scanner' !

Asia, Indonesia, Bali. Carved wooden statues.

Ethiopia, Lower Omo Valley, Key Afir, Tsemay Woman Traditionally Dressed At Weekly Market

A newly initiated Shiva sadhu from Avahan Akhara, sitting around a bonfire, during Kumbha Mela festival, Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, India, Asia

Trophies of Khiamniungam Tribe, Hornbill Festival, Nagaland, India.

Men of the ethnic group of the Bamileke with traditional masks, Dance of Death in honor of a deceased person, Badenkop, West Region, Cameroon, Africa

Ethiopia, Omo Region, Kibish Village. Bologedung (Bulugedong), one of two main Suri (Surma) tribe chiefs with baboon hat and raincoat cape in his compound.

Huli wigman, Tari, Highlands, Papua New Guinea, Oceania

Performers wearing the traditional dress of the Solomon Islands; Western Province, Solomon Islands

Togo, Surrounding of Lomè, woodoo cerimony

BUDDHIST and BONPO MONKS BLESS believers with sacred objects at a Tibetan Buddhist FESTIVAL in DO TARAP VALLEY - DOLPO DISTRICT, NEPAL

Asia, Papua New Guinea, Southern Highlands. Asaro Mudman-Mendi

Shangaan Sangoma (diviner ) Reading her divining charms. Kwangwanase. KwaZulu-Natal. South Africa

Traditional Kava ceremony, Polynesian Cultural Center, Viti Levu Island, Fiji

India, Alahabad. Naga Shardus (yoga pose). (Editorial Usage Only)

Initiation of new sadhus, during Kumbha Mela festival, Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, India, Asia

A Mursi tribal woman displaying traditional leg decorations. Makki / South Omo / Southern Nations, Nationalities & People's Region (Ethiopia).

Pacific Islands Tour: Visit of Secretary Dirk Kemmpthorne and aides to American Samoa, U.S. Territory

Man drying Sari. India

a Burmese works with bamboo

Shaman of the Mentawai tribe

A Maasai warrior, his face and body decorated with red ochre and clay, wears an ostrich feather headdress. This singular adornment was once worn by warriors going into battle and was likely designed to frighten an enemy.

Naga sadhus on Har-ki-Pauri ghat about to take a dip in the river Ganges on the occasion of 'Somvati Amavasya', a no moon day in the traditional Hindu calendar. During the Maha Kumbh Mela festival, the 'Shahi Snan' (royal bath) is considered a highly auspicious bathing day.

Dancer in traditional clothing wearing carved elephant mask, Atchum, Fon's Palace, Bafut, Bamenda, North-West Region, Cameroon, Africa

Close-up of a Native American holding ceremonial feathers, Big Sur, CA

Solomon Islands, Malaita, Tribal Male Band Playing Traditional Wooden Instruments

of 2