A Traveler's Tale, the search for the ancient Nagas

 

Welcome to the world as seen through my eyes.

I have embarked on this journey inspired by the mythical musings of Joseph Campbell and the documented travels of the two Micheal's, Palin and Woods. At times the journey has taken me on a search for ancient Nagas in South Asia to explorations of ancient cities and ruins in Southeast Asia. As a storyteller, I am always researching the myths and folklore for stories to investigate, analyze, and reconstruct. I am on the writer’s version of the ‘Hero's Journey’. My call to adventure was bolstered by Martha Nusebaum’s ‘Cultivating Humanity’ and my interest in distant cultures influenced by Claude Levi Strauss. This journey started over 15 years ago.  After much research and assembling a small crew to film two documentaries on Sri Lanka and the Maldives.

Rob, Annie and I met up with Martin and the crew of Nanou in the port of Galle, Sri Lanka where we were heading for the Maldives archipelago. Over the last six months we had immersed ourselves in South Asian history, folklore and culture and now we hope to follow in Thor Heyerdahl footsteps, filming a documentary film as we attempted to solve the Maldives mystery. Rob and I had met Martin some months earlier and when I told him of our plans to film in the Maldives and Sri Lanka, he invited us to join him on his 60 foot, cutter rig yacht, Nanou. Being a photographer and filmmaker himself he agreed to come on board as one of our sponsors.  The idea was to film some of the archaeological sites uncovered by Heyerdahl in the 80's while expounding some of our own maverick theories on the origins of the Maldivians. Like Heyerdahl in his book and film of the same name, The Maldive Mystery, this was meant to tie in with the subsequent film we were doing on Sri Lanka. 

This journey continues...

"... another important difference between tourist and traveler is that the former accepts his own

civilization without question; not so the traveler, who compares it with the others, and rejects those elements

he finds not to his liking..."

-Paul Bowles A Sheltering Sky