CONVERSATION
CONVERSATION
CONVERSATION
HUMAN TRACES:
ETHIOPIA
HUMAN TRACES:
ETHIOPIA
THE BALANCE OF FACTS
THE BALANCE OF FACTS
THE BALANCE OF FACTS
THE BALANCE OF FACTS
DESTINATIONS
DESTINATIONS
The Dreamtime, or the Dreaming, portrays the Aboriginal beliefs in spiritual existence. According to the tribes that first settled down in the continent, the Dreaming's roots date all the way back to the very begging of the creation of the world. The meaning and ideology of the term is generally not so well-understood by non-indigenous people as it is referred to as part of the culture of one of the early nations, which differs from modern perceptions.
The Spirits were the creators of everything. They made the land and the seas, the rocks and the plants, the sky and the earth. They were the higher power and the Australian Aborigines spent their lifetimes honoring this power, which guided their path and shaped their way of thinking. Not only creators of everything, which could be seen as well as felt, the Spirits also gave the Aborigines the Dreaming.
The time when everything started existing according to the initial Australians, was called the Dreaming. This is the foundation of the continent's culture. The origin of the Dreaming goes way back - 65 000 years back in time to be exact. The Ancestors of the nation shaped the land, forming some parts of it as sacred. The Aborigines were very careful and overprotective of those places, strongly believing in their significance.
The Australian Aborigines are known to have believed that the world didn't have any shape and was therefore empty. Darkness dominated, and life was simply asleep, but this changed when the creation began happening. After the Dreaming and the influence of the Spirits, objects began taking shapes and came to be. They created the four elements: water, earth, air and fire, as well as all the planets, the Sun and the Moon. The Dreaming therefore is a continuous process, which never ended. It is a small cosmos on its own, unifying the past, present and the future into one.
The Australian Aborigines' home riches so many vivid areas of the continent, including Fraser Island, Tasmania, Palm Island, Groote Eylandt and Mornington Island. The Aborigines had very strong believes in relation to the powers of the land, claiming that they never owned it - it rather owned them. The only reason they were able to call it their home is because they were looking after it and the land was taking care of the people in return.
Equally important to the Dreaming was the tribes' understandings of the disappearance of the Spirits. There came a time, when the creators of everything vanished from sight. Some of them were thought to have started living in sacred places, which is why the Aborigines perceived their homeland to be so sacred. The ancestors of today's Australians used to believe that the creators started living in rocks, in water holes and some went up to the sky to guide the people from above and keep them safe. Others transformed completely, taking the forms of the rain, the lightnings and the thunderstorms so they could be part of peoples' life.
Among the hundred's different Aboriginal languages, there isn't a word to describe 'time', because to them this simply doesn't exist. Dreaming and Dreamtime are used to replace it and summarize the ideologies of the Aborigines about everything they knew, everything they could see, feel and experience. This is why the Dreaming has such a vivid, and overwhelming meaning and has survived the obstacles of time. For the past couple thousand years, the Dreaming has built a rich cultural heritage that can identify a whole nation.
Read more about the Land, its connection to people and the way it has been perceived from different generations in the very first print issue of ORIGIN. The Land Issue covers varied topics, most of which remain related to cultural aspects of the land and its importance.
A lot of people travel to explore places and learn about them which is the message that ORIGIN wants to spread. With traveling, however, comes certain responsibilities that we should all be aware of. Elephants riding has become a popular way to explore locations by land. People have been doing this as part of their trips, mostly to places such as Thailand, Nepal, Cambodia and other parts of Asia. It is a common thing to see in certain places in Africa as well. We investigated the activity to explain why it is wrong and riding elephants should be banned everywhere.
Our first print issue studies culture and traveling represented through the land. We explored various location around the globe and learned what makes the land so valuable, which nations cherish it and how it helps us establish an identity. Traveling is important to us but traveling responsibly and making an impact is what we feel proud to stand behind. This is why riding elephants as a way of amusement should be reconsidered.
Let’s talk about the details. Elephants are very caring and extremely intelligent animals. It is a well-known fact that they never forget anything. When kept in captivity instead of spending their life in the wild, elephants die younger. Unlike in other species, this is common for the gentle giants and is often a result for stress.
Many African cultures respect elephants, believing they symbolize strength, loyalty and power. However, power can be a very tender concept. Elephant used as a tourism tool suffer from great pain daily. Elephants can be hurt very severely from the weight of carrying people and a trainer on their backs. The reason for this is the design of their spines. They have sharp protrusions, extending upwards from their spine instead of having round spinal disks. The protrusions and the tissue that serves to protect them can be harmed easily from weight pressure. Once a damage to their spine has been made, there is no going back and sometimes the harm can be irreversible. While this can’t be physically seen, the harm that the chairs can do to the elephants’ skin is. It is often the case that the chairs and the weight on their back can damage the animal’s skin and cause pain to their body. The chair, called Howdah, that gets attached to their backs, rubs on their skin and can cause blisters, which can sometimes get infected.
The training that elephants are required to go through when in captivity sometimes adopts a traditional Thai ‘phajaan’ or ‘crush’ technique. Explaining the technique would compare it to the animals’ spirits constantly and continuously being broken by the means of torture and social isolation. This is done in order to tame them. Elephants are wild animals, this is their nature as they are born in such conditions. Making them safe and obedient around people requires them to go through such training. As horrible as it sounds, in some places young elephants are taken away from their mothers to be abused with nails, bull hooks and bamboo sticks to make them obey rules, given by people. The animals often lack sleep and are starved to become submissive.
Actions from such nature are cruel and harmful as the technique is used to crash the animals’ spirit. Once wild and free, elephants become a source of tourism and entertainment. Nobody, who cared about sustainable tourism should ever ride an elephant.
In a sense, elephants have a human soul. They socialise and feel everything – pain, happiness, grief, sadness etc. They spend their life building families and finding friends. The largest land animals are a gift from nature and it is our responsibility to take special care of them and make sure they live according to their nature. Many animals, who are kept in captivity, are forced to live in isolation and carry heavy loads all day long, which is a wrong way to treat them. Their strength and power shouldn’t be abused but treated gently and celebrated by people. Elephants require minimal care to stay happy and healthy, which comes from giving them freedom to behave naturally and socialise. It is our responsibility to be culturally aware while traveling and make sure to spread awareness about the problem.
You can read the rest of the article as published in the LAND issue.
DIVE IN CENOTE DOS OJOS
Home to one of the top diving sites in the world, the Yucatan Peninsula is high at the bucket list of snorkelling enthusiasts. Dos Ojos Cenote is a scuba divers bliss offering crystal waters and exciting underground passageways
Words: Aleksandra Georgieva
Photography: Jakob Owens, Jared Rice, Roberto Nickson
01 April 2020
Deep into the Yucatan Peninsula about 300 miles (483 km) of connected underwater passageways create one of the top diving sites in the world. Cenote Dos Ojos (from Spanish meaning "Two Eyes") is a natural cave system, home to the deepest-known cave passage in Quintana Roo, Mexico.
Divers can explore Cenote Dos Ojos’s underground rivers and nearly 7,000-year-old caves. With water temperature of 24°C (77°) snorkelling enthusiasts find themselves at heaven on Earth.
The rocky stalactites and stalagmites guard crystal waters where non-divers can simply float and enjoy the natural beauty of this rare tourist spot. Major resort towns in the area typically offer daily trips including scuba diving and sightseeing. If you travel on your own, make sure to bring your own food and pack your spirit of adventure.
The cenote is a popular holiday spot among the visitors of the Mexican peninsula. It is located off of Highway 307, about 17 km (10.5 miles) north of Tulum and 50 km (31 miles) south of Playa del Carmen. You can get a ferry from Cozumel and reach the site in about 35 minutes. You can also get there by car and renting diving gear is available near the cenote.
If you plan to scuba dive, you will have the best visibility throughout April and November. However, the water temperature remains pretty much the same all year round, so apart from the crowds in high season (April, May and November), you can visit any time of the year and get a pleasant experience. Some tours include a stop at the Coba ruins nearby. At its peak the Mayan site was home to 50,000 inhabitants. Today you can climb the 42 metres (137 feet) Nohoch Mul pyramid, which is the highest spot on the Yucatan Peninsula, providing panoramic views from the top.
Dos Ojos remains among the greatest treasures of nature on the Caribbean coast and one of the best travel stops in Mexico. The flooded cave system was first explored in 1987. Today there are 28 known sinkhole entrances, called cenotes by locals. Dos Ojos is part of the Sistema Sac Actun – the longest known underwater cave system in the world.
In 1996 cave explorers made their way across 1,500 meters (4,900 ft) past the main entrance to discover ‘The Pit’ – the deepest (119.1 metres) known cave passage in Quintana Roo. This deep passage took the explorers through ‘The Next Generation Passage’, ‘Jill’s Room’, ‘the Beyond Main Base passage’ and the ‘Wakulla Room’. The total length of the combined system as of 2014 measures 319.05 km (198.25 mi).
Dos Ojos connects two neighbouring cenotes into one large cavern zone. Into the underground these two cenotes appear like two eyes, hence their name. the cave system is naturally connected to marine water with certain tidal influences. A connection to the ocean has not yet been humanly explored, yet dye tracing of volumes of water showed a flow towards the nearby coastal bedrock lagoon Caleta Xel-Ha.
The reason the water in the Dos Ojos cave appears so pure is rainwater filtration through limestone. Combined with very little soil in the area this phenomenon results in the crystal clear water diving enthusiasts and tourists alike put high up their bucket-list of adventures. Looking closely travellers can see a variety of fish, no longer than 10 cm (3.9 in) that inhabit the cavern waters.
The Dos Ojos Cenotes welcome around a hundred tourists and snorkelling enthusiasts per day. Most guided tours include two dives a day, each about 45-minute long with a 60-minute surface interval. Snorkelling is also possible in the ‘Bat Cave’ cenote where the visibility is excellent and when limited is due to the available lighting rather than water transparency.
FREEDIVING RECORD: On November 3, 2010, Dos Ojos became the location of a Guiness World Record in freediving. Carlos Coste swam 150 m (490 ft) becoming the holder of the record for for "Longest distance swam underwater with one breath (open water)".
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NOMADSofORIGIN is an independent annual publication with a focus on sustainable travelling and global cultural values. Each issue features interviews, engaging articles and photo guides, which take our nomadic readers through different destinations and introduce them to local people's perspectives.
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