First trip to a Mosuo village, December 2005

Photographs taken in two small villages at the foot of the Himalayas at the border of Yunnan and Sichuan provinces, China.

One of the last remaining "matriarchal" societies on earth, the Mosuo are famous for their practice of "walking marriage" - a custom in which the men visit their lovers at night and return to their own households with the morning light. 

In their culture, children are often raised by their mothers' family; men are responsible for raising their sisters' children, not their lovers' children. 

The Mosuo are often linked to the Naxi minority, as their languages use the same sounds.  However, the two minorities have very different beliefs and ways of life.

The Mosuo believe in Tibetan Buddhism, and also practice their own Daba religion.