“The Flaming Mountains” was taken near Turpan, Xinjiang, China in 2017-18, when PhD candidate Andrew Harris was on a research trip to China mapping Buddhist rock-cut caves in southern Sichuan Province. Climbing a sand dune after a failed attempt to visit a cave complex featuring 5^th-9^th century Buddhist wall carvings, Andrew turned to look at his friends taking a break in their ascent and came across what he described as “the perfect view.” This photo was selected as the winner of the 2018-19 Imaging the Asia Pacific Photo Contest.

The two runners up are Ada Wang’s “Photo 2″ (Taking a break, Hong Kong), and Kathy Xu’s “Photo 4” (Something New). Read below for more about the photos in the students’ own words, and view all of this year’s entries here.

A breathtaking vista over the Flaming Mountains near Turpan Xinjiang, China

Andrew Harris
Grand Prize: The Flaming Mountains
PhD Candidate, Department of Anthropology (Archaeology)

I previously worked in China mapping Buddhist rock-cut caves in southern Sichuan Province between 2017 and 2018 with a colleague from Peking University, Francesca Monteith. Before we began survey in Sichuan in 2017, she decided that I needed to see the “greatest hits,” so to speak, of rock-cut Buddhist caves across China. So after 48 hours on various trains between Beijing and Xinjiang Province we arrived in Turpan, once a hub on the ancient Silk Road. Another friend, Erin West, joined us on the trip a day later, as she was off from teaching at Nanning University for Chinese New Year. Turpan is primarily Uighur much like most of Xinjiang, but the Chinese government has recently been settling Han Chinese in the region in order to ethnically cleanse and police the Uighur state. Over the last 40 years, violence on both sides has turned Xinjiang into a police state, and we saw several military brigades roll down main roads in Turpan with various military checkpoints. Volunteer riot police also marched down sidewalks at dusk, where a curfew is imposed for Uighurs but not for Han Chinese. Roads were lined with propaganda, and on our way to the ancient city of Gaochang for a day trip we saw one of the infamous detention centres – Uighurs were playing basketball in the jail-yard behind a chain-link fence topped with barbed wire.

Just west of Turpan is the Mutou River Valley, filled with Buddhist cave complexes built on either side under the shadow of the imposing bright red Flaming Mountains. The mountains themselves are famous in Chinese lore for their part in the Journey to the West tale; the Monkey King, accompanying a monk based on the famous 7^th century pilgrim Xuanzang to India, creates a disturbance in the heavens which causes a kiln to fall from the sky and land in the Taklamakan Desert. More notably, the Flaming Mountains were the first sight for any Silk Road trader or traveler to indicate that they had just entered China. Our goal on our second day in Xinjiang was to visit a cave complex called Bezeklik, which featured 5^th-9^th century wall carvings and is believed to be one of the westernmost extents of Buddhism in China that has survived intact. The caves themselves were a bit of a bust, though – most of them were closed off and the lower set of caves directly on the riverside were inaccessible because the 8^th-9^th century staircase leading to them had collapsed a few years prior.

It had been something of a rough ride to get to Bezeklik, too – the little microbus we took from the bus station in Turpan dropped us off at the mouth of the valley, and after walking six miles down a bare mountain road we finally were able to flag down a car to take us the rest of the way. So when, in Mandarin, the site guard told us that the enormous dune just east of the grottoes was open to climb, we didn’t think twice and scampered up as fast as we could before we realized we’d each inhaled a kilo of sand getting to the top.

Then, the view...that view. Everywhere you looked standing on the top of the dune was a vista worth a thousand photographs. My co-researcher Francesca suffers vertigo, so she barely made it up the side of the hill before needing to sit down. Erin was a bit better, so she helped me keep her company as her and I took turns hiking further along the half-mile crest of the dune. Looking back over my shoulder for just a second, I saw the two of them talking – Francesca had finally begun to relax, and Erin was squatting at the edge of the half-a-cliff protruding from the side of the dune. For all I know it may have just been a mountain so badly eroded by wind and time that all that was left was sand. It was the perfect view.

We descended slowly – Erin disappeared on her walk up the side of the dune while I talked Francesca down over the course of half an hour, and by the time we all found each other and were finally able to flag a car down going back towards Turpan it was nearly dusk.

I’ve traveled more than most year-to-year – I work in Cambodia, typically renew my visas in Southeast Asia during a trip to Laos, and have done cross-cultural research in Thailand, Sri Lanka, and Singapore (apart from China), but Xinjiang is one of the few places on earth that I can say “I was not expecting to see all that.” We stayed for a few more days before heading south to our next big “greatest hits” cave site at Dunhuang, but Xinjiang for me was by far the highlight of that little pre-survey trip across western China.

Ada Wang
Runner Up: Taking a Break, Hong Kong
Undergraduate student (Forestry)

I took this photo when I was exploring one of the popular neighbourhoods of Hong Kong. I was trying to capture people’s lives in the area.

Kathy Xu
Runner Up: Something New
Undergraduate student (Political Science and Human Resources)

I have developed a particularly strong research interest in the different regime models throughout Southeast Asia. Through understanding the prevalence of processes such as democratization and authoritarian resiliency in these regions, I have learned to interpret the world around me with a keener eye. This photo was taken prior to my political studies.

[At that time,]

all I knew was that the novelty of my camera delighted the children that I met that day. In hindsight, I now realize that their fascination spoke volumes about the socio-political bearings that are existent today.

The photo was taken at a rural school in Shanxi, China, in 2016. It was my second time volunteering there as an English teacher, and it was nothing but life-changing. My students’ blatant hopelessness was jarring, and it was then that I understood that my passion for life was the result of privilege. My material possessions were ridiculed by the students’ dishevelled clothing, my ambitions humbled by their quiet voices. Towards the end of my trip, I wanted something that would capture the kids’ smiles. This photo translates their spirit through visuals, but most of all, this photo gives me something to look back on when I miss them.

I first started shooting on an iPhone 4S in grade nine. I shared my first collection of photos on Tumblr under the most embarrassing domain name. In grade ten, I was blessed to purchase my first DSLR camera. Since then, I’ve just taken my camera everywhere I go. I’ve never pursued photography professionally and I doubt I ever will. Photography is just a way for me to translate the moments that speak to me to others.

**

The winning photos from the Imaging the Asia Pacific Photo Contest are on display in the hallways of the Asian Institute at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, 1 Devonshire Place, North House, second floor.