The whirling silks of this Tshechu dancer’s costume blossom into an impressive shape as he loses himself in the rhythm of the traditional Cham (or Tscham) dance as part of the Lhuntse Tshechu, an annual festival held in northeastern Bhutan. These masked dancers perform to a musical accompaniment provided by brother monks or other locals.

This week’s video spotlight focuses on a real classic, a video that was in fact the original inspiration for this every-other-week feature. It’s been around for a while, so chances are you might have come across it before, but this video is so compelling and joyful that it never fails to bring a smile to our faces, no matter how many times we rewatch it.

Living what some outsiders would consider a feral existence is normal to the children of Yakel, a ‘Kastom’ village on the island of Tanna in the Vanuatu archipelago. The settlement is referred to locally as a Nambas village – the Nambas being the sole item of apparel worn by men, hiding their private parts. This means that the village rejects everything introduced by the Western world. The children will never go to school. Their clothing, food and entertainment will be provided solely by the forest in which they live.

Whakarewarewa Village is a living Maori village located in the thermal region of Rotorua on the North Island of New Zealand. Its doors have been open to tourists since more than a century ago when an 1886 volcanic eruption destroyed the historic pink and white terraces at Lake Tarawera, New Zealand’s first tourist attraction. Whakarewarewa Village today is inhabited by 25 families who go about their daily lives but allow visitors to move amongst them and learn about their customs and culture.

My chance encounter with Sadriddin occurred in a local coffee shop in Bukhara, Uzbekistan. What started as an inquisitive chat between tables ended with an invitation to join him and a musician friend for a jam session in his living room. After three or four songs, he suggested that, later that night, I attend a local wedding reception at which he was performing.