Sacred Mountains, Sacred Dances: The Himalayan Mask Dance of Chris Rainier
Known across the globe for his efforts to capture endangered languages and cultural traditions on film, Chris Rainier works as a documentary photographer. The Explorers Club honored him with the Lowell Thomas Award in 2002, and in 2014 he was made a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, concentrating on cultural preservation. In addition, he is the founder and director of the Cultural Sanctuary Foundation, an international charitable organization focused on safeguarding traditional cultures and biodiversity. "We live in an extraordinary era, an age of astonishing technological advancement.
From his earliest recollections, Rainier traveled the world with his family. According to Chris Rainier, writing in Beyond Travel Magazines, we now live in a period of unmatched destruction of the natural environment and the planet's biodiversity. We have grown conscious of environmental protection and climate change, yet we rarely consider the loss of marginalized cultures and languages. Every two weeks an elder dies, and with that elder, a complete language system, traditional rituals, and a unique cultural identity disappear.
Rainier could not ignore the reality that traditional cultures were disappearing, something he recognized even in his earliest photographic years. Having been raised in Australia, England, Canada, Africa, and California, his love of the natural world drove him to photograph faraway cultures, enchanted by the mystery and beauty of indigenous peoples.
Rainier chose to become a professional photographer, driven by his passion for photography and a clear artistic vision. He said, "I know no place is as perfect as a travel magazine portrays, so I want to truly immerse myself in these communities and use photography to draw attention to marginalized cultures." To achieve his goal, he became an assistant to Ansel Adams, the celebrated American photographer. Rainier remembers that Adams had limitless curiosity—even at age 80, he started learning computers and took great joy in it.
After collaborating with Adams, Rainier became a photojournalist, documenting major wars and disasters for *Time* and other outlets. Throughout his career, he remained devoted to documentary photography, traveling to New Guinea, West Africa, Borneo, Nepal, India, and Afghanistan. He felt a deep bond with the land, preserving the spiritual nature of each culture as he encountered it and eternalizing those moments. This journey imparted a new insight to Rainier: "You must reinvent yourself and embrace life with passion." The Meaning of a Mountain.
Rainier kept his patience even though exchanges through body language were often slow. While he photographed indigenous peoples, he said: "I try to slow down, to truly adapt to their way of life—to understand and respect how they think." He added: "An American might look at a mountain or forest and see only potential natural resources— but Indigenous people recognize the 'sacred.' Learning to perceive the world through multiple dimensions is a privilege, one that allows you to truly understand the other.
Northern Australia is an ancient land. Today, those who thrive there are people hidden within dense forests, with one foot still in Eden. I spent a decade exploring New Guinea, venturing into secluded valleys, climbing tropical mountains, and navigating winding forest rivers." — The Law of the Forest. Through his polite, patient methods, he eventually earned their trust, sometimes needing weeks to shoot a single photo.
As I journeyed deeper into the wild, I drew ever nearer to grasping the core of what makes us human." "The wilderness showed me the art of dissolving quietly into a foreign culture, the craft of posing questions that truly matter, the wisdom of knowing when to hold my tongue—and the skill of shifting with the landscape." "There is a paradox at the heart of photography, one that is at once intricate and straightforward—Rainier aims to foster a feeling of mutual exchange. 'My hope is that those who look at these images don't merely observe the cultures, but feel themselves transported into them.
Rainier's fascination with ritual masks began in the mid-1980s during a photography expedition to New Guinea, where he came across a tribesman decorated with paradise feathers. That moment sowed the seed for his later 'Masks' series. Immersed in local customs, he became completely absorbed by mask culture and decided to follow the path of sacred masks around the globe. 'When I photograph sacred sites, dances, or tribal traditions, I aim to leave people visually—and spiritually—transformed.' Behind the Masks, the Living People.
Over 130 images are collected in his new book *"Masks,"* highlighting the variety of mask traditions from the Amazon rainforest to the Mongolian steppes, from the forests of West Africa to the Indian subcontinent, and from the highlands of Nepal to Bhutan. Through these portraits, he captured dramatic depictions of Mongolian shamans, Bhutanese monks, and others. His aim is to restore the liveliness of masks and uncover the spiritual meaning behind mask dances. As he explains, "I want to show the audience that they are, in fact, alive— not just exhibits behind glass in a museum.
In one way or another, each mask references the intersection of the natural and spiritual realms, be it through Canada’s bears, Alaska’s ravens, or Bhutan’s deer. Even so, mask rituals are disappearing under the tidal wave of modernity sweeping the globe. 'Sacred Dance
Rainier once met a Mongolian shaman who would fall into a trance the instant he put on his mask. Across faiths, cultures, and even today, masks expose a common human bond—acting as portals to other worlds or emblems of custom, they turn the everyday into the remarkable. By engaging in mask rituals, individuals unite all things, embodying communities that dwell in nature, honor it, and stand in awe of it.
The mask became an emblem of identity, a catalyst for instantaneous transformation." From humanity’s earliest days, masks have been a constant presence. They are used for rejoicing at celebrations, paying homage to spirits, marking life’s transitions, and mourning the dead—pulling us nearer to the deeper essence of existence. My photography documents these mask rituals, offering viewers a glimpse of the sacred inner force and the profound significance that masks embody. It is the photographer’s calling to protect cultural heritage. By capturing these practices, photography can renew, preserve, and magnify rituals around the world.
Sometimes I set down the camera and dance around the fire." "So that a local young person might, fifty years later, see a photograph of his grandfather or great-grandfather performing a dance that has disappeared, and feel compelled to raise the mask again, these records are essential." "Masks hold a transformative power— the unexplained strikes deeper than what we can comprehend.
Chris Rainier’s photographs are collected by museums worldwide, and his work has appeared in Life, Time, National Geographic, and The New York Times. Among his published books are Keepers of the Spirit, Where Masks Still Dance: New Guinea, and Cultures on the Edge. As Pico Iyer wrote, “They are vessels of hidden forces, ones we can neither escape nor control.”
For Indigenous people, a mountain or forest is perceived as the 'sacred,' while an American may see in it only potential natural resources. To truly comprehend the other is made possible by the bestowed privilege of understanding the world through multiple dimensions.