Before the shrines and the mountains, most visits to Nikko begin at the Shinkyo Bridge and the small town that gathers around the entrance to the sacred precinct. They set

The Sidama are a Highland East Cushitic people of southern Ethiopia, one of the larger nations of the country, numbering several million and concentrated around the city of Hawassa. They

Scattered in pockets across Gujarat, Karnataka, and around Hyderabad live the Siddi, one of the most remarkable communities of India: a people of African descent, rooted for centuries in the

From the fertile plains of the Punjab, the land of five rivers, come the Sikhs, followers of one of the world’s major religions and one of the most distinctive communities

On the tropical island of Sri Lanka, off the southern tip of India, live the Sinhalese, the great majority people of the nation and heirs to one of Asia’s oldest

Scattered across the warm seas east of New Guinea lie the Solomon Islands, a Melanesian nation of rugged, forested islands and coral lagoons. Home to some seventy languages, their people

The Soninke, also called Sarakole or Serahuli, are a Mande people of the western Sahel, spread across Mali, Mauritania, Senegal, the Gambia and neighbouring countries. Numbering some two million or

The mountain itself looks unreal, like something from a dream or a fairy tale. Rising abruptly from the plains not far from Barcelona, Montserrat is a vast formation of rounded

If I could recommend just one walk to a first-time visitor, it would be this: the riverside path along the South Bank of the Thames. Flat, free, and lined with

In the dry north and east of Sri Lanka, amid palmyra palms and colourful Hindu temples, live the Sri Lankan Tamils, an ancient community distinct from the island’s Sinhalese majority.