High-country herding defines a Himalayan community..

The daily catch, viewed across decades. An ancient mariner reflects.

In a remote village in Teruel, an elderly couple are the only remaining residents.

In a sacred town, the most colorful Hindu celebration takes on extra meaning.

Siena’s medieval-themed processions lay bare the city’s sturdy, tangled roots. Just don’t call them reenactments.

Preserving the flavor of Old Vienna.

The ancient city of Bagan bristles with thousand-year-old buildings.

In Kyoto, an exquisite and uniquely demanding profession lives on.

Chefchaouen, an old town with a gloriously monotone medina.

A tournament that has attracted slippery strongmen since the 14th century.

On the Andaman coast, a disappearing approach to married life.

The subway system that’s also a work of art.

Kurdish singers shout the story of their embattled nation.

In historic Isfahan, an official ceremony makes a girl a woman.

In a Galician village, a savage horse-wrestling tradition persists.

A single-chair lift Vermont lets purists ski the old-fashioned way.

The Hindu holy men who preside over the world’s largest religious gathering.

Where Rajasthan’s desert herdsmen bring their beasts to market.

A ride on Vienna's defining roadway.

A distinctive whistling language still echoes in the hills of La Gomera.

The freakiest-looking festival in the Himalayas comes courtesy of Buddhist monks.

Why one historic valley district has its own customs agents and passport stamps.

A California town that preserves (and performs) its Danish roots with gusto.

In the eastern highlands, grandmothers wear tribal affiliation on their faces.

A Cape Town specialty: boiled sheep’s head.

The multi-functional motorcycles of southern Arabia, and the daredevils who ride them.

In Sulawesi, big-lunged Bajau hunters eke out a traditional living underwater.

Across Yakutia, pagan celebrations of summer are making a comeback.

In Ethiopia's Omo Valley, resident tribes break the skin in ways that cannot be undone.

Havana’s youth learn to punch above their weight.

Preserving ethnic traditions from the throne.

Hand-picked seaweed is the pride of New Brunswick’s Grand Manan Island.

One country lays claim to the world’s most tricked-out cargo vehicles.

In the Senegalese capital, a popular (and entirely public) workout spot.

The athletic challenge that turns Hamar boys into men.

In the Orthodox highlands, an age-old symbolic object takes many forms.

Saut d’Eau, world’s busiest bathing spot for vodou pilgrims.

One man watches over an uninhabited New Brunswick island.

In Taipei, indoor fishermen dangle for their dinner.

The musette, theme song of a bygone Paris.

The improvised, weather-resistant hunting cabins of Alaska's native Iñupiats.

A graveyard for an iconic breed of Latin American public-transport vehicle.

In the Basque Country, handball takes on a heroic aspect.

In a city of ups and downs, an ingenious way to get around.

The homegrown skincare product that defines a nation.

A no-frills approach to cheesemaking endures in the Rarau Mountains.

Cartagena, the Western Hemisphere’s best-preserved colonial city.

Spectacular processions in Granada bring Catholic feeling to fever pitch.

The threatened Awá people shoot to kill—and to live.

The doors that lead in and out of Kigali’s upscale neighborhoods.

A Wyoming town revives a cowboy competition, without the frills.

In a tiny highland nation in southern Africa, herders dignify simple lives with striking costume.

A singer/poet’s compilation helps preserve the Gypsy language.

Tradition-minded Vermont farmers swear by the scythe.

In Otsu, a 1,200-year-old celebration honors lusty mountain gods every spring.

In New Orleans, historic “Second Line” processions bring the music to the streets.

Nova Scotia’s old-school swordfish hunters don’t use lines or nets.

In a town on the Danube, mobs of shaggy monster-men herald the coming of spring.

Thousands of sheep crowd through the Po Valley on an annual migration between Alps and plain.

The "Kukeri" costume tradition was designed to scare off winter.

High-climbing <i>guaraperos</i> tap an iconic tree for sap in La Gomera, Canary Islands.

For more than 7,000 years, aspiring “Invincible Titans” have grappled on the Central Asian steppe.

With help from trained reindeer, Siberia’s nomadic Nenets speed across the tundra.

To please ancestors, children in Himeshima transform into animals and princesses.

In Istanbul, boys undergo an ancient surgical procedure—and get the royal treatment.