Scaling New Heights

 

Picture highlights from the BBC’s extraordinary new celebration of humankind

Central Highlands, Papua New Guinea

Evelyn, a young girl from the Huli tribe, with some friends at a Sing Sing - an event where two villages gather, displaying spectacular outfits.
 Central African Republic

A Bayaka honey gatherer begins smoking out a beehive.
Sabah, Malaysia

Bajau breath diver having fun on a reef.
 Niger, Africa

The photo shows young Wodaabe men dancing at a Gerewol, which is effectively a male beauty pageant. In the tribe, visual beauty is prized so highly that the Gerewol - or festival - takes place to identify and laud the most good-looking members. There is plenty of dancing, singing and applying of make-up - all to impress the ladies.

 Ladakh, India

Young children and their fathers making the five-day walk to school down the frozen Zanskar River.
Blue River valley, Mongolia

A family herds its cattle and cashmere goats back home at the end of the day.
Cambodia

Kong Di, a 75-year-old Buddhist monk, stands outside the ruins of Ta Phrom monastery.
Central African Republic

Mongonje, a Bayaka tribesman, climbs a jungle tree in search of honey.
Rajasthan, India

This photograph shows Rhesus Macaque monkeys who have left their natural home to inhabit the urban jungle of Jaipur.
Venezuela

Young children cook Goliath Tarantula spiders that they have caught in the forest as a tasty treat.
Lembata, Indonesia

Whale hunters search the seas.
East Java, Indonesia

Taking a rest during work at the Kawah Ijen sulphur mine.
Thousand Islands, Laos

Samnieng, a Laotian fisherman, uses a wire rope bridge to cross the swollen Mekong River with his catch.
Gobi Desert, Mongolia

Nomadic camel herders.
Niger, Africa

Women from the Wodaabe tribe beautify themselves with facial scarring.
Fez, Morocco

The site of an ancient tannery.
Ethiopia

Derje, a young boy from the Simien Mountains, sits guarding his family's farm from marauding Gelada baboons.
Omo Valley, Ethiopia

A Suri tribal donga, or stick fight, is a mixture of martial arts, ritual and sport. The idea is that 20 - 30 fighters amass on each side, and then take turns in one-on-one combat. Traditionally, the donga is for young men to prove themselves worthy husband material to the women.
Santa Catarina, Brazil

A Brazilian fisherman works with a wild dolphin to catch fish.
Kenya

A young boy asleep on Mombasa's sprawling rubbish dump, where he lives.
Western Mongolia

A Kazakh hunter tracks foxes with his golden eagle.
Mali, Africa

The annual replastering of the great mud mosque in Djenne.
Brazil

An Amazonian freshwater dolphin in the murky waters of the Rio Negro.
Sabah, Malaysia

A Bajau sea gypsy village perched on a reef in Tun Sakaran.
Gobi Desert, Mongolia

Huge snow-covered sand dunes dwarf a hunter's winter camp.
Sabah, Malaysia

A young Bajau sea gypsy girl on her family's boat.
Greenland

The moon begins to rise over Ilulissat.

Photographs by award-winning photographer Timothy Allen.