Naga tribeswomen walk along what's left of the Burma Road in Myanmar. Tens of thousands of U.S. troops and Asian workers carved the route through unforgiving jungles to serve as an Allied supply line between China and Burma during World War II—and hundreds of them lost their lives to disease, accidents, and Japanese attacks.
PHOTOGRAPH BY MARIA STENZEL, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION
There are fewer than a thousand Seri people in Mexico, meaning their native language is fading fast. Isabel Chavela Torres is blind and almost completely deaf, but she still passes on as much traditional knowledge as she can.
PHOTOGRAPH BY LYNN JOHNSON, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION
Double-layered tents shelter researchers from wind in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica. As part of an expedition in the mid-1980s, scientists dove in the sound, with water temperatures around 28 degrees Fahrenheit.
PHOTOGRAPH BY BILL CURTSINGER, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION
Uygur pilgrims pray at the graves of Islamic saints during the Imam Asim festival near Hotan, Xinjiang Province, China. The Uygur people are a Muslim minority in China, heavily persecuted by the Chinese government.
PHOTOGRAPH BY CAROLYN DRAKE, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION
A Berber groom kisses his bride at a mass wedding in Taarart, Morocco. Berbers living in rural areas of Morocco carry on cultural traditions that have lasted at least 5,000 years.
PHOTOGRAPH BY ALEXANDRA BOULAT, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION
A polar bear and her cub sleep in the snow. The bears are waiting for the Hudson Bay to freeze over so that they can spend the winter hunting seals on the ice.
PHOTOGRAPH BY MARIA STENZEL, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION
In Dimen, a small village in Guizhou Province, China, children learn traditional songs from elders. The Dong people have no written version of their language, Kam, so it is passed down orally, often through song.
PHOTOGRAPH BY LYNN JOHNSON, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION