Karma panorama
“Peter Danford is a computer scientist by education, a photographer by practice, and a traveler by nature.” Combining these his talents and aspirations, Danford created a set of websites that display stunning panoramic images of various Asian places (Ladakh, Tibet, Shanghai, Tiannanmen Square) that contain clickable areas which move the visitor to other stunning panoramic images, and more.
Outstanding: the Tibet game, where a visitor is sent to Tibet with 1000 RMB (currency), three (illegal) photographs of the Dalai Lama and the mission to attain Nirvana. Sure, that’s the main goal, but various unexpected detours and surprising & delicious jokes are thrown in as you click your way through the stunning panoramic images. We laughed or head off about the two Tibetans, each of whom claims to be the authentic headless horseman. Which was probably how they, too, had lost their heads. Not to mention the one and only famous legless horseman. Or the Tibetan man asking for donations to get some gold teeth (give the guy some money, please!). Or the kids playing with you in the mud. Or.
Education is served as well, with detours informing about deforestation, restrictions to nomads’ freedom to roam the pastures, destruction of monasteries as well as other cultural artifacts, and much more. Danford still leaves the visitor in a position to realize, and cope with, the complexities of modern Tibetan life, instead of painting Tibetans white, Chinese black, and cutting out the grey areas in between.
Allegedly, Peter Danford next plans to create a game set in New Delhi: players maneuver a holy cow around India’s capital. We are waiting.