It was minus 3.3 degrees Celsius - the dead of winter in Mongolia - when Jerry Friedman stepped off a plane in Ulan Bator and resumed his search for the oldest people on Earth.
Friedman was in awe the next morning when he met Damchaagiin Gendendarjaa, a 110-year-old Tibetan Buddhist lama: He had earned a doctorate in theology at age 106. He had all his teeth. He had never seen a doctor in his life, yet mild arthritis in his lower back was his only ailment.
''He was the holiest person I've ever been in the presence of,'' Friedman recalled of his February 2003 trip. ''It's hard to describe, other than he had a certain countenance I had never experienced before.''
The lama was one of more than 50 ''supercentenarians'' - people at least 110 years old - whom Friedman interviewed and photographed for a book, Earth's Elders: The Wisdom of the World's Oldest People.
Friedman, 58, a commercial photographer, closed his Connecticut studio so he could travel the world to track down his elderly subjects, verify their ages as accurately as possible and document their life stories.
"This process has changed me completely, just meeting these people,'' he said. ''I have learned to listen. I have learned that my own cultural bias (about the elderly) needs to be addressed and changed.''
His journey started in 2001, when he ''embedded'' himself at his mother's assisted-living facility in Westwood, Massachusetts, and lived there for four days. He set out to get a glimpse into his future, but he saw much more than that.
''What I saw really opened my eyes. I saw so much good and bad,'' he said, explaining how he found people ''living in a cultural shell''.
''We as a culture have found a way to move them out of the mainstream and box them in.''
And the good? ''They are people we can learn from,'' he said. ''They are just sitting there, waiting to give us this extraordinary information. You just have to listen.''
Before he could embark on his globe-trotting search, Friedman needed a ''compass'' to find the world's oldest people. He found one in Robert Young, an Atlanta-based investigator for the Gerontology Research Group, which keeps a global database of supercentenarians.
As of October 31, the group's database listed the names, ages and hometowns of 65 women and nine men who are at least 110 years old, but that's only the number the group's researchers have been able to validate.
Young said there are an estimated 300 to 450 living supercentenarians worldwide, with around 60 in the United States.
To separate actual supercentenarians from those who are either mistaken or lying about their age for attention or personal gain, Young and other researchers search for birth and baptismal certificates, marriage licences and census records.
''Believe it or not, scientists have not found a way to accurately determine the age of a human body,'' he said. ''So if there is no paperwork, there is really no way to prove a person's age.''
Friedman started his project in Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts, where he interviewed 112-year-old Ann Smith at a retirement home. Smith made him wait an hour while she finished her dessert.
''She was testing me,'' he writes in his book. ''At 112, time was of no importance to her. ... It was her will against mine and she dictated the terms.''
From there, his search took him across the United States to New York, Florida, Georgia, Nebraska and South Dakota, and overseas to Italy, Portugal, Spain and Morocco. Ten of his subjects were from Japan, which Friedman describes as the ''gold standard'' for how a country treats its elders.
''There is a basic reverence for their knowledge,'' he said. ''Once they reach a certain age, they are venerated for being cultural treasures.''
One of the first people to whom Friedman showed his photographs was Lama Surya Das, a Buddhist teacher who founded the Cambridge-based Dzogchen Meditation Centres. Surya Das, who lived in the Himalayas for 20 years, agrees with Friedman that elders in the United States are largely an untapped resource.
''In general, in the old eastern cultures, age is a mark of respect, experience. The people have a place in society,'' he said. ''In the modern West, everything is about the new, the culture of youth. There is not that much respect for the elders.''
No matter where he travelled, Friedman found some common threads among the people he interviewed. Most were ''extremely optimistic'', despite having endured ''all kinds of calamities''. Many were poor, but had a strong network of family and friends. And longevity seemed to run in their families.
Not all his visits were heartwarming. In East Boston, one of Friedman's subjects became agitated and started to scream for help when he photographed her.
''I saw some things that would make you cry,'' he said. ''Not every experience is going to be terrific, but you need to find a silver lining in each one.''
Friedman invested a chunk of his life savings in the project, but he said all the proceeds from the book's sale will go to the Earth's Elders Foundation, a non-profit he founded.
''I profit every day, but not financially,'' he said. ''It changed me for the good.''
The Age
Friedman was in awe the next morning when he met Damchaagiin Gendendarjaa, a 110-year-old Tibetan Buddhist lama: He had earned a doctorate in theology at age 106. He had all his teeth. He had never seen a doctor in his life, yet mild arthritis in his lower back was his only ailment.
''He was the holiest person I've ever been in the presence of,'' Friedman recalled of his February 2003 trip. ''It's hard to describe, other than he had a certain countenance I had never experienced before.''
The lama was one of more than 50 ''supercentenarians'' - people at least 110 years old - whom Friedman interviewed and photographed for a book, Earth's Elders: The Wisdom of the World's Oldest People.
Friedman, 58, a commercial photographer, closed his Connecticut studio so he could travel the world to track down his elderly subjects, verify their ages as accurately as possible and document their life stories.
"This process has changed me completely, just meeting these people,'' he said. ''I have learned to listen. I have learned that my own cultural bias (about the elderly) needs to be addressed and changed.''
His journey started in 2001, when he ''embedded'' himself at his mother's assisted-living facility in Westwood, Massachusetts, and lived there for four days. He set out to get a glimpse into his future, but he saw much more than that.
''What I saw really opened my eyes. I saw so much good and bad,'' he said, explaining how he found people ''living in a cultural shell''.
''We as a culture have found a way to move them out of the mainstream and box them in.''
And the good? ''They are people we can learn from,'' he said. ''They are just sitting there, waiting to give us this extraordinary information. You just have to listen.''
Before he could embark on his globe-trotting search, Friedman needed a ''compass'' to find the world's oldest people. He found one in Robert Young, an Atlanta-based investigator for the Gerontology Research Group, which keeps a global database of supercentenarians.
As of October 31, the group's database listed the names, ages and hometowns of 65 women and nine men who are at least 110 years old, but that's only the number the group's researchers have been able to validate.
Young said there are an estimated 300 to 450 living supercentenarians worldwide, with around 60 in the United States.
To separate actual supercentenarians from those who are either mistaken or lying about their age for attention or personal gain, Young and other researchers search for birth and baptismal certificates, marriage licences and census records.
''Believe it or not, scientists have not found a way to accurately determine the age of a human body,'' he said. ''So if there is no paperwork, there is really no way to prove a person's age.''
Friedman started his project in Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts, where he interviewed 112-year-old Ann Smith at a retirement home. Smith made him wait an hour while she finished her dessert.
''She was testing me,'' he writes in his book. ''At 112, time was of no importance to her. ... It was her will against mine and she dictated the terms.''
From there, his search took him across the United States to New York, Florida, Georgia, Nebraska and South Dakota, and overseas to Italy, Portugal, Spain and Morocco. Ten of his subjects were from Japan, which Friedman describes as the ''gold standard'' for how a country treats its elders.
''There is a basic reverence for their knowledge,'' he said. ''Once they reach a certain age, they are venerated for being cultural treasures.''
One of the first people to whom Friedman showed his photographs was Lama Surya Das, a Buddhist teacher who founded the Cambridge-based Dzogchen Meditation Centres. Surya Das, who lived in the Himalayas for 20 years, agrees with Friedman that elders in the United States are largely an untapped resource.
''In general, in the old eastern cultures, age is a mark of respect, experience. The people have a place in society,'' he said. ''In the modern West, everything is about the new, the culture of youth. There is not that much respect for the elders.''
No matter where he travelled, Friedman found some common threads among the people he interviewed. Most were ''extremely optimistic'', despite having endured ''all kinds of calamities''. Many were poor, but had a strong network of family and friends. And longevity seemed to run in their families.
Not all his visits were heartwarming. In East Boston, one of Friedman's subjects became agitated and started to scream for help when he photographed her.
''I saw some things that would make you cry,'' he said. ''Not every experience is going to be terrific, but you need to find a silver lining in each one.''
Friedman invested a chunk of his life savings in the project, but he said all the proceeds from the book's sale will go to the Earth's Elders Foundation, a non-profit he founded.
''I profit every day, but not financially,'' he said. ''It changed me for the good.''
The Age
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