Photographers in Asia capture the extraordinary, tragic and wonderful

A Kashmiri Muslim bride looks through her veil during a mass wedding in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, June 15

Individually, the photographs are the product of a moment, capturing glimpses of joy, grief, rage, hope, and resilience.

As a whole, the work this year of Associated Press photojournalists in Asia forms a visual patchwork quilt, an extraordinary reflection of the varied panoply of human experience in one of the world’s most fascinating regions.

Some of these pictures delight. Some horrify.

Some, even after repeated examination, retain a sense of mystery.

Indonesian Muslims perform an evening prayer called ‘tarawih’, Indonesia, March 22

A Kashmiri Muslim bride looks through her veil during a mass wedding in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, June 15

A Kashmiri Muslim bride looks through her veil during a mass wedding in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, June 15

Dancers wait to perform during the opening of Bali Arts Festival in Bali, Indonesia, June 18

Take an American ballerina, clad in shimmering white, caught in a blur of revolving motion as she rehearses in China. Or a Muslim bride who gazes pensively through a saffron-colored veil during a mass wedding ceremony in Indian-controlled Kashmir.

Or footprints left in a patch of green moss after prayers in New Delhi.

In Malaysia, a base jumper dives from a tower above the sparkling city lights of Kuala Lumpur at night. Blood splatters like raindrops from the tattooed body of a Filipino penitent as he flagellates himself to atone for sins.

There is violence and tragedy here, too.

An enraged young man leaps onto the fallen body of a security officer in Bangladesh. Ethnic Rohingya wade through the surf, their meager belongings clutched in their hands, after being denied refuge in Indonesia.

A U.S Army CH-47 Chinook helicopter transports a M777 howitzer during a joint military drill between South Korea and the United States

Supporters of the Move Forward Party display mobile phones with flash lights on during a protest in Bangkok, Thailand

As with many great news photographs, a single image is often all it takes to illustrate the complex political and social currents that sweep through the region.

A blurred double image shows Russian President Vladimir Putin as he delivers a speech in China.

Some of this year’s most powerful photos reveal the beautiful, often deadly power of nature.

A vast ocean of stars glitters in the night sky over traditional sheepskin tents in remote Mongolia. Whales dive in a harbor near Sydney, their tails poised above the water in lovely synchronicity.

A veil of sand and dust seems to envelop a man wearing a green mask as he walks among Beijing’s office buildings.

And in the Philippines, lava flows like red icing down the black slopes of a volcano. MDT/AP