the eyes in this photograph,
photograph © Korchnoi Pasaribu, and it is not Photoshoped, blue eyes
are a rare sight in Indonesia, a country where the vast majority of the
population has dark hair and dark eyes, but some members of an indigenous tribe
have the most stunning blue eyes, because of a rare condition known as
Waardenburg Syndrome,
believed
to affect about 1 in 42,000 people, Waardenburg Syndrome is characterized by
some degree of hearing loss and pigmentation deficiencies, which can include
bright blue eyes (or one blue eye and one black/brown eye). It is
caused by mutations in any of several genes that affect the operation
of neural crest cells in embryonic development,
the
visual effect of Waardenburg Syndrome is particularly impressive in ethnic
groups where blue eyes are a rarity, as you can see in the photos of members of
the Buton tribe taken by Indonesian geologist and amateur photographer Korchnoi
Pasaribu,
Buton Island, which is located in Indonesia’s Sulawesi region, is home to the indigenous
Buton people, some of whom suffer from the Waardenburg Syndrome and have the
characteristic electric blue eyes (either one or both),
Korchnoi
Pasaribu visited Buton Island last month and took some photos of its natives,
focusing on their stunning electric blue eyes,
He posted the photos on his Instagram, and they have since gone viral, being
picked up by most major news outlets and shared massively on social media, what stunning eyes indeed.
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