Happy Diwali everyone, may Laxmi smile on you.
The day is still, very smoggy and feels like it will be warm, the sky is a dirty grey colour and its hard to make out if there are any clouds or not.
We have had a great day exploring Jodhpur. We left the Palace at 8:30 this morning, stopped for lunch around 12 and were back here at the Palace at 4:30. We had the pleasure of visiting three local villages and getting an insight into life here.
Our first place of call was a muslim village called Boila, where we met a family of potters. It was a large family who were spread over quite a few adjoining houses, and they all worked in the family business. We saw the raw clay as it came from the clay pits, some 30-40km away, all dried up lumps in a big pile up against a wall. It was the job of the women to pound out the lumps to produce a fine powder, to which water was added to reconstitute the clay. They only made enough for a few days work. They make several kinds of pots, but this morning they were working on large water pots, to store drinking water in. These pots were about 30cm in diameter and had very thin walls, so thin that they can’t be made in their final form on a potters wheel. They first make a normal pot using the wheel, then hand beat the pot using a mould template out to its final size, they were very skillful, but could only produce maybe 20 pots a day. The potting wheel was a large heavy stone disk that the potter used a stick to get spinning, he’d then put a large lump of clay in the centre and managed to get 3 different products out of it in just a few minutes, he made a traditional pot, a money box pot and a pot with a perfectly fitting lid. We bought a small “magic” oil lamp, I just hope it makes it home in one piece.
Driving to the next viilage we saw a large group of camels just off the road, so we pulled in to have a look. It was a group of camelleers, they breed camels for sale. They had a few camels tied up, their legs tied so they couldn’t walk on all four, it looked very cruel, one camel had both front legs tied up so it could only get around on its front knees. Apparently they do this to control bad camels.
Back on the road and we went to another small village and family home. This time they were Bishnoi, the original “Tree Huggers”, they hold the Khejri tree sacred. Back in 1730, workers making lime for the construction of a Palace started cutting down these trees, a woman by the name of Amrita Devi, put her arms around the tree and said that if they wanted to cut down the tree they would have to cut her head off first. The leader of the work gang ordered her beheaded, then her daughters followed her example and they too met the same fate. In the end some 363 people gave up their lives for the trees. The Marharaja eventually found out about their actions and made a new law protecting the trees. Deb was keen and headed straight for a tree, but the first won was full of large black ants so she chose another and looked very happy giving it a hug, I joined in, and it was good 🙂
They grew a variety of grains on the farm, including sesame, which I had never seen still in its pod before. After our walk around, we were shown through some of their buildings and eventually to their welcoming area, where we were greeted in the traditional village way. The eldest man in the farm ground some opium in a wooded bowl, then mixed it with water (clean water for us), and then said a chant whilst placing the opium and water into a filter pouch in an elaborate ornate stand. The tradition required that I sip a small quantity of the water from the farmers palm three times, and then wash his hand, and then for Deb to do the same from my hands. (Apparently the locals do this ceremony lots of times, as a pick me up, to get their children to sleep, as cold remedy, etc – pretty well for anything they can think of, lol)
We left the village fairly relaxed, lol, and went to another village where they had formed their own co-operative for the making and selling of rugs, the Prejabity Hindus. They work 10hrs a day, 7 days a week and have only the day of a full moon to relax and not work. The rugs they made were beautiful, and it looks like we are going to see what one of them looks like at our place. 🙂 The rug we bought was the last one made by a mother and daughter before the daughter is married, they will never make another together, it took them 1 1/2 months to make. it was delivered to the co-op 30 mins before we arrived!The roads out in the country side are very dusty and the whole area is dry, and this is only just the start of the dry season for them.
After lunch we saw a local breed of horse they have the strangest hear habit, they sort of twist around. But apparently they were very good horses for going into battle on.
We went to the Meherangarh Fort, built around 1450, apparently the most magnificent citadel in all of Rajasthan. As forts go this was pretty impressive (we are almost Forted out now), sitting high on top of a hill overlooking Jodhpur, with a walled town below it. From up high you get a great panoramic view down over Jodhpur, and you can see how the city got its name as “The Blue City”, there are still many homes and buildings painted in the traditional Blue wash.
Like all the other Forts we have seen, it had very intricate stonework, elephant proof “front” Gates (you just never know when a charging battle elephant is going to come knocking on your door) and separate quarters for the women, but of course the women have sneaky hiding places so they can listen in on all the important meetings of the men.
From the Fort we went to a local textile merchant, and spent sometime looking at their wares. As we were right in the mode of this Diwali festivity, we helped enrich the lives of the merchants. Again, it will like Christmas when we get home and things start getting delivered.
We spent the late afternoon sitting back and resting up a bit before tonights festivities.
Dinner and the fireworks were great. Our table was out on the terrace overlooking the city. From just before dark there were crackers and fireworks going off every where, its 9:30 and there is no let up in the number, if anything everything is increasing. These people love their fireworks. The view was even better from the west balcony of our suite.
Off to Chhatra Sagar tomorrow and a bit more camping! 😉
More India Trivia
* It is said that the best green chilli is grown in Jaipur
* There is still a lot of corruption in India, who would’ve thought!
* It is considered good karma to feed the street animals
* 85% of marriages are arranged, marrying age for villagers is 17-20 (I have heard much younger) and 25-28 for city types.
* Local money lenders lend money out at about 30% interest, we think we saw one making collections.
* Jodhpur is antique central, thousands of pieces of old furniture and building materials (doors, windows, etc), which are cleaned up then sold in bulk to overseas markets.
* Elephant Doorknobs are a sign of good luck and prosperity, and keep evil away
* Marwar was the original name of Jodhpur
* The Umaid Bhawan Palace, that we are staying in, is the newest Palace in asia and is the 2nd largest in the world, after Buckingham Palace, and has the 2nd largest dome in India after the Taj Mahal
* Jodhpur is only 400km from the Pakastani border, and is the home to a large contigent of army personnel.
What an interesting day you have had!!
We are learning so much about India reading all of your adventures!!
I love the photo of mum hugging the tree 🙂
I can’t wait to see your rug!