And more from Udaipur...!
We are still in Udaipur. Duncan and Rosalyn will leave tomorrow and so they are off right now doing last minute chores. It is looking like we will next head south into more central India to Omkareshwar and then Ellora and Ajanta. We'll know more in a day or two.
On Oct. 31 we went to Jaipur. Jaipur is a large city and the capital of Rajasthan. It is a city of two and a half million. As I wrote last time we found a wonderful haveli (old house with a courtyard) to stay in. Like Lumbini we virtually had the place to ourselves. It had beautiful porches where we could sit and look out at the birds, trees, and Diwali fireworks.
The next day we walked into the Old City. There is a line of shops that would challenge the West Edmonton Mall. In fact looking down the mall I couldn’t 't see the end of the line of shops. Why is it I can walk around temples, or hills or palaces all day and not feel tired, but a short time shopping and I'm exhausted.
At one of the shops an old man wearing white clothes, a big black Om sign on the shirt, and a gigantic Gurdjieff-type moustache pulled me aside. He pointed to an Indian sweet and got the shopkeeper to give me one. He said this was the shop that made these sweets the best in all of Jaipur and that if you ate 15 of them a day then you wouldn't get sick in the cold season. His idea and mine of "cold season" are very different. I'm still just wearing a cotton t-shirt until late at night.
The sweets were great, sesame seed and sugar cane. Then he put on his motorcycle helmet and rode off. This was just another of the countless gratuitous interactions that happen. Many times of course, people want rupees or to have us come in their shops, or sell us something, but just as many times people are simply very interested in us, who we are, and what we think.
Sitting on the porch of the haveli that night I watched huge hawks, pigeons, ravens (black and grey), flying in the sky, sitting beside one another on roof tops. There were 20 little square kites flying at distances in the sky and as the sunset the whole sky was filled with fireworks for Diwali. The fireworks occurred not just in one place but over the whole city. Almost every house set some off and it was beautiful.
Our haveli, which was in this family for over a hundred years, was once totally in the forest and now the City had grown to surround it. It was truly a little haven for us.
November 2 we drove to Pushkar. It is a small town farther west into Rajasthan. 15,000 people and a small square shaped lake in the middle. The lake is maybe 2 or 3 city blocks square and is surrounded by 50 some ghats. In this town there are over 1000 temples. We arrived just at the beginning of the Pushkar fair. It is one of the largest cattle and camel trading fairs in the world. It is also the location of either the only, or according to some one of only a few Brahma temples in the world. Hindu mythology holds there are 3 major deities, Brahma, the creator, Shiva, the destroyer, and Vishnu, the preserver. On the full moon at the end of the fair on November 14 some 200'000 pilgrims come to Pushkar. If you bathe in the lake on that day then when you die your karma is greatly reduced and you will be born into a better life.
The next day, I walked up a large hill, to a temple to Savitri, one of Brahma's two wives. Temples to her are always on the tops of the hills and to his second wife, in the valleys. Sounds like wise planning, no? There was a warning about aggressive monkeys on the hill so I took along a big bamboo stick, just in case. I saw one monkey jump out of a tree and scare an Indian couple who had had not seen the monkey but they were no real problem.
At the top of the hill I could see out over a vast plain, ringed by sharp hills on two sides. A long flat valley stretching into the distance. The plain was filled with sand-dunes, some trees, small fields, small homes and many camels. In readiness for the Pushkar fair there were 300 camels on the fair grounds. I could see 9 or 10 encampments of 50 to 150 army tents, each one capable of sleeping 20 people. I found a place to sit on a ridge away from the temple and imagined what life was like there both now and in the past. The Rajputs are fierce warriors who the British never conquered.
In the past, when one of the Ranis, whose beauty had brought an enemy to try to capture her, was about to be taken by the enemy, she and 13,000 women committed ritual suicide. Later 50,000 died in the ensuing battle. The history of places, the things humans do and create and destroy it always intriguing to me.
The next day I walked up to another temple on the other side of the valley. I could hear drums playing and chanting and so followed the sound. At the bottom of the hill, there was a path up. It was built out of large stones, some cement, and some cement filling in some of the spaces between boulders so it looked like a river flowing. The whole thing was painted blue. The sound pulled me up the hill and I came to a temple to Hanuman, the monkey god. The statue was a painted face on a huge piece of marble. In the temple were three old men, one ringing bells, one drumming and all three chanting. I sat down in the back, behind them. Pretty soon 6 or 7 women, a few children and one other man joined me. I loved the chanting. As I left and walked home I came on a group of wild peacocks and so sat on the hillside watching them as the sun set.
love, Jim
On Oct. 31 we went to Jaipur. Jaipur is a large city and the capital of Rajasthan. It is a city of two and a half million. As I wrote last time we found a wonderful haveli (old house with a courtyard) to stay in. Like Lumbini we virtually had the place to ourselves. It had beautiful porches where we could sit and look out at the birds, trees, and Diwali fireworks.
The next day we walked into the Old City. There is a line of shops that would challenge the West Edmonton Mall. In fact looking down the mall I couldn’t 't see the end of the line of shops. Why is it I can walk around temples, or hills or palaces all day and not feel tired, but a short time shopping and I'm exhausted.
At one of the shops an old man wearing white clothes, a big black Om sign on the shirt, and a gigantic Gurdjieff-type moustache pulled me aside. He pointed to an Indian sweet and got the shopkeeper to give me one. He said this was the shop that made these sweets the best in all of Jaipur and that if you ate 15 of them a day then you wouldn't get sick in the cold season. His idea and mine of "cold season" are very different. I'm still just wearing a cotton t-shirt until late at night.
The sweets were great, sesame seed and sugar cane. Then he put on his motorcycle helmet and rode off. This was just another of the countless gratuitous interactions that happen. Many times of course, people want rupees or to have us come in their shops, or sell us something, but just as many times people are simply very interested in us, who we are, and what we think.
Sitting on the porch of the haveli that night I watched huge hawks, pigeons, ravens (black and grey), flying in the sky, sitting beside one another on roof tops. There were 20 little square kites flying at distances in the sky and as the sunset the whole sky was filled with fireworks for Diwali. The fireworks occurred not just in one place but over the whole city. Almost every house set some off and it was beautiful.
Our haveli, which was in this family for over a hundred years, was once totally in the forest and now the City had grown to surround it. It was truly a little haven for us.
November 2 we drove to Pushkar. It is a small town farther west into Rajasthan. 15,000 people and a small square shaped lake in the middle. The lake is maybe 2 or 3 city blocks square and is surrounded by 50 some ghats. In this town there are over 1000 temples. We arrived just at the beginning of the Pushkar fair. It is one of the largest cattle and camel trading fairs in the world. It is also the location of either the only, or according to some one of only a few Brahma temples in the world. Hindu mythology holds there are 3 major deities, Brahma, the creator, Shiva, the destroyer, and Vishnu, the preserver. On the full moon at the end of the fair on November 14 some 200'000 pilgrims come to Pushkar. If you bathe in the lake on that day then when you die your karma is greatly reduced and you will be born into a better life.
The next day, I walked up a large hill, to a temple to Savitri, one of Brahma's two wives. Temples to her are always on the tops of the hills and to his second wife, in the valleys. Sounds like wise planning, no? There was a warning about aggressive monkeys on the hill so I took along a big bamboo stick, just in case. I saw one monkey jump out of a tree and scare an Indian couple who had had not seen the monkey but they were no real problem.
At the top of the hill I could see out over a vast plain, ringed by sharp hills on two sides. A long flat valley stretching into the distance. The plain was filled with sand-dunes, some trees, small fields, small homes and many camels. In readiness for the Pushkar fair there were 300 camels on the fair grounds. I could see 9 or 10 encampments of 50 to 150 army tents, each one capable of sleeping 20 people. I found a place to sit on a ridge away from the temple and imagined what life was like there both now and in the past. The Rajputs are fierce warriors who the British never conquered.
In the past, when one of the Ranis, whose beauty had brought an enemy to try to capture her, was about to be taken by the enemy, she and 13,000 women committed ritual suicide. Later 50,000 died in the ensuing battle. The history of places, the things humans do and create and destroy it always intriguing to me.
The next day I walked up to another temple on the other side of the valley. I could hear drums playing and chanting and so followed the sound. At the bottom of the hill, there was a path up. It was built out of large stones, some cement, and some cement filling in some of the spaces between boulders so it looked like a river flowing. The whole thing was painted blue. The sound pulled me up the hill and I came to a temple to Hanuman, the monkey god. The statue was a painted face on a huge piece of marble. In the temple were three old men, one ringing bells, one drumming and all three chanting. I sat down in the back, behind them. Pretty soon 6 or 7 women, a few children and one other man joined me. I loved the chanting. As I left and walked home I came on a group of wild peacocks and so sat on the hillside watching them as the sun set.
love, Jim
posted by HeartoftheWorld | 2:46 AM
<< Home