Around the World and Back

Aside from wandering around looking at the temples, shopping in the open air bazaars & sipping some chai tea while talking with other travellers, life at Pushkar seemed to center around the sunset and watching it from the eastern shore of the lake.  Even before the sun hung too low in the sky, the tourists would line up at the cafés near Moon Hotel and have some Indian food, some pizza or other fare and enjoy the singing of the local minstrels.

I came later to learn that the minstrels were Bedouins who lived outside of town in traditional tents or mud-brick houses.  They clung to many of their traditional ways of life including only marrying with other Bedouin families.  Later, I would meet some groups of Gypsies who maintained a distinct cultural tradition.  They too only married within their own group and lived in traditional ways.  But, unlike the Bedouin minstrels, the Gypsies primary source of income was in reading palms, painting henna on the palms and arms of tourists, and in selling bracelets and small jewelry.  I”ll post more about the Gypsies later.

… my German friends as they sample local jewelry for purchase as we await the sunset…

For the rest of the week, while I visited Pushkar, I made the daily dusk pilgrimage to the lake.  For the sake of brevity, I will combine the photos of the week’s sunsets into one post so as not to bore all of you.  Each day I saw the same local characters and came to know them.  My favorite family, the Bedouin minstrel with the yellow-eye daughter, came to play for me each day.  Eventually I met his son (below) and his wife.  I was surprised to learn that his daughter was only 10 years old.

I never grew tired of the whole “relaxing” atmosphere that the “sunset-watching” produced.  The warm chai tea and traditional music against a warm mountain breeze made the memory of Pushkar indelible in my mind.  Half of the fun was just watching the people from around the world as they congregated to this magic spot.

… “Photo!  Photo!  Ten Rupees, photo!”  I made sure to get a photo with the young man who made an appearance each day.  Every day he posed as a different manifestation of Shiva…”

Each evening I must have shot a hundred photos of the sun setting.  It was so beautiful and still; the photos just can’t capture the beauty of it.  One evening as I was snapping away, an Indian woman happened to walk through my shot.  Looking at the photo some years later I find that I really like this photo.  She is quite beautiful in her native clothing, a friendly smile on her face, and the contrast of her clothing and the fading sun in the sky…

The last set of photos is a just a collection that I chose showing the sun as it made its way behind the western horizon….

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I walked around to the south side of the lake and from here you can see the steps where everyone watches the sunset (tan steps in middle right of photo between two white buildings and below the tree line).  There are 52 bathing Ghats surrounding the lake that the pious Hindus dip into.  They believe that the water will cure skin ailments and has restorative powers to health.

Also known as Pushkar Sarovar, the lake is mentioned as a tourist site as early as 2,400 years ago when it was inscribed on coins of the period.  The number of travellers to the lake was also mentioned by Chinese traveller Fa Xian in the 5th Century AD.  In the 9th Century AD, a Rajput King, Nahar Rao Parkikar drove a white boar he was hunting to the edge of the lake.  There he put his hand into the water and a skin ailment that he was suffering from vanished.  He had the lake restored and it has continued to draw pious pilgrims in the centuries following.

The photo below is shot from the same location as the top photo but towards the left (northwest).  It is on the north and western shores of the lake that have the greatest concentration of Ghats.  You can also see the town of Pushkar, most of the “downtown” area is in the background of this photo.

Here is another shot looking towards the northwest.  This photo was taken from the southeast short of the lake near the pedestrian causeway.

In addition to the bathing Ghats, there are dozens of temples.  I visited a few of them and will post their photos later.  I shot this tall white spired temple on the east shore of the lake against the hills in the afternoon sun.

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The following morning I asked around for Lucky and he was happy to take us to the Amber Fort (pronounced Amher) and back for 125 Rupees, about $3.  As it is early in the morning, the traffic isn’t too bad and we were able to have a relaxing ride to the fort.

As we near the mountain pass where the fort sits, Carol notices elephants on the side of the road.  She’s a real sucker for all animals, and the bigger the better.  She convinced the driver and I to pull over to feed them.  We negotiated with the banana vendor, bought a few bananas, and then fed the huge grey creatures.

I remember a joke that I heard in the 3^rd grade.  She’s from England so I’m sure she’s never heard it:

Why do Elephants have so many wrinkles?

I don’t know, why?

Have you ever tried to iron one?

She laughs heartily, probably because she didn’t expect such a corny punch line.  The elephants are very gentle with their trunks, delicately taking the bananas and then guiding them to their mouths.

Further up the road, we pull over at the base of the mountain to take pictures of the fort we are approached by a junior magician.  This little boy is able to make a rock disappear before our eyes.  We ask him to do the trick again and again and I was still not able to figure out where he put the rock.  He certainly has crafted his trade.  We tip him 20 Rupees and continue down the road.

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At Amber Fort, the tourists pay a few dollars to ride the elephants to the top of the hill.  I don’t like the idea of keeping these majestic creatures around as taxis and Carol agrees so we decided to head up the trail on foot.

The hills around Rajastan are covered in forts and hilltop castles.  It reminds me of the coast of Oman and Yemen where every hilltop is covered by a Portuguese fort from the 16^th or 15^th Century.  These forts were built by the Raj, known for their fierce warrior tradition.

The Raj were rarely subdued by the Muslim Moguls or later, by the British rulers.  Most of the Raj princes were allowed autonomy within a confederation of states in India.  To this day the Raj princes exist in some form while their castles and forts serve as museums.  The photo above is shot above the main Palace complex but is still part of the Fort’s defenses.  Further down the hill along the hill ridge I could see fortifications that reminded me of the Great Wall of China (below).

At the top of the hill we were able to tour the palace and its gardens.  The cool breeze blew through the palace as we enjoyed the view from the top of the hill.  Below we could see down into the town and I imagined the Raj Prince as he looked down on his subjects during his reign.

The Palace was decorated in a similar style as the White Palace inside of the Red Fort; small pieces of glass and mirror were embedded into the plaster.  This decorative effect is quite beautiful and I imagined what it must look like when it is illuminated by hundreds of candles.  Inside the courtyard near the Palace stood lush gardens.  The weather was dry and warm and with the brown hills, it reminded me of the hills in California.

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