We gather with thousands of Hindus outside the Mariamman temple in Downtown Kuala Lumpur awaiting the departure of the silver chariot carrying Muruga, God of yoga and the spiritual path, to Batu Caves for the grand Thaipusam festival on Tuesday.
Jan 122012
The Golden Temple in Amritsar is one of my favorite places for so many reasons. One major reason is that they selflessly feed tens of thousands of people every day. What an act of compassion and service.
I came across this video on Vimeo and it’s really well done showing the kitchen at the Golden Temple in Amritsar and how they go about feeding the masses. I was there last year during Diwali, the Festival of Lights, and it truly was a special experience. It was my second Diwali in Amritsar and this time I had a group with me on one of our spiritual adventures. If you ever make it to India do try and make your way north to Amritsar and if you can, time it with Diwali. You are sure to have an ineffable experience.
To see photos from my previous visits to Amritsar, click on the following links
Diwali at Amritsar in 2010
Diwali at Amritsar in 2011
freedom of food and the golden temple from the source project on Vimeo.
Video Description From a culture of sharing we have become a culture driven by possession and profit. The century of self. This short film comes from the kitchens of the golden temple where every day around 100,000 people, regardless of colour, caste or religion, donate, prepare, consume and clean for nothing more than compassion. Are we really moving in the right direction?
This year the world will produce enough food to feed twice the world’s population, yet every day almost one billion people will sleep hungry.
music by DJ Shadow . Organ Donor . www.djshadow.com
Produced by Chintan Gohil www.chintangohil.com
Jan 112012
As we get ready for our two upcoming spiritual adventures at the end of January and February to India we share with you this inspiring video we came across on Vimeo. It’s titled Namaste India from Burning Flag. The description of the video reads “A short montage featuring some of the footage that we shot during Burning Flag Films, Cancer Train project in North West India.”
Here are a collection of photos from my visit to the state of Rajasthan in Northwestern India. It’s my favorite place to photograph in India. This makes up part 3. Hope you enjoy them.
This man and his family made pots that are to be sold in Rajasthan and neighboring states. Everything about being in the room with him while he was working was charming...the brightly fluorescent colored walls, the light on his face, the preciseness of his work, ...
We stopped at the home of this Bishnoi family living out in the desert south of Jodhpur and the family invited us in to their mud home. The lady of the house, at my request just before leaving, agreed to pose for this photo. Rajasthani women take great pride in their appearance and are so very inspiring.
Saddling up the camels with brightly colored blankets in the Great Thar Desert.
Mounds of colored powder are on sale to make colorful bindis!
Westernization of a culture. A camel trader, dressed from head to toe in a traditional Rajasthani outfit (including shoes) chats with a young man in full western attire.
Today’s photographic reflections of 2011.
This little girl looked neglected and bummed that her dad was more interested in gambling with his friends than playing with her. West Rajasthan, India.
The cobbler....was quite engaged in his phone conversation that I got right up to him to take this photo that he hardly noticed me
One of the highlights this year was riding the train from Kandy to Ella in the hill country of Sri Lanka. It was simply breathtaking.
This mahout was hanging out with his elephant in a forest in the hill stations of Kerala. Most of us have dogs and/or cats but I think having an elephant must also be a lot of fun.
As the year comes to a conclusion I thought I’d share, over the remaining days, some of the photos that I took this year that stood out in my mind. Here’s the first set. Four photos taken during our most recent spiritual adventure to north India.
More photos to come tomorrow.
Photographed in New Delhi at India's largest mosque, Jama Masjid.
This photo was taken in the home of a weaver well outside of the village of Chandelao in West Rajasthan. Life's impressions on her face left an impression on my mind that age, indeed, prowls like a leopard and it is wise to take to the spiritual path early on.
As I was walking, early one morning, along the narrow quiet lanes in the village of Khejarla the bright blue doors to a home suddenly opened and this young girl peered out. It's always nice to be greeted with a smile first thing in the morning.
I took our group on an excursion one evening and after an hour of driving we arrived at an even smaller village than the one we were staying in. We were greeted by over 30 smiling, giggling and laughing children that kept running up to us and then running away. A good reminder to adults that it is ok to play. After all, my guru did say, life is meant to be lived joyously.
This entertaining local amused us with his magic tricks in Khejarla, a village east of Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India during our recent spiritual adventure. He was hilarious and quite good as well.
Continuing our coverage of our recent spiritual adventure to northwestern India.
It’s our last day in Pushkar. So much going on during the Pushkar camel fair that we feel like we have so much to share. The camel trading is winding down and many of the traders are making the long walk home. The attention is now shifting to the town and sacred festivities leading up to the full moon day.
The streets are teeming with pilgrims and a spectacle of color. Rajasthan, to me, is the most colorful state in India, despite its arid landscape. And Pushkar today is the most colorful town. The ghats are lined with pilgrims taking a bath in the sacred lake, the Brahma temple has a constant flow of worshipers and every priest in town is happily performing a ritual.
About 9am the sounds of drums could be heard along the main bazaar. Is it an Indian parade? I hoped so. And surely enough it was. A parade of sadhus no less. What an experience for our group to witness and be part of. A cart piled high with flowers was being drawn as sadhus reached into it and grabbed handful of flowers showering all those who stood along the sides of the street with flowers. But this went both ways. Locals and pilgrims in turn showered the parade of sadhus with flowers from rooftops and the side of the street.
The air was fragrant, the street a carpet of flowers, chanting, drumming and joyous cheers the entire parade which lasted over an hour.
Here are some photos from this gala event.
Parade of Sadhus
The streets are filled with color...what a sight!
Flowers being showered from the roof tops.
Rose petals fill the air...
Flowers showered from the rooftops carpet the streets with color.
A cart full of flowers is being drawn through the streets. Sadhus use these flowers to bless the pilgrims in town.
Eran purchasing some bangles from a street vendor
Julyne is in love with India
Watch a video of the parade
Nov 162011
It’s our last full day in Pushkar. The town is bustling with people as the full moon approaches. It’s the holiest time of the month for a dip in the lake and at this time of the year it is more important than ever.
The group is on their own today having been given the assignment to focus on some exercises from the classes on our spiritual adventure. Some spend a portion of the day meandering the narrow streets in Pushkar and sitting by the ghats along the sacred lake. One of the group members also climbed the nearby hill to the Ganesha temple on top of it.
We’ll share soon the contents of the classes we covered on the trip but here are some photos of life in Pushkar this morning (Nov 6th).
A shrine to the supreme god Siva in the form of a Lingam (timeless, formles and spaceless) along the main bazaar street in Pushkar
Ladies coming out of the Brahma temple in Pushkar
A sea of people in the streets during this festive time
A Hindu priest that belongs to the Vaishnava sect, worshipping Vishnu as the supreme god.
Pilgrims bathing at Pushkar's holy lake
This is our last coverage of the Camel Fair at Pushkar and the camel traders with their colorful turbans. Tomorrow, we’ll look at Pushkar town, made holy by the sacred lake that it is built around and a rare temple to Brahma. It’s our final day at Pushkar before we move on to Samode, Rajasthan.
Though it is hot during the day most Rajasthani men and women seem unaffected by the heat. As the sun makes its way towards the horizon the lighting gets perfect for photography and photographers gather in large numbers. Here’s a collection of photos from later in the day, when the sun is getting ready to set.
Pushkar Camel Fair
Ladies returning home after a day of working in the farms
Here are a couple of videos on Indian Street Food cooking taken during our time at the Pushkar Camel Fair in Rajasthan. Yummy!
This man has been cooking up amazing dishes all night at the Pushkar Camel Fair in Rajasthan.
Vijay Kumar, originally from Guwahati in the state of Assam in northeastern India, runs a food stall at the Pushkar Camel Fair in Rajasthan, India and beats out tandoori chapatis with machine gun speed. See the video below.
And here’s the finished product….delicious hot chapatis straight from the tandoori oven!
