Saturday, December 30th at Jodhpur:
Blog by Joan
We spent Saturday in Jodhpur, famous to us westerners for its name, which is the source of the polo pant jodhpurs. The maharajas who run Jodhpur are famous for their polo playing ability. During the British rule, they learned polo from the British and won many titles. Their style of dress evolved into the jodhpur. Jodhpur is also known as the blue city, because the houses are painted blue using indigo, in order to keep out mosquitoes.
Our first stop was at a Hindu crematorium called Jaswant Thada. The Hindu burn rather than bury their dead, throw the ashes in water, and, for the highest classes they create monuments above the funeral pyre where they were burned. In order however, to be cremated, a Hindu most perform 10 sacraments, including having your ears pierced! For that reason, baby Hindus are buried in the ground rather than cremated.
The other interesting aspect of the Hindu religion, if you want to call it that, is that the wife will throw herself on the funeral pyre and commit suicide when her husband is cremated. That is called sati and was only outlawed around 1950.
We then went to a fort called Mehrangarh Fort. Our Australian friends, Tracy and Andy, call this trip ABF: another bloody fort.
Mehrangarh Fort is notable for several reasons, at least from the American eye. First it has an elevator – built recently by Jainist women who were very old and could not walk up the path, We were told that the Jains are very wealthy as a sect: I guess this is how they spend their charitable dollars. Second, American marketing has come to the fort. The gift shop rivaled the New York Metropolitan Museum’s in quality and selection.
The forts are all beautiful with very elaborate stone carvings – they sort of merge together. However, this being a Hindu country where polygamy and aspects of the flesh are welcome, they all have as the centerpiece the room where the maharaja sleeps and meets his concubines and wives, or the women’s quarters, where the multiple wives and concubines live. Apparently the maharaja was off hunting or killing most of the year, so many of the most beautiful rooms are where the women hung out.
The women’s quarters have windows with stone trellising over them. It allows the women to see out into the courtyard and yet the men cannot see up to them. This is a Muslim influence, called purdah, where women are not allowed to be seen.
We then went to the Umaid Bhawan Palace for lunch, a mere 350 rooms. This palace was built by the maharaja between 1926 and 1944.They say it was a public works job for the local residents during a hard economic time. It is certainly a monument to the raj kings. It is still owned by the royal family. There are five members left and they live in 250 rooms, while they turned the other 100 into a hotel.
The hotel is beautiful and one of the most beautiful edifices I have ever seen. However, I couldn’t help thinking that Donald Trump would have turned the back lawn into a swimming pool with lounge chairs and a bar. The Indians have not quite gotten the hang of world class tourism. Instead, they have an indoor pool – quite elegant and built by the maharaja in the 1940’s – in a country that is extremely hot and dry!
Other Random Items:
The food: The Indian food is surprisingly good. Lots of naan and other breads, lots of vegetarian food, and very little sugar and sweets. Paneer is a cheese that looks like tofu. Obviously no beef: we only see the cows in the streets, and suffer the issue of cow dung.
Scamming as an art form: Begging is a way of life in India, but scamming is an art form. We read the statistic that 40% of the population lives on $1/day. You can understand the creativity that people use to earn a living, and some of it is illegal. We experienced a few examples of people trying to steal from us or do something else we never were quite able to figure out. In Delhi, Lenny got monkey dung on his shoes, only to be quickly approached by a shoe shine man (Donna already told you this story). He cleaned off the monkey dung and demanded more money than Lenny gave him. We later found out that monkey dung cleaning is an old tactic to get money. The shoe shine man actually puts the monkey dung on the person; it is not just an accident of nature. In Jaiselmer, a group of about 5 young, well dressed men and two well dressed women approached Missy to ask for her picture. They crowded around us and we said no; it appears they wanted to pick our pockets while we were having our picture taken. When we went into a retail store, one of the workers started to take a video of Missy; we asked him to stop, which he did but his motives are very suspect. In Delhi, we were followed into a very nice retail store by a well dressed man who had followed us for a few blocks. The store was extremely small and we didn’t understand what he was doing, told the owners and they showed him the door. We were told afterwards that he planned to grab some jewelry while they were showing us pieces and hoped the store owner would think he was with us.
Blog by Joan
We spent Saturday in Jodhpur, famous to us westerners for its name, which is the source of the polo pant jodhpurs. The maharajas who run Jodhpur are famous for their polo playing ability. During the British rule, they learned polo from the British and won many titles. Their style of dress evolved into the jodhpur. Jodhpur is also known as the blue city, because the houses are painted blue using indigo, in order to keep out mosquitoes.
Our first stop was at a Hindu crematorium called Jaswant Thada. The Hindu burn rather than bury their dead, throw the ashes in water, and, for the highest classes they create monuments above the funeral pyre where they were burned. In order however, to be cremated, a Hindu most perform 10 sacraments, including having your ears pierced! For that reason, baby Hindus are buried in the ground rather than cremated.
The other interesting aspect of the Hindu religion, if you want to call it that, is that the wife will throw herself on the funeral pyre and commit suicide when her husband is cremated. That is called sati and was only outlawed around 1950.
We then went to a fort called Mehrangarh Fort. Our Australian friends, Tracy and Andy, call this trip ABF: another bloody fort.
Mehrangarh Fort is notable for several reasons, at least from the American eye. First it has an elevator – built recently by Jainist women who were very old and could not walk up the path, We were told that the Jains are very wealthy as a sect: I guess this is how they spend their charitable dollars. Second, American marketing has come to the fort. The gift shop rivaled the New York Metropolitan Museum’s in quality and selection.
The forts are all beautiful with very elaborate stone carvings – they sort of merge together. However, this being a Hindu country where polygamy and aspects of the flesh are welcome, they all have as the centerpiece the room where the maharaja sleeps and meets his concubines and wives, or the women’s quarters, where the multiple wives and concubines live. Apparently the maharaja was off hunting or killing most of the year, so many of the most beautiful rooms are where the women hung out.
The women’s quarters have windows with stone trellising over them. It allows the women to see out into the courtyard and yet the men cannot see up to them. This is a Muslim influence, called purdah, where women are not allowed to be seen.
We then went to the Umaid Bhawan Palace for lunch, a mere 350 rooms. This palace was built by the maharaja between 1926 and 1944.They say it was a public works job for the local residents during a hard economic time. It is certainly a monument to the raj kings. It is still owned by the royal family. There are five members left and they live in 250 rooms, while they turned the other 100 into a hotel.
The hotel is beautiful and one of the most beautiful edifices I have ever seen. However, I couldn’t help thinking that Donald Trump would have turned the back lawn into a swimming pool with lounge chairs and a bar. The Indians have not quite gotten the hang of world class tourism. Instead, they have an indoor pool – quite elegant and built by the maharaja in the 1940’s – in a country that is extremely hot and dry!
Other Random Items:
The food: The Indian food is surprisingly good. Lots of naan and other breads, lots of vegetarian food, and very little sugar and sweets. Paneer is a cheese that looks like tofu. Obviously no beef: we only see the cows in the streets, and suffer the issue of cow dung.
Scamming as an art form: Begging is a way of life in India, but scamming is an art form. We read the statistic that 40% of the population lives on $1/day. You can understand the creativity that people use to earn a living, and some of it is illegal. We experienced a few examples of people trying to steal from us or do something else we never were quite able to figure out. In Delhi, Lenny got monkey dung on his shoes, only to be quickly approached by a shoe shine man (Donna already told you this story). He cleaned off the monkey dung and demanded more money than Lenny gave him. We later found out that monkey dung cleaning is an old tactic to get money. The shoe shine man actually puts the monkey dung on the person; it is not just an accident of nature. In Jaiselmer, a group of about 5 young, well dressed men and two well dressed women approached Missy to ask for her picture. They crowded around us and we said no; it appears they wanted to pick our pockets while we were having our picture taken. When we went into a retail store, one of the workers started to take a video of Missy; we asked him to stop, which he did but his motives are very suspect. In Delhi, we were followed into a very nice retail store by a well dressed man who had followed us for a few blocks. The store was extremely small and we didn’t understand what he was doing, told the owners and they showed him the door. We were told afterwards that he planned to grab some jewelry while they were showing us pieces and hoped the store owner would think he was with us.
posted by SawMillLodge at 3:03 AM
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