In the far western corner of India, wedged between the arid expanse of the Thar Desert and the Arabian Sea, lies the seldom-visited state of Gujarat. Enticed by tales of isolated villages, nomadic tribes and quality handicrafts at cheap prices, Susannah enthusiastically plotted our course south from Rajastan.
After a two day train journey we reached Bhuj, an outpost in desolate Kutch, a sparsely populated region of vast salt flats and coastal deserts suffering from earthquakes, sectarian violence and frequent drought. In order to reach the isolated villages, we had no choice but to travel in style. After three months of rattling public buses and raucous overnight train compartments, our golden chariot offered a needed taste of luxury.
Each village we visited was inhabited by a different tribe with different customs and styles of dress. Although the two Muslim Jat villages we visited greeted us with barely restrained hostility and we left quickly, in most cases we found people unusually warm and genuine. We were amazed at such good humor flourishing in the harshest of environments.
Exhausted by weeks of sun and sand in India's great deserts, we decided to hit the beach. The twelve square kilometer island of Diu, a former Portuguese colony finally returned to India after a brief shootout in 1961, was the perfect refuge. We ate grilled fish, drank cold beer (banned in mainland Gujarat), and watched our sand castles be carried away by the lapping Arabian sea.
Thus fortified, we journeyed East to the sacred Jain mountain in Palitana. Capped by a fairy-tale city of 900-some temples, Shatrunjaya Hill is the epicenter of the Jain faith. Emerging contemporaneously with Buddhism, Jainism advocates radical nonviolence and clergy wear masks to avoid harming even the tiniest insects. Each spire on Shatrunjaya Hill, large and small, caps an indivual tuk, or temple enclosure, named after the merchant who funded it.
Crossing into Madhya Pradesh on an overnight train, we stopped for the day in the small village of Sanchi to visit one of India's oldest surviving religious monuments, a Buddhist stupa dating from the third century BC.
Evening found us aboard yet another night train, barreling East into Kipling's fabled jungles in search of the elusive Bengal tiger.
1 comment:
It’s interesting to learn of the “barely restrained hostility” in the Muslim villages. I wonder if they view all westerners that way, or do we Americans hold a special place in their hearts?
I know, I know…pretty dumb question.
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