POV: Sadhus, Charlatans or Not?

Photos © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

Yesterday's post prompts me to elaborate a bit more on the question whether the sadhus in India (and Nepal) are charlatans or a genuine aesthetics.

From my numerous travels in India over the past 10+ years, and from having met innumerable sadhus during my assignments and photographic expeditions, I'm reasonably comfortable in asserting that most of them are a cross between homeless charlatans and spiritual ascetics. The more difficult question is whether they became ascetics because of poverty or because of some form of inherent spirituality. Charlatanism is an integral part of many of them, but they may have resorted to this activity because of need.

With their tilak markings, and their orange cloths, they are certainly photogenic and some of them exploit their appearance to coax money from gullible (and sometimes, not-so-gullible) tourists. Others are more imaginative, and develop an aura of spirituality to generate religious respect and alms from lay people.

Naturally, there are a large number of sadhus who are authentic. For instance, the Naga Babas, whose ceremonial bathing at the Kumbh Melas is a sought after ceremony, belong to the Shaiva sect and are known as 'warrior ascetics'.

In 2006, I've come across authentic sadhus during an assignment in Varanasi. My fixer was from this ancient city, and knew it inside out. Upon learning that I was interested in sadhus, and seeing my disinterest in photographing the "tourist" sadhus basking in the sun on the ghats of Varanasi, he took me to a number of out-of-the-way ashrams for sadhus.

It's there that I met elderly sadhus, living in nothing more than cubicle-like tiny rooms and subsisting on small bowls of dahl and rice. These were true ascetics, who spent their days reading Hindu sacred scriptures, meditating and avoiding contact with lay people as much as possible.

I recall one of them had come to Varanasi because it was where he'd be eventually cremated and cast in the Ganges, thus achieving moksha. That in itself is not unusual, but what was unusual was his background.

He had spent his whole career with the Indian Railways (the largest employer in India), and upon his retirement he chose to become an ascetic, and left his family with their full consent, leaving all his worldly possession and his pension. He came to his ashram, and started to study herbal medicinal plants. Eventually, patients came to seek his advice, and the word spread amongst the poor in Varanasi that he was a healer. He dispensed his advice for free, and occasionally accepted some food as payment for his services.

During my visits to these ashrams, I was never asked for money...no one offered me ganja...and no one asked to pose for my cameras...and certainly no one spoke English. One of the sadhus (the one reading a scripture) never even looked up to acknowledge me as I was photographing him.

Alexis Pazoumian | Sadhu Hundred

©Alexis Pazoumian-All Rights Reserved

Sadhus...depending on your point of view or experience, they can be spiritual ascetics, devout mystics, philosophic vagabonds, or homeless charlatans. I can say that many of the sadhus I've encountered (and I have met a lot during my countless travels in India) are a bit of all these descriptions, but most are charlatans, preying on the generosity, spirituality and superstition of lay people...many of whom are equally poor. That said, they are photogenic and they know it.

It is estimated there are 4 to 5 million sadhus in India, and these belong to two main sects: the Shaiva sadhus, who are ascetics devoted to Shiva, and Vaishnava sadhus, who are renouncers devoted to Vishnu (including Rama and Krishna). Although some sub sects have properties that generate revenue to sustain members, most sadhus rely on donations, and poverty and hunger are realities for many sadhus.

Alexis Pazoumian's Sadhu Hundred is a photo gallery of sadhu portraits; some of which were photographed at the Pashupatinath Temple located on the banks of the Bagmati River in Kathmandu. It's one of the most significant Hindu temples of Shiva in the world.

You'll note the sadhus following Shiva wear a tilak of three horizontal lines across the forehead, while the tilak of Vaishnava sadhus usually include two or more vertical lines resembling the letter U, which symbolizes Vishnu's foot.

Alexis Pazoumaian is a photographer in France who, after completing a two-year course in a graphics school, turned to photography. He spent six months documenting and living in one of Rio de Janeiro’s favelas,  and was finalist in a contest by “Paris Match” for photojournalism students.

His clients include Agence Elan, Premicefilms, Elie Saab, Maje, Hilldale production, Toshiba, Caviar Agency, We love Art, Monsieur White, Société Général, Maison Sauvage, Grand Palais, Groupe Vendôme, and Agence moderne. 

Subrata Biswas | Chhau, Behind The Mask

Photo © Subrata Biswas-All Rights Reserved

India, black and white* photography, storytelling, cultural-religious tradition....what's not to make my pulse race?

This is about the ancient traditional dance form named Chhau. It's a type of Indian tribal martial dance which is popular in the Indian states of Orissa (now called Odisha), Jharkhand and West Bengal. There are three subgenres of the dance, based on its places of origin and development, and these are Seraikella Chhau, Mayurbhanj Chhau and Purulia Chhau.

The Chhau blends dance and martial practices employing mock combat techniques, stylized gaits of birds and animals and movements based on the chores of village housewives. The dance is performed by male dancers from families of traditional artists or from local communities and is performed at night in an open space.

As is often the case with such traditional dance forms, the future doesn't look bright for the Chhau despite it being inscribed in the UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Fewer young people are interested in joining the art form due to the uncertainty of its financial future.

Behind The Mask is a photo essay by Subrata Biswas, a talented visual storyteller and painter from Kolkata. Despite being an IT software engineer by training, he decided to embrace a life as a self-taught painter/artist and photographer/photojournalist. His paintings have been exhibited in various venues India, while his photographs were published in a number of print and online media.

*I don't know why pure black & white images now automatically appear as sepia on Blogger. 

Shuchi Kapoor | The Unreasonables

"Why would someone inflict pain on themselves?"

On the white eight-foot walls of a private building on the corner of Goubert Avenue, close to the statue of Dupleix, in the city of Chennai (India), Shuchi Kapoor is currently exhibiting a collection of super-sized photographs, titled ‘The Unreasonables’. These photographs question the sin cleansing rituals by those who are often labelled as ‘possessed’’ in various parts of India.

The initiative was taken by Pondy A.RT. and intends to fill a section of the sea-facing walls with insightful art which will focus on a theme or issue every month through the medium of photography. It follows the model of movie posters, which are often displayed to the public on walls.

Photo © Gayatri Nair-All Rights Reserved

Shuchi is a photographer currently based in Chennai; quite a distance from her native Gujarat, and who describes herself as a storyteller minus the frills. She worked for a decade in advertising until she found her calling in photography as well as in writing. Some of her stories have been published by Femina, The Sunday Guardian, Marie Claire, The Lonely Planet, Spiceroute, and TAXI.

She also assisted me in Ajmer last May during my Sufi Saints of Rajasthan & Kashmir Photo Expedition-Workshop, which aimed at documenting the Urs of the Sufi saint Moin'Uddin Chisti.

Rasha Yousif | Heaven's Gate

Rasha Yousif was on my Sufi Saints of Rajasthan & Kashmir Photo Expedition-Workshop, and documented the Urs of the Sufi saint Moin'Uddin Chisti which attracts thousands of devotees and pilgrims from the four corners of South Asia, including Pakistan and Bangladesh. She produced an audio-slideshow of the event, and titled it Jannati Darwaza; Urdu for Heaven's Gate.

There's the story, perhaps apocryphal, that whoever crosses the threshold of Jannati Darwaza seven times to circumambulate the saint's tomb, will secure a place in heaven...hence its name.

While most attending the event are of the Muslim faith, there are significant numbers of Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and members of other religious traditions who visit the shrine during this annual observance. 

Moinuddin Chishti is the more famous and revered Sufi saint of the Chisti order of the Indian Subcontinent. He was born in 1141 and died in 1230 CE, and is believed to be a descendant of the Prophet Muhammed. He interpreted religion in terms of human service and exhorted his disciples "to develop river-like generosity, sun-like affection and earth-like hospitality."

Rasha is from Bahrain, where she works in the finance industry. She graduated from the University of Bahrain, and obtained her Masters in Finance from DePaul University.

She's a passionate and prolific photographer, and her work can viewed on her website, and on her Vimeo page.

Kris Bailey | Threads For Prayers

"The highest form of devotion is to redress the misery of those in distress – to fulfill the needs of the helpless and to feed the hungry.” - Moin'Uddin Chisti

Here's a well made audio-slideshow of the annual Urs Festival commemorating the death of the Sufi Saint Khwaja Moin Uddin Hasan Chishti produced by Kris Bailey, a member in my Sufi Saints of Rajasthan & Kashmir Photo Expedition-Workshop. It's the third time Kris traveled with me...the first being on Kolkata's Durga Puja, and the second being The Oracles of Kerala Photo Expedition & Workshop.

The Sufi Saints Photo Expedition/Workshop's principal objective was to document the death anniversary held in Ajmer (Rajasthan) of Hazrat Shaikh Khwaja Syed Muhammad Moin'Uddin Chisti (1141- 1230 CE), the most famous Sufi saint of the Chishti Order of the Indian Subcontinent. He introduced and established the order in South Asia. He is also known as Gharib Nawaz or ‘Benefactor of the Poor'.

Kris chose to produce the audio slideshow (converted to video) in monochrome to avoid the divergence in colors arising from the harsh sunlight and the shadows created by the canopies in the shrine.

Threads for Prayers is an apt title for this Sufi religious observance, and underscores the syncretic commonality between Hinduism and Islam in South Asia. A Hindu practices is to tie red threads known as kalava or mauli in temples for their wishes to be fulfilled, and it's one of the practices also observed in Sufi shrines.

Apart from being an attorney in Northern California, Kris is a photographer who's keenly interested in South and South East Asia, and is particularly attracted to unusual rituals and religious festivals. She's already been on two of my most intense photo expeditions workshops, and that doesn't seem to deter her in the least.

A number of her projects can be viewed on her Vimeo page.

Charles Meacham | Calcutta's Taxi

Photo © Charles Meacham-All Rights Reserved

I just read in the India Times that the color of the iconic taxis in Kolkata is to be shortly changed from yellow to blue and white.

Imagine! Although there are new models in the taxi business, most of Kolkata's taxis are antiquated yellow painted Hindustan Ambassadors and I wager their owners and drivers are raising hue and cry at the government's decision. To add further insult to injury, the West Bengal government is reported to be planning to introduce a new fleet of 2,000 cabs in the city which could never refuse passengers, citing late hours, inclement weather or whatever pretext.

So perhaps as a swan's song to these venerable workhorses and for the 'fiddled-with' meters, here's Charles Meacham's Calcutta's Taxi, a photo essay on the yellow taxis that crawl around this teeming metropolis.

I often used these yellow taxis to travel from one end of Kolkata to the other during my Durga Puja Photo Expedition-Workshop in October 2011, and I recall an occasion when seated in the front seat alongside the driver, I almost passed out from the heat spewed out by the motor's heat of the old and ill-maintained Ambassador. Obviously there was no air conditioning, nor were the open windows any help whatsoever in Kolkata's heat and humidity.

Charles Meacham was born outside of Philadelphia, and started traveling immediately after high school. Having spent the last ten years photographing, he has received over 30 international photography awards, and attended the 25th annual Eddie Adams workshop. He co-founded the Walk With Pride project which aimed to bring social awareness to LGBT Rights by photographing pride marches around the world.  After 10 years of living in Asia, Charles calls Brooklyn his home. 

Supranav Dash | Trades Portraits

Photo © Supranav Dash-All Rights Reserved

I very much like this type of project. 

Everybody who's been to India knows that many occupations, trades and services are to a large extent linked to the prevailing caste system. For a few hundred of years, members of specific castes were rigidly tied to occupations, and could rarely deviate from them. These occupations, crafts and trade know-how were passed from generation to generation; from father to son...but how long will this continue with the globalization and the erosion of the caste system.

The photographs were made in Kolkata by Supranav Dash between 2011-2013. Kolkata was, of course, the capital of British Colonial India and also the commercial hub of the Indian sub-continent. I came across this work on TIME's Lightbox blog, and learned from the accompanying article by that Ms Jyoti Thottam that Supranav was influenced by Eugène Atget and Irving Penn who documented the trades and professions of London, Paris and New York.

The first photograph on the Lightbox blog is that of a Brahmin with a deformed cow, and those of you who have visited Pushkar will certainly recall such itinerant individuals with similar cows, trying to make meagre earnings by parading these unfortunate animals. 

I seldom read the comments that accompany such projects, but this time I did...piqued by curiosity at how viewers will react to the monochromatic photographs of India. True enough, a commentator didn't like it and described the choice as strange. She proceeded to insult another commentator who disagreed with her. Well, I think these monochromes perfectly fit the subject matter.

Supranav Dash was born and brought up in Kolkata, India. He has a BFA in Photography (Honors) from the School of Visual Arts, NYC. He currently lives and works in Brooklyn. His areas of interest are Fine Art and Social Documentary.

If you're interested in viewing the portraiys along with ambient sound (presumably of Kolkata's streets), drop by Supranav's Vimeo page.

World Nomads' Travel Photography Scholarship 2013

Photo © Divya Agrawal-All Rights Reserved

Following my earlier posts which are essentially critical of photography contests, I stumbled on World Nomads' Travel Photography Scholarship 2013 announcing the first place winner as being Divya Agrawal with her photo essay titled Dotma: In The House I Can Live.

Now, this is a different breed of photo contest from those we usually see, and some of you actually participate in.

This photo contest/scholarship is sponsored by WorldNomads.com and National Geographic Channel, and it's giving one aspiring photographer the opportunity to accompany a National Geographic photographer, Jason Edwards, on assignment in Greenland for 10 days. The original invitation to participate is here. 

Although World Nomads is a travel insurance company, and could certainly use all or some of the submissions for promotion purposes, the contest/scholarship was open for non-professionals only, and requires no entry fees. However, there some other terms regarding the usage of the images made during the assignment that are not totally altruistic. 

That said, I think these terms are reasonably fair since the winner will be traveling to Greenland, and will be mentored during that time, for free.

Another reason I am posting about this Travel Photography Scholarship is that Mohit Gupta, a good friend from New Delhi and an attendee of my multimedia class at the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop, has earned fifth place in the contest/scholarship, with his lovely The Art of Pigeon Racing.

The whole photo essay can be viewed on Galli Magazine, with the title of Winged Legacy of Old Delhi, which depicts the art of pigeon combat (known as kaboortarbazi) as practiced on the roofs of this old city. Mohit tells us that his photo essays made in Old Delhi are inspired by William Dalrymple's City of Djinn. Many of us feel the same. 

Photo © Mohit Gupta-All Rights Reserved

Al Jazeera | Bloodletting In Delhi

Photo © Showkat Shafi/Al Jazeera-All Rights Reserved

"My family has been practicing this for generations and this is a gift of God."

One of medicine’s oldest practices is bloodletting, and is thought to have originated in ancient Egypt several thousands of years ago. Spreading to to Greece, it was believed that all illnesses stemmed from an overabundance of blood in the patients' bodies. In medieval Europe, bloodletting became the standard treatment for various conditions, from plague and smallpox to epilepsy and gout.

It still is a therapy for a very small number of conditions, and the use of leeches has experienced a revival in the field of microsurgery. It is still commonly used for a wide variety of conditions in the Unani, Ayurvedic, and traditional Chinese systems of alternative medicine.

Al Jazeera has featured a photo essay by photographer Showkat Shafi of practitioners in Old Delhi still practicing this 3000 year-old bloodletting process. These practitioners are of the Unani school (a form of traditional medicine used by some South Asian Muslims), known as Hakim. (See an earliest post with my photographs of a Kashmiri Unani hakim here).

The photo essay shows a Hakim tying the hands or legs of patients with cloths, and making small incisions with a razor blade to allow blood to trickle out of the body, following this ancient medical practice. These practitioners claim they do not charge money for the 'treatment' as they would lose the power to heal if they did so.

The Al Jazeera report mentions that this particular clinic opens at 9am and treats about 40 patients a day. New razor blades are used, and although Delhi has world-class hospitals, people still queue at this open-air clinic to be treated for various ailments through the process of bloodletting.

Charlotte Rush Bailey | Prayers To A Pir

Charlotte Rush-Bailey has been on virtually all my recent photo expeditions-workshops (except for the one in Vietnam), and has completed her multimedia project of Gharib Nawaz's Urs festival during my Sufi Saints of Rajasthan & Kashmir Photo Expedition-Workshop.

Charlotte is a photographer who migrated to the world of photography from a corporate career that covered three decades of marketing and communications positions in a variety of global industries including energy, financial services, media, conservation, technology and professional services. This gave her opportunities to work with people all over the world, and to learn to appreciate cultural nuances and the influences of socio-political forces.

She's the third participant to send me her multimedia work of Gharib Nawaz's Urs festival, which captures the intensity of the event.  Prayers To A Pir was made using Adobe Premiere Pro instead of Soundslides which I favor,  but Charlotte found it to be easier to sequence and sync the audio with the stills.

Kainaz Amaria | On Being Zoroastrian

Here's an interesting, and well produced personal documentary on Parsi Zoroastrianism. As readers and followers of this blog know, I'm interested in documenting world religions...and their various rituals, and Zoroastrianism is a religious tradition that I've never thought of. The personal documentary is a tad long by my standards, but stay with it to witness some footage made inside a fire temple.

Zoroastrianism was founded by the Prophet Zoroaster (or Zarathustra) in ancient Iran approximately 3500 years ago, and is one of the world's oldest monotheistic religions. For 10 centuries, Zoroastrianism was one of the most powerful religions in the world, and was the official religion of Persia from 600 BCE to 650 CE.

Speaking of oldest monotheistic religions, I intrigued by the notion that Akhenaten (ca 1300 BC) of Pharaonic Egypt could've been the first in human history to subscribe to a form of monotheism He declared that Aten was not merely the supreme god, but the only god.

Ms Amaria makes the distinction that her documentary is on Parsi Zoroastrianism, rather than Iranian. The Parsis are members of Zoroastrian communities in India, and ethnically distinct from the Iranians even though both groups are Persian Zoroastrians. Zubin Mehta and Rohinton Mistry are two of the prominent Parsis I know of...but there are many others.

Kainaz Amaria has a B. A. in international relations and political science from Boston University and an M.A. in photography from the School of Visual Communication, Ohio University. In 2010 she was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to Mumbai, India. Her images and multimedia collaborations have been recognized by contests including CPOY, Women in Photojournalism, Atlanta Photojournalism Conference, the National Press Photographers’ Contest and the South Asian Journalist Association. Her clients include Vogue India, The New York Times, Reuters, National Public Road, Radio Netherlands Worldwide, GlobalPost, Marie Claire (USA), the St. Petersburg Times, US News & World Report, Inc. Magazine & Condé Nast Traveler.

She's a member of the multimedia team at National Public Radio (NPR) and is currently based in Washington, D.C.

Arko Datto | Ladakh In Monochrome

Photo © Arko Datto- Courtesy Al Jazeera

Al Jazeera is not only an Arab television network, but occasionally also features excellent photo essays by established photographers of far flung regions of the world and of obscure festivals.

Ladakh, also known as "land of high passes, is a region of India in the state of Jammu and Kashmir that lies between the Kunlun mountain range in the north and the Himalayas to the south. It's inhabited by people of Indo-Aryan and Tibetan descent, and is one of the most sparsely populated regions in Jammu and Kashmir.

It's also one of the few regions in India that I have yet to visit.
Arko Datto's Ladakh: Life on India's Northern Frontiers monochrome photographs of Ladakh dispense with the vivid colors associated with Ladakhi cultures, religious dances and way of life.

Arko Datto is an Indian born photo journalist, whose work has been published on BBC World, BBC India, Le Journal de la Photographie, The Times of India, Deccan Herald, DNA, Mumbai Mirror, Photojournale, Galli Magazine, Private Magazine and Kindle Magazine.

Back Story | The Black Coated Fakir

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

The black-coated fakir suddenly appeared out of nowhere in the Sufi shrine of Moin'Uddin Chisti during the annual Urs...in a sense, he was almost an apparition. Clutching a green flag with the numerals 786*, he had a certain gentle presence, a wise demeanor about him...was it perhaps because of his white beard?

Was he just a pankiwallah or was he more than that? I couldn't find out as no one nearby spoke English, but I really didn't mind. I let my imagination roam free, and thought he was also a Muslim "sadhu", a fakir...a wandering mendicant who had renounced all material possessions in order to gain spiritual salvation.

But my imagination would not stop there.

Had this been some centuries ago, this gentle fakir may well have been one of the Sufis who walked from the west (Afghanistan and Persia) to Pakistan and India, and who were instrumental in establishing Islam in South Asia through their liberal attitude, tolerance and kindness towards the poor.

And time-traveling back to the 1200s when the establishment of the first two Sufi orders in India took place, I imagined this black-coated fakir could've stopped and settled in Ajmer after his lengthy wanderings. Had he lived at the time, who knows...he could've become a Sufi saint himself with a dargah bearing in his own name.

Yes, I should've found out his name.

* What is 786? According to Wikipedia and other sources, Muslims in South Asia use 786 as an abbreviation for the Arabic letters of the opening phrase of the Qur'an. 786 is the sum of these letters in the Arabic numeral system.

For more details on Sufis, see my photo essay The Possessed of Mira Datar.

POV: Religious Trances or Mental Disease?

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy- All Rights Reserved- Photo Crop

In virtually all the Sufi dargahs I visited, from the shrine of Bahadur Shaheed in Varanasi to the one of Mira Ali Datar near Ahmedabad, I was stunned by the sight of women (a few men as well) entering into trances in front of the saints' tombs.

I initially thought these trances were caused by the religious fervor of these women, particularly in the ethereal "presence" of a saint...a syndrome colloquially called hajri. Being in a trance signified the entrance of the deceased saint in the body of the entranced person, to rid it from ailments, from jinns and other undesirable symptoms.

From my casual observations, these trances varied in their intensity from person to person. Some were completely oblivious of their surroundings, whilst others screeched and suddenly lunged at anyone who approached them with a camera. Some were accompanied by husbands, sisters and other family members, while others were alone.

At the shrine of Bahadur Shaheed, a woman supposedly in a trance tried to throw a rock at my head, whilst another in Mira Datar shoved me rather violently, and then apologized when she was out of her trance, saying she was unaware she did so.

I witnessed a significant number of women in the shrines of Srinagar sobbing and muttering supplications to the interred saints....but trances are different, and I concluded these are caused by mental disease.

Schizophrenia most commonly expresses itself as auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, which may be what the “hajri” manifestations are. I’ve witnessed seemingly perfectly normal people arrive at these dargahs, socialize with their families and friends…then walking over to an area closer to the tomb itself, and slowly bring themselves to a crescendo of repetitive, and violent, erratic outbursts of physical activity that include rolling on the floor, banging their heads on pillars and walls, and swaying their heads from side to side.

If you look closely at the cropped image above, you'll notice that the arm of the woman in the trance bears scars that must've been caused by self-cutting. Self cutting is a symptom of borderline personality disorder, depression, anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, and schizophrenia.

In India, poverty-stricken and superstitious people who suffer from mental illness frequently employ faith healing as an alternative to psychiatric treatment, and it is mostly those that I see at these dargahs.

Nicolas Perron | Face To Faith

Photo © Nicolas Perron-All Rights Reserved

Ah, the Kumbh Mela! Yes, it's an important religious event for Hindus...but despite its over-commercialization, its entrenched charlatanism, its "must-go" label as an annual event for Western (and others) seekers of spirituality and documentarians (visual or otherwise), it has a magnetic pull, and a strong one at that.

It is considered to be largest peaceful gathering in the world, with over 100 million people (an example of the overhyping?) visiting during the Maha Kumbh Mela in 2013  It is held every third year at one of the four places by rotation: Haridwar, Allahabad, Nashik and Ujjain.

Nicolas Perron returned from the recent Kumbh Mela in Allahabad, and uploaded 100 of his photographs of the event. He managed to stay clear (almost) of the ash smeared sadhus, and of the freak show that is a certainty at the Kumbh, and focused his lens on the regular devotees....and titled his gallery Face To Faith.

Nicolas Perron is a self-taught photographer, independent and freelance, in particular a travel/humanitarian photographer. He is currently based in Paris, France, from where he travels extensively, working on assignment and on commission, creating stock images, and developing his own personal projects.

Back Story | Bilal, The Callused Punkawallah

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved (click to enlarge)

Although my travel photography style is not for stock, and is more akin to photojournalism, I still like to make posed portraits... some are environmental and others just straight forward, especially of those I encounter who make interesting stories.

Bilal is one of such people. I met him in the dargah of Nizzm Uddin in Delhi where he earns a living as a punkawallah, fanning the devotees to provide comfort during the summer days while they pray or listen to the periodic qawwali. I hadn't seen him before on my regular trips to Nizzam Uddin...so perhaps he's a newcomer.

Punkawallah in Hindi means 'the man with a fan', but I'm not sure if it's the precise appellation for Bilal's profession as he works in a Muslim shrine. It may well be, but perhaps it's different in Urdu.

Bilal has the telltale callus of a pious Muslim on his forehead...in fact, he has two of such calluses from genuflecting on the ground when praying five times a day, instead of the customary single callus. This is perhaps due to his facial bone structure. These marks are colloquially called the Muslim "bump"and are highly desirable signs of piety amongst Muslim men.

It's so desirable among observant Egyptian Muslims that there are rumors that irritants, like sandpaper, are used to darken the callus.

But back to Bilal...despite his serious expression, he was all smiles and assured me we'd meet in Ajmer during Ghairb Nawaz's Urs in a few weeks. All that in sign language. and a word or two of Hindi on my part.

I did meet him again inside the shrine in Ajmer, where we greeted each other like old friends. With the throngs of people milling about,  he quickly grew very business-like, unfurled his flag-like fan, and started to do his punka'ing...and hustling to get paid.

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

For those interested in tech stuff: the top photograph was made with a Leica M9 and a Voigtlander Nokton 40mm f 1.4, and processed with Color Efex Pro 4, while the lower one was made with a Fuji XPro1 and a Fujinon 18mm f 2.0.

Kaushik Ghosh | Meraj, The Last Qawwal

I'm serious about this...aficionados of photography, qawwali, sufism, history and Indian culture...this is especially for you.

It's a must-view audio-slideshow of a legendary qawwali singer and musician from Delhi produced by Kaushik Ghosh, that will assuredly garner your admiration. I predict we shall hear much more of Kaushik in the weeks, months and years to come.

In the late 13th century in India, Amir Khusro, a musician, scholar and poet as well as a follower of the Chisti order of Sufis, was instrumental in merging Persian and Indian musical traditions to create qawwali as we know it today.

Ustad Meraj Ahmed Nizami is the elder descendant of a close disciple of Khusro, and belongs to its well-known discipline known as "gharana". His extended family has been performing qawwali for the past eight centuries, and as such Khusro's style has passed unbroken across seven centuries and thirty generations.

Kaushik Ghosh is a self-taught freelance documentary photographer based in Delhi, India. Born and raised in Kolkata, he graduated with a medical degree from  the University of Calcutta, and received training in fine arts from All India Fine Arts Association.

Prior to becoming a documentary photographer in 2011, he worked in the Indian healthcare sector for 7 years in various positions ending as the Medical Project Head of East and Northeast India. In 2012, he became the editorial and creative contributor of Getty Images, and an editor for a multimedia production of a UNESCO supported documentary. His photographs were featured in The Times of India, Hindustan Times, Better Photography, The Travel Photographers Network, Muse Magazine and others.

Meraj, The Last Qawwal can also be viewed on Vimeo.

New Gallery | The Veneration of Gharib Nawaz

I've just added The Veneration of Gharib Nawaz, a gallery of monochrome images to my website which were made during the annual Urs of the Sufi saint Moin'Uddin Chisti in Ajmer, Rajasthan, a few weeks ago.

As I wrote earlier in a blog post, the shrine of the Sufi saint Moin'Uddin Chisti welcomes pious pilgrims, vagabonds and charlatans, sightseers, mendicants and beggars, fakirs, shoppers, established and opportunistic vendors, pickpockets and thieves, the poor, the wealthy, the venal and the innocent and all the rest of them who come here during the Urs to seek spiritual salvation, riddance of 'jinns', money and entertainment.

For those interested in the gear side of photography, most of the images were made using a Canon 5D II and the 17-40 L f 4.0, while others were made with the Fuji X Pro1 and a Fujinon 18mm f 2.0. 

As for the post processing, I converted the color images to monochrome using Alien Skin Exposure 4  software.

You may also want to view an audio-slideshow of color photographs of the annual event. 

I've also updated my website The Travel Photographer with two new galleries of Viet Nam.

Back Story | The Sufi Poet(ess) of Hazratbal

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

"I Knew You Would Come"

At the Hazratbal shrine in Srinagar during my just completed Sufi Saints of Rajasthan & Kashmir Photo Expedition-Workshop , we came across a middle-aged woman devotee, clutching a well-thumbed Qur'an, praying and meditating in solitude. Her prayers became more audible as I approached her, and she seemed oblivious to being photographed. Her face was streaked with tears, as she was totally immersed in her devotion.

The Hazratbal shrine and mosque is on the western side of the Dal Lake, and is an important place of worship for Muslims. This shrine blends Mughal and Kashmiri architectural styles and dates back to the 17th century. It contains a relic, the Moi-e-Muqqadas, believed by many Muslims of Kashmir to be a hair of the Prophet Muhammad. This relic is shown to the general public on very special occasions, such as the recent observance of the Isra and Mi'raj; the ascension of Prophet Mohammed to Heaven.

Through our guide and interpreter, Nizar Malik, we learned she had traveled quite a distance from her village to pray at the shrine, and that she had been foretold of meeting us in a dream.

Unprompted, she launched into a plaintive and devotional song in Kashmiri...which, to my ears, sounds very similar to Turkish, sprinkled with some Portugese. In reality, Kashmiri has thousands of words Persian and Arabic due to the arrival of Islam in the region, however, it remains basically an Indo-Aryan language.

For more of my monochrome photographs from Srinagar, see Kashmir's Sufi Soul.

I was told her song is a devotional poem to the Prophet Muhammad, and how his light shone over El-Tor in Sinai, where Moses received the tablets from God.