Rabari Adventure

Out in the rural areas of Kachchh there are many and varied communities living very traditional lives, with distinctive costumes and lifestyles.  Often they have a distinctive vocation - some are weavers, some are dyers, some are goat, camel or cattle herders, some are poets and singers.  Some are fairly settled, some are nomadic or semi nomadic.  Statistically most are Hindu, but we may have visited a disproportionate number of Muslim groups ... some are somewhere in between or a bit more in the Buddhist direction.  The Jat herders are said to have come from Egypt many hundreds of years ago, some more fiery from Baluchistan fewer hundreds ago, some from Persia, some more recently from Pakistan after the 1971 war ....  They vary quite a bit in how they relate to the outside world, and how they mix ... some are very enclosed.

Yesterday we had the opportunity to visit a very enclosed Rabari community.  Early in our travels - on our first visit to Bhuj we were the guests in the home of a charming Rabari elder who collects and sells antique quilts and embroideries.  His house was a veritable Aladdin's cave. He himself mixes more widely and he has great concerns for the future of his people, as they get left further and further behind.

Yesterday he agreed to take us out to visit one of the enclosed Rabari communities - the only condition, no photographs.  As it turned out, we had chosen the Festival of the Cobra for our visit and the community were all gathered under a big marquee, listening to a sermon and enjoying a bring & share meal.  I can tell you that when the Purple People Eater pulled up and our small group of western women got out it was pretty much a show stopper!!  We were not normal!!  Rabari women wear black - full length black skirts and tops - and most impressively, a full length black veil, enlivened with a bit of sparkly embroidery and occasionally tie dyed spots.  The men wear white - mainly white turbans ... which they take on and off at will (unlike Sikhs), mostly a kind of short gathered smock top (although our guide wore a long coat) and long baggy bottoms (not really pants - more a sarong with the end drawn up between their legs and tucked into their waistband at the back) ... some men wore coloured turbans, possibly elders.  Some kids wore traditional clothing - especially the girls, but the boys more often wore western clothes.

We didn't really know how we would be received - and when I saw one group of women depart pretty quickly I was worried ... we got some hard looks and pulled veils but plenty of smiles and "lam lam"s, admiration of children helped, along with an eventual introduction by the preacher from the stage after our guide had cleared the path.  We were invited to share some food, which is a difficulty health wise ... but while everyone else took the food to "eat later", I recognised one of my favourites ... a sweet semolina dish I sometimes cook called halava (at least in my recipe book) .... and there was no way I wasn't going to try it in its native place.  I can report that it was absolutely delicious, redolent with cardamon, and that so far I have lived to tell the tale. I had a great time "talking" to the kids - the primary age boys crowed around desperately curious, although the girls and women kept their distance.

From there we went to look at the somewhat deserted village itself ... and I enclose a photo of a cowpat mud wall about to undergo renovation, but meeting people at the festival gathering was really the highlight.

The day had further adventures in store, at least for me.  While the bus took most of the party back on the bus, I stopped off with Carole, our leader to do some final shopping from our Rabari elder's collection and share a cup of masala chai with him and his wife.  I departed with some spectacular tassels in hand on the back of this turbaned traditional gentleman's motor bike for the mile or so ride down to the main road (this only the second time I have been on a motor bike).  We then had to get an auto rickshaw ... or at least we tried.  15 minutes out of Bhuj, none of the available drivers had any idea where our hotel was.  So - in the end we caught the mini bus version - a three wheeler with two bench seats at the back.  I would have said that this vehicle could have comfortably seated 3 people on each side - a few kids on laps perhaps at a squeeze.  But no ... by the end - and I had to keep counting to reassure myself I wasn't imagining things - there were 17 people + driver by the time we reached  the city centre!!  

Wish I had been able to take some photos of this remote Rabari festival, of my exciting motorbike ride and the amazing conjurer's trick rickshaw bus ... but I have a few on offer to give you an idea ...

All going well.  I have back stories to tell when I get a chance!!  After our stop near the Chari Dhand wetlands, we moved on to Mandvi, where they still build wooden dhows the old fasioned way and spent a wonderful day at a design school for artisans from the traditional communities.  Today we have visited the Bhuj markets, a double ikat weaver and his family, a more modern fabric workshop - reinterpreting old techniques - and I found time to visit the Kutch Museum (of course).  We leave Bhuj tomorrow and head east ... I have quite a large package almost ready for the post - this is definitely a voyage of temptations!!

Robyn

Photographs

1, 2 - our group in Vanka Rabari's Aladdin's cave of costumes and embroideries

3, 4 - a couple of interesting items - a mirrored embroidered traditional blouse and camel blanket

5 - from the bus - the only photo I was able to take, of some of the Rabari women making their way to the festival

6 - dung balls on the wall, ready for a fresh coat.

7 - our Rabari guide, Vanka Rabari, perched like a character from Alice in Wonderland, on a branch of an almost unbelievable huge banyan tree.