We are just back from Kumbh Mela, near Allahabad, India. What a festival!
Mark Twain, on his visit to Kumbh Mela back in 1895 said:
“It is wonderful, the power of a faith like that, that can make multitudes upon multitudes of the old and weak and the young and frail enter without hesitation or complaint upon such incredible journeys and endure the resultant miseries without repining. It is done in love, or it is done in fear; I do not know which it is. No matter what the impulse is, the act born of it is beyond imagination, marvelous to our kind of people, the cold whites.”
We agree!
With something like 60 million people making the pilgrimage, it is the largest gathering of people in the world.
We walked several hours each day, soaking up the atmosphere, taking lots of shots, and returned back to camp completely knackered, not able to walk any more that day. Yet pilgrims walk incredible distances to get to the Kumbh Mela, without complaint or seeming to tire. Quite incredible.
Shooting is difficult as the police kettle the crowd away from the nagas, babas and sadhus, many of whom live reclusive lives and don't spend much if any time with regular people. So for the first time in our lives, we were in the middle of police, a crowd of millions and some pretty wild behaviour. Just because of the number of people and the strong presence of police, it felt like being in the middle of a protest or riot, fearful of being trampled and yet the mood was peaceful and positive. Quite extraordinary.
And some of the behaviour of the nagas and babas was pretty extraordinary: take a look at the video link....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vs10VJlS_nY
More to follow about this incredible festival as we wade through all the images.
Julie and Adam
February 2013
