Connecting with Reverence
Connecting with Reverence -- Holi. This is an annual Hindu festival that celebrates Lord Krishna. The festival is intensely spiritual – even blissful – for many participants, including this one. At the same time, Holi also is a riot of colorful fun, as celebrants throw and rub vivid powders and liquids on themselves and one another. Holi is celebrated all over India, but with special fervor in the Mathura area and in nearby Vrindavan, where these images were created.
Outside a Hindu temple, this Holi celebrant awaits entrance. The writing on her cheek honors Lord Krishna.
Inside a Hindu temple, clouds of green powder linger in the air and other colors decorate celebrants and surfaces, as well.
This proud Holi celebrant is covered in red paint. As lines of celebrants pass each other entering and exiting the temple, people headed in one direction gently apply paint or colored power to the people heading in the other direction.
Inside the Vrindavan temple, there have been many colors flying around.
The pedestal holds a small metal sculpture of a cow and calf, which are sacred for Hindus. In this extended exposure, Holi celebrants are paying respect and touching the pedestal for a blessing.
Pensive Holi participants.
Though covered in multi-colored powders and paints, these Holi worshipers have a spiritual focus.
In this temple scene, Holi has a musical emphasis. Musicians are clustered around a large drum.
Connecting with Reverence -- Sadhus. In the Hindu faith, sadhus are religious ascetics who dedicate their lives to renunciation of self, often through meditation. One symbol of this renunciation is saffron-colored clothing; another symbol is covering their bodies with a special type of ash, especially after a bath in the sacred waters of the Ganga (or Ganges) River, as this sadhu has just done. Most of images in this set were created in Haridwar during a Kumbh Mela festival.
A sadhu revels in the cleansing water of a mountain waterfall in a Ganga tributary stream near Rishikesh.
There are hundreds of ashrams in the holy city of Haridwar. This one, Geeta Ashram, provides a free dinner every evening to local sadhus and their female counterparts, sadhvis. They wait in long lines on the courtyard floor get assembly line service from ashram volunteers.
A sadhu waits patiently for a free dinner outside Geeta Ashram.
A jovial group of sadhus in the Geeta Ashram dinner line during Kumbh Mela.
A sadhu drawn to Haridwar by a Kumbh Mela festival.
One of many sadhus that one encounters in Haridwar, especially during this time of Kumbh Mela.
This sadhu maintains a dhuni (or sacred fire) near the ghats in Haridwar. He welcomes pilgrims and visitors to join him and his followers around the fire for chai. His traditions are ancient, his technology modern.
Varanasi, another holy city on the Ganga, attracts sadhus, as well.
Connecting with Reverence -- The Ganga. The Ganga River is holy water for Hindus, and bathing in the river is a sacred experience. The river also meets the more ordinary daily needs of tens of millions of Indians, including these. Special Hindu extended festivals, such as Kumbh Mela, can make a Ganga pilgrimage even more spiritually compelling and draw sadhus and other celebrants by the millions.
A sadhu greets the sunrise over the Ganga in Varanasi with ceremony.
Some sadhus keep their hair very long, and ordinarily wrapped into a bun. That long hair can add drama to a sunrise bath in the Ganga.
Here in the Haridwar ghats (or bathing steps), the Ganga channel is especially narrow and the current particularly swift. A metal fence aims to protect bathers from being swept away.
The Hindu traditions behind the Kumbh Mela include gods churning an ocean of milk in their quest for the nectar of immortality. This group of pilgrims joyfully churns the Ganga at the ghats of Haridwar.
This elderly woman, with the support of her companions (likely a son and daughters), experiences a deep spiritual moment. On this long-awaited day at the Haridwar ghats, the woman can wash away her sins before she dies.
Every evening, the temple that encompasses this part of the Haridware ghats performs a Ganga Aarti, or river-worshipping ceremony, led by priests with flaming lanterns.
Connecting with Reverence -- Nature. The tribal peoples of central India live in rural isolation with unique customs and rituals, many celebrating nature. The Muria tribe pictured here (also known as the Deer Horn tribe), honor deer in their village dances; the Maria (or Bison Horn) tribe honors bison in a similar way. In some Gond tribal dances, small bells around a dancer’s ankles accentuate the rhythm of her feet connecting with Mother Earth. All the images in this group were created in rural areas of the state of Chhattisgarh.
Joyous Muria tribal dancers in Kanker.
Maria (Bison Horn) tribal dance drums and headpiece in Baster.
An elderly Bison Horn dancer takes a break.
Bison Horn tribal dancers against the setting sun.
The Baiga tribal family who owns this bull painted its horns as part of annual celebration of the village livestock in Bhoramdeo.
The feet of these Gond women dancers are adorned with ghungroos (strings of small bells) to accentuate the rhythmic aspects of their foot movements. Indian dances often emphasize foot movements to symbolize the connection a dancer makes with Mother Earth.