.......previously in Chittorgarh and Pushkar town.......
Warning! This
blog post has many, many photos of
camels- proceed at your own risk!!
One of the biggest festivals in all of India is the Pushkar
Camel Fair, where traders come from all over the state, and further afield, to
buy and sell livestock- mostly camels, but also beautiful horses and cattle.
Usually, we try to avoid big events and crowds in India, because, in our experience, an overexcited male dominated
mass-assemblage is not comfortable for Sally, or particularly enjoyable for
either of us. But, having heard many good things about this particular festival
from fellow travellers, we decided it would be a unique thing for us to see
once in our lives.
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| Early morning fire |
As it turned out, although there were crowds, it was nowhere
near as busy as we had imagined (apart from the very last day), and as the
camel traders all brought their families with them, there were nearly as many
women selling goods at stalls, or shopping themselves, while their men tended to
the business of selling their camels, horses etc. The overall atmosphere was
one of good spirits with foreign tourists, Indian tourists, locals and
villagers mingling in a good natured manner.
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| Old woman at market |
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| Old woman at market |
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| Collecting camel dung for fuel |
There were two main areas of focus for the Fair. One was the
mela ground, or stadium, where shows
were put on throughout the day and evening, mainly for foreign tourists, and
were generally quite cheesy, but fun. Events such as the best moustache, troupes
of dancing girls, best decorated camel, and turban tying for foreigners were
very popular, and we took a back seat to the hundreds of expensive-camera
toting tourists pushing and shoving, all vying for the best shots. Various
parades and sporting events went on, with some of the traditional village games
involving a local team competing with a team of clumsy foreigners. Side happenings
were performing monkeys, which we hated to see, and families with kids
performing acrobatics, which, strangely, we didn’t mind so much. We gave the
“dancing horses” a miss. Almost as good as the show was watching the other
tourists. Particularly hilarious were the rich package tourists in their
“Indian” clothes, with their guides, handing out money left, right and centre
to anyone who asked them. There were evening cultural concerts with music and
dancing staged, but in between the crowds, the bad sound system and the COLD
weather, we usually turned in early, and concentrated on the day events.
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| Lovely to see women dancing |
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| Dressed for the Gods |
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| Acrobatics |
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| Little gymnast waiting her turn |
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| So much color |
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| Shiva even made an appearance! |
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| Beautiful bling |
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| Gorgeous schoolgirls waiting for their dance |
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| The camera-wielding hordes |
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| Competitor for the best decorated camel |
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| She was so confident... |
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| ....but concentrating hard! |
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| A contestant in the "best mustache" competition ( his reached the ground when unrolled!) |
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| Another competitor |
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| Silly tourists getting in knots |
The other area of focus, which we much preferred, was the
actual trading area for the camels, and to a lesser extent, horses. There was
dozens of hectares of small groups of camels of all colours, sizes and ages,
along with their photogenic owners, squatting in huddles waiting for buyers, as
far as the eye could see. Although those hard core tourist photographers were
still present in this area (sometimes making us cringe with their antics, such
as stuffing their cameras in people’s faces), along with persistent little kids
wanting money for trinkets or photos, it was such a huge area, and everything
was very spread out. Richard was particularly mesmerized with this part of the
Fair at sunrise, as you will see from the enormous amount of photos he took!
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| Taking a break |
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| Japanese tourists |
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| Negotiations going on |
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| So cute! |
In between the two areas was a market street selling
everything one could want for their camels, including saddles, nose pegs, rope,
and hundreds of other paraphernalia for which we had no idea the purpose!
Behind, there was a carnival set up mainly for the villagers, but was certainly
fun to watch. There were no less than five Ferris wheels, dozens of
dodgy-looking rides, and an intriguing looking human circus.
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| Market stalls |
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| Look more like rolling pins than knives! |
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| Camel nose pins |
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| Woman market seller |
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| Camel "stuff" for sale |
The Camel Fair took place over 10 days, with the final days
coinciding with the most auspicious full moon of the year, so the activity and
number of people grew and grew, and during the climax on the last day, Pushkar’s streets and ghats were transformed into a river of
people and activity, and there was constant noise from the Brahma temple for more than 24
hours.
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| Crowded ghats during the festival |
Even before the start of the Fair, there was much to see
during the several days build-up, so by the time everything was over, and most
of the traders, pilgrims and rich tourists had left the area, we were quite
exhausted! We stayed on for a while to see the transformation back to the
quiet little town we remembered, and then set off for a new destination.
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| More negotiations |
