Pushkar Camel Festival

Throngs of humanity move in waves of color - saffron, cobalt, magenta.  Dust and sand rise in puffs around sandal-clad feet.  A cacophony of noise saturates the air - voices calling, animals braying.  The pungent scent of exotic spices mingles with the cloying  odor of dung and wafts over the crowd.  Even in the quiet hours before dawn and in the evening dusk, the air seems to pulsate with the fullness of life.

A combination of dust and smoke from cooking fires creates a haze that hangs over the fields



A group of men gather to visit and perhaps talk business



With nearly 50,000 camels at the festival, men and animals share space

For two weeks during the Hindu month of Kartik (the 8th lunar month of the year, typically late October into November) the Pushkar "Mela" or "Camel Festival" has taken place since the fourth century BC in the desert some 145 kilometers (90 miles) southwest of Jaipur, India.

Traders arrive with over 50,000 camels to sell, trade or barter.  Along with the camels, cattle, donkeys and the beautiful, rare Marwari horses are offered to the highest bidder.  The camels are cleaned and adorned.  Some are brightly painted in elaborate designs.  Others sport bangles around their ankles that jingle cheerfully as their owners parade or race them, with the victors commanding top prices. 

Herders bringing their camels to the festival

 

A decorated camel pulls a cart through the town

Camels are adorned with cloths and beads as well as being
shorn in intricate patterns or gaily painted



A Marwari colt. Notice how the ears grow in toward one another,
and almost touch

A cart loaded with goods



The village of Pushkar, a hamlet of 15,000, surges to a makeshift city of 400,000.  The festivities sprawl over acres of  desert where traders, families, pilgrims and tourists all set up their encampments. Impromptu food stalls and booths selling ethnic goods appear on the landscape.  Musicians, dancers, even fire-eaters enliven the campgrounds.  Much is offered for sale, but no eggs, meat or alcohol is allowed.

The normal population of 15,000 swells to the hundreds of thousands during the festival

 

This stall is selling the beads and cloths used to adorn the camels



While this one is selling cloth for human use



Spices for sale in this shop



Children are the same around the world...they love to have their pictures taken.
I was careful to ask permission before I took any close-up photos of people

Dancers performing...it is a festival, after all

Dancers...and fire-eaters...what a spectacle

This group of dancers was waiting to perform for some government officials who were
coming to the festival, but the government officials were two hours late at this point

Pushkar is, all at the same time, a place of business, a festival and finally (and most importantly) a religious gathering.  Pushkar is one of the five sacred dhams (pilgrimages) that devout Hindus aspire to make in a lifetime.  The only temple in India dedicated to Brahma, the god of creation, is located here, near the shores of sacred Pushkar Lake.  The village has over 400 temples and 52 "ghats".  a series of steps leading down to a holy river or other body of water. The most auspicious time to bath in the sacred waters is the last night of the festival, which ends on the Kartik Purnima - the night of the full moon of the eighth month of the lunar year.   The commercialism gives way to the spiritual, and the Pushkar festival culminates in a religious crescendo.

 

I stayed in the first tent (closest to camera) in this row. It had a bed, dresser, shower
and flush toilet...that drained into an open ditch behind the row of tents.

 

A young boy tends camels. He already has gotten one to lay down, and with
his hand, he is motioning the other down to the ground



This picture might give you some perspective on just how many people crowd
into Pushkar for the festival.  Camps and people as far as you can see.

 

Another close-up of men and camels in very close quarters



A woman and her tiny baby.

 

3 generations of Gypsies (the young woman has a baby in that sling on her right
shoulder.) The Gypsies were the only people who asked for money to take their photo.

I had a chance to fly over the festival in this hot air balloon.  2009, the
year I was there, was the first year the balloons were at the festival.



View of the festival grounds from the balloon.  It was in this area that the
camel racing and trading as well as the dancing took place.

"Pushkar" in Sanskrit means "blue lotus flower".   Hindus believe that lotus petals were dropped by Brahma, the creator-god, and fell to earth.  The place where the lotus petals fell became the sacred lakes of Pushkar - a place where I found interesting people, incredible sights and fascinating Road Stories.