Some comments on my travel in Orissa and Chhattisgarh

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Some comments on trip to Orissa and Chhattisgarh

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Personally I feel a little uncomfortable on a journey of "ethnic" where you enter in the villages specifically to 'see' the different people. It seems more than a break to visit other areas of India, Rajasthan, for example, where there are people and situations with special or shocking onlookers along the road. Moreover, the tribal belt of Orissa and Chhattisgarh and 'India a more' India of the other places usually visited, and even though I live in this country for almost twenty years I am saddened to see people living under conditions so miserable and, above all, to see that nobody uses because 'something can change. Lots of them are sick, especially among children. Sometimes they have nothing to eat, so in some cases feed on kernels of mango which are poisonous, and every year you hear of any death by starvation or poisoning. We also note the many abuses by the classes of people barely out of the tribal structure that take advantage of the fact of knowing a little more juggling of the unfortunate ones belonging to ethnic groups.
However the journey and 'was a good experience. From Raipur, the state capital of Chhattisgarh, we went to Kanker Palace - where the ex-royal, in this case the young and cool, have used their "palace" (actually 'little one is quite simple, taking a little 'so so) a hotel for tourists. They, the owners have all rights to their 'subjects', and this allowed us to visit a village in the territory ethnicity 'Muria from deer horn', very authentic, and watch a dance performance, with the opportunity 'to see also all the preparations. Later we visited a market where it was playing a fighting cocks, and another village of the "Mary from buffalo horn." It was interesting to see the ethnic groups in their villages. Compared all'Orissa are very colorful, as you will 'see from the photos.
We have moved from Chhattisgarh to Orissa. Each day a different market, another ethnic group, another village.
The landscape in the tribal area and 'very fascinating, forests with huge trees, rice paddies, hills. You will have seen some of Bonda and other ethnic groups, at a distance of a few tens of kilometers are completely different ethnic groups together. For this trip in Orissa and 'very rich compared to many other areas of India where there have been races to visit, here they are really a great variety'. And I do not know how many more years will endure: the Dongria Kondh for example are going to disappear because 'an English company, the "Vedanta Cie, bought the hills where they live are rich in bauxite, from a factory to make aluminum. Destroy the forest, its habitat and removing ethnic obbligandolili to change their way of life.
The population of the ethnic groups living spaces for the day: every morning he takes a bunch of bananas, a packet of sal leaves, or a gallon of alcohol mahua to a market sell their wares, many times before reaching the market, Mediators outcast that they are waiting along the road near the tear away their few belongings. In return they give him a little money that ends up being spent before returning home for the purchase of alcohol! After noon they are all drunk. Men, women, and children-give alcohol to children. Can not read, can not write, do not even know when they are born 'How old are your children.
They are mostly animists. We have witnessed a rite of passage at puberty 'of a child with an animal sacrifice performed by a shaman going into trance. As we are moving toward the street, you see more 'the influence of' civilization '; here many villages were converted to Christianity-mostly. We attended the feast of St. Joseph in a village Desia Kondh, complete with a priest came to celebrate.
After the tribal area is reached the air more 'civil' in Orissa. Having emerged from the forest, life changes dramatically villages and rice crops, fishermen, craftsmen, and a living standard similar to other areas in India.
A gem of the trip and 'was the party at the temple of Taratarini, one of the manifestations of the goddess Parvati. The feast is 'an annual event: Every Tuesday' between March 14 and April 14 Taratarini devotees go to the temple atop the hill asking for the blessing of the goddess. As often happens in India, arriving there couples who want a son, and when the son or daughter makes the first year of life is the little family to the temple, and the small or small they are cut his hair, which are offered to the goddess as thanks.
There was an air of festivity, cheerfulness. A stream of people climbed the hill, under the scorching sun. Arrived on a queue "snake" of about half an hour was the last hurdle before receiving the "darshan" of goddess. There were teams of "rescue" that spray water on people from a watering can to cool off while waiting ... After the darshan, the descent into a plateau where every familiglia was preparing the meal "sacrificial", with a kid brought alive by home, slaughtered on the spot. Once he made the animal sacrifice ritual, but now that the ritual and 'prohibited people resort to this expedient to keep alive the tradition.
The last leg of the trip were the city's rich culture: the magnificent temples at Bhubaneshwar and Konarak, and Puri, fascinating place of Hindu pilgrimage '. A trip certainly very interesting, despite the long transfers, heel lift and the roads bad ...

Kristin Blanck, May 2007