Day Twelve - Bishnoi

The potter and his wheel

A Bishnoi house - although we didn't think it was actually lived in nowadays

Inside a Bishnoi home

A 'fridge' to keep food safe from animals

Looking down on the carpet weavers loom

A finished dhurrie or large rug

By jeep to remote Bishnoi village where the nature-worshipping Bishnoi people live. Apparently some soldiers once tried to cut down some trees here for firewood but the villagers revered their trees and tried to protect them. The soldiers then killed all the villagers near the trees including women and children. Since then the villagers themselves have been revered. The men wear only white and trees and animals are never harmed.

We watched a potter with his heavy stone wheel throwing pots. He set a heavy stick into a hole in its circumference and physically turned it, setting it spinning until it built up its own momentum. A large piece of clay was stuck onto the wiped clay in the centre and the potter pulled off bowls, their lids, even a money box.

A woman in our group wanted to have a go but she hadn't the strength to get the wheel spinning with the stick. 

Then to a typical Bishnoi house with cattle tethered nearby and a woman inside the house separating curds from whey.

The jeeps drove us to a Bishnoi carpet weaver who spoke perfect English. He said machines could never achieve what he could because of interlocking. The dhurries he worked on were made of cotton yarn and camel hair. The colours were natural dyes made from ruddle, a mined stone to achieve red; blue from indigo and black from a mixture of aubergine and cloves.

I bought a small rug from this man and it's sitting in my tiny hall right now reminding me of my fascinating trip to Bishnoi.