Potters, Weavers and a Farmhouse Ceremony: Rural Jodhpur

Today was a late start and early finish but we packed a lot in! After a few huge days of eating, I skipped breakfast and yoga and slept in. At about 10 we picked up our guide from the Sambhali Trust and headed out to the countryside.

The Potter's Wheel

Our first stop was a potter, who showed us a traditional hand-spun wheel. Electric ones exist, but this is the old way, and a couple of us had a go. Those unglazed water jugs we keep seeing work because water seeps through the clay and evaporates in the desert wind, which cools what's inside by several degrees. I touched one, and the water really is cool. I've got my eye on a yoghurt pot that works the same way, but I doubt I'd get it back to NZ in one piece and I'd prefer it tested for lead etc.

A Traditional Opium Ceremony

At a farmhouse, we saw an amal, a ceremony where opium is shared, an old Rajput custom for weddings and other occasions. It's drunk mixed with water, not smoked, and we watched our host prepare a little. It's almost  illegal now, and addiction is a real problem, especially among older people. It's also not grown here, so it must come from licensed farms in other regions.

Turbans and Saris

Our host showed us how he ties his turban, and Bhooi showed us his own way, which is different, so styles vary between regions and communities. We also dressed up in saris for photos. 

Farm Life and Dung

The farmhouse was very typical, with animals in stables, an outdoor kitchen and a water tank filled by a tanker. 

The dung piles are everywhere, and they have many uses. Dried cakes of it are fuel, and in some parts of India it's turned into biogas for cooking. Ahead of Diwali, it's mixed into a slurry and plastered over outdoor floors, where it hardens like concrete and can be painted and decorated. It's a bad farming season, as Bhooi told us, so families look for extra income, like milking animals and selling the milk in town.

Women on the Roads

We passed women in beautiful saris eating lunch beside roadworks. It's likely part of a government rural work scheme, which guarantees days of paid work to rural households,  the pay is low - less than NZ$10/day but may also include food

The Weavers

Next was a beautiful guest house in a village known for weaving. The whole village is involved. Families split the tasks, from collecting camel hair to dyeing the yarn, and our host family does an interlocking weave, which is strong and reversible. A rug of about 90 by 150 cm takes around two months. Our group bought three rugs, and mine is a heavy camel and coconut husk one for our deck. It's backbreaking work, and I can see why young people don't want it, but buying a rug supports a whole village. 📍 

Back in Jodhpur

We collected our tie-dye from the Sambhali Trust, which had been turned into pillow covers for us.

Fortress of the Sun, and an Afternoon at Sambhali Trust

This is a second attempt at publishing! The internet like electricity and hotwater is like a box of chocolates in India....

PART 1: MEHRANGARH FORT

First Impressions

We started the morning at Mehrangarh Fort, which towers about 400 feet above Jodhpur. I was impressed before we even got inside. The modern steel walkways and security checkpoints have been painted the same colour as the fort's stone, so nothing looks garish or official. 

Walls Carved From the Cliff

Rao Jodha began the fort in 1459, though most of it dates from the 1600s. The walls are up to 36 metres high and 21 metres thick, and they rise straight out of the rock they were cut from. We climbed through a series of gates, one still scarred by cannonballs.

At the last, the Loha Pol, small red handprints mark the royal widows who committed Sati on on Maharaja Man Singh's funeral pyre in 1843, a sobering moment. Sati had already been outlawed for 14 and presumably they were drugged out of their minds and NOT in serenely calm 📷 [gates, walls]

Our Own Pace

We were given headphones for an audio tour, which let us stop where we liked and take as long as we wanted. We spent a couple of hours. Mehrangarh means "Fort of the Sun", after the sun god the ruling family claim descent from, and it's still owned by the royal family. The current maharaja, Gaj Singh II, took the throne in 1952 at the age of four.

Palanquins and Women's Quarters

The museum is full of royal treasures, including the gilded palanquins (palki) used to carry royalty. We also got a glimpse of women's life in the fort, with its screened windows. Restoration is ongoing, and it's great to see.

PART 2: THE SAMBHALI TRUST

What It Is

Then it was off to the Sambhali Trust, the charity behind so many of our activities. It was founded in 2007 by Govind Singh Rathore, who began with 16 women under the thatched roof of his own house. Today it runs empowerment centres in Jodhpur, Setrawa and Jaisalmer, and has reached tens of thousands of women and children.

How It Works

Women usually spend about a year learning skills, and children get scholarships, so some stay with the Trust for many years, learning to read and write. They get opportunities they might otherwise have not.

Our Afternoon

Our visit was a paid activity, which is a good way for guests to help. We tried tie-dye, which in Rajasthan is called bandhani, where tiny knots in the cloth resist the dye and leave patterns.

We watched a cooking demonstration, enjoyed local musicians and dancers,

 ate far more food, and had henna painted on our hands. 

We were especially impressed with the Khartal playing -  an ancient Indian percussion instrument made of a pair of flat, rectangular wooden sticks often referred to as Indian castanets. Players produce sharp, high-speed rhythmic clacking by holding both blocks in one hand and snapping them together using a thumb and finger technique. Most prominently featured in Rajasthani folk music and devotional bhajan singing, 

The Shop and the Foundation

The women and children make crafts, which are sold in the shop, and I came away with a few pieces. The Sambhali Development Foundation, started in 2024, also runs a café and guided walks to help the Trust support itself.

Volunteer If You Can

There seem to be fewer volunteers this year, and it's something I'd recommend to any traveller wanting to make a difference. I'm glad we could contribute as tourists. ❤️

Stuck in the Sand and a Camel Ride

The Family Behind the Charity**

Most of our next few days centre on one family. On the way to Jodhpur we stopped at Setrawa, the Rathore family's ancestral village. They run Durag Niwas guesthouse, and Govind Singh Rathore started the Sambhali Trust in 2007, which provides education and skills for women and girls in Rajasthan. 🐪

Stuck in the Sand

Our coach got stuck on a sandy road, and the  locals all came out to help dig us free, with curious kids all around. It turned out we were five minutes' walk from the next village and our destination and we'd just taken a wrong turn. The deep sand was scorching, so we scampered between grassy patches.

Lunch at an Oasis

Dev Bagh is a beautifully kept haveli, and the drama was worth it. We were greet with a traditional greeting and lunch was all local and vegetarian, with fresh yogurt and vegetables I couldn't name. They do homestays too https://durag-niwas.com/devbagh/index.html

Camel Caravan

The next activity was probably my most favourite thing so far.

Each of us mounted a decorated camel led by a handler in a white kurta and turban. I picked one with flowers on its head and it led most of the way. I was the first in the group to get up, which is a very scary two movement maneuver,  because the camel stands back legs first. One of our group fell off getting up but she got straight back on, but will be feeling it for a while. After 40 minutes or so of the most exhilarating ride through the local landscape we reached a ridge, where we watched the sunset with masala tea. Along the way we saw deer, a falcon, butterflies, and I saw a fox!🦊

Music and Dinner

Back at the haveli, local musicians played while we ate a simple buffet. We left about 8 pm, with the bus parked further away this time, because locals were getting stuck in the sand as well.

India After Dark

The two-hour drive to Jodhpur showed another side of India. It reminded me of a nightclub, in daylight the roadside shops look dusty and sleepy, but at night, all lit up, they look inviting and exciting. On arriving  in Jodhpur it was very hairy traffic again was a cacophony of lights and beeping, like Delhi with even narrower streets.

Art Deco room in 200 year old Haveli Hotel

Our hotel Heritage Kuchaman Haveli

is a 200-year-old building with a hotel feel, and my room is art deco, which I love, having grown up in Napier, the Art Deco Capiltal of the world. Hot water to clean off the camel ride and desert dust,  then sleep. 

Five Mansions for Five Sons

Our last stop before leaving Jaisalmer was Patwon Ki Haveli. Our local guide was informative and very funny about haveli life and just surviving in the desert. It's actually five connected havelis, started in 1805 by Guman Chand Patwa, a wealthy Jain merchant who traded in gold and silver thread and brocade. Some say opium and moneylending funded it too. Each of his five sons got a mansion, and the whole lot took 50 to 60 years to finish. Even the front door is around 200 years old. 🏛️

Bling bling ceiling

Air Conditioning, 1805 Style

The house was built for the heat. Two floors sit below ground, where it stays cool, and more than 60 balconies keep the air moving through the building. Water was also collected from the roof

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Secret Safes hiding behind bling 

The Patwas ran a huge business, with trading activity across about 350 centres that much money and precious material changing hands, the family needed security. Hidden behind a sliding door and covered by a painting is a secret safe, and there's a much larger one in the chambers below ground.

Locks

Locks aren't something that usually catches my eye, but we've been padlocking our hotel doors every night, so I'm paying attention. Traditional Indian locks are works of art. Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh, the "City of Locks", makes around three-quarters of India's locks, hand-cast in brass, including puzzle locks and ones with false keyholes. 🔐 and two keys required.

Making a Living in the Desert

Our guide talked about how people survive here. Water is scarce, and for much of the year it's too hot to do much, with summer temperatures reaching the 40s. Then the cooler months bring the tourists. As far as I can tell,  tourism is the main industry and the season is short. There are also wind and solar farms, some mining (limestone and gypsum) and a little farming and livestock.

Who Owns What, and Dinosaurs

The five havelis are now in different hands. The Archaeological Survey of India took over some in 1974, one is a private museum, and others are family homes and craft shops. The museum also has some surprises. A news cutting on display tells how scientists found fossils of a long-necked, plant-eating dinosaur in Jaisalmer, about 167 million years old and named Tharosaurus indicus after the Thar desert.📸

View from the roof

Golden Fort, Golden Sunset and One Very Well-Wrapped Bedspread

Up to the Golden City

Our day in Jaisalmer began with yoga on the hotel rooftop, and a very pleasant breakfast, with the best service we have had here in India,  then it was a  bus up to the fort. 

Jaisalmer is called the Golden City, and you can see why. The fort is built from yellow sandstone that glows honey-gold at sunset, and it's one of the world's largest fully preserved forts. It's also a "living fort", with about 4,000 people still living inside the walls. We were told residents can even own the land in there. It was founded in 1156 by Rawal Jaisal and is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. 🏰

Hawkers and a Bedspread

We walked up through hawkers and hundreds of would-be guides. According to Jane, It is a very  quiet tourist season so competition is high however I believe the vendors co I ld be n efit greatly from reading some sales techniques, especially about too many choices. I wanted a bedspread like the one in our hotel room, but with no price tags and high opening prices, shopping here is difficult when you just want to look. I walked away from one shop (in photo below) then got waylaid down an alleyway into another, where I found a lovely silk bedspread in turquoise tones, recycled from saris. They started bargaining at around NZ$280. I wanted to pay ₹5,000 (about NZ$100) and we settled at ₹6,000 (about NZ$120). It's wrapped so tightly that I won't see it again until I'm home, which will be a lovely surprise.

Why We're Here

After a rest at the hotel, we headed back up at 4:30. This is probably the moment to explain why we're all here. These tours began with Rachel and Bhooi. Rachel was Bhooi's wife and Jane's best friend. Rachel died accidentally in 2013 and Jane and Bhooi have kept running these tours in Rachel's memory, and to raise money for her children's education in New Zealand. The itinerary is built around Rachel's favourite places, and she loved this fort. She loved watching the sun go down over the desert from a terrace with pizza in hand.

Sunset, Pizza and Bats

So that's what we did. The toppings were just like back home, and the bases were bready but very light and absolutely yummy. We'd seen lots of bats roosting in the fort, and as we sat down to dinner there was a changing of the guard: the pigeons went to sleep and the bats came out, so we watched them coming and going against the sunset. It was a glorious evening. 🌅 🦇

Back to the hotel, then up for yoga in the morning.