Description

Join Julie Conover on a visit to the state of Rajasthan in India, experience the Pushkar camel fair and learn about the importance of this city.

Transcript

Female: Next, we set out for India’s largest desert festival, the Pushkar camel fair. Female2: The first thing when you come up here, we were thinking, what will going to be like? Is this going to be an oversize flea market, something like that? Male: The camels, you’ve never know that they're that many in this world. Male2: Pushkar’s fantastic. Fills all the sand of the universe. Male3: The roots of the Pushkar camel festival can be found in the age old religious significance of the town. Bonnie: Pushkar is well known for its tranquil and the lake which is here. Hundreds of years back, when people come here to pay respect to the temple, they use to bring their animals and it became a good place for them to meet and slowly, that led to a trading fair from that. And there after it becomes very popular for tourist to come and see the people trading their animals, their horses and camels, especially. Female3: The sites you see are absolutely amazing. Female2: I think the activity is very, very exciting. And it’s just a fabulous atmosphere. It’s just vibrant. I love it. Bonnie: Apart from the animals being here, people also get to go in to the Pushkar town and see the various temples and the lake and it’s a good mixture of both religion part of it as well as the trading of the animals. The village has prospered. Female: The Pushkar attracts pilgrims from all over India who come to visit the temple of Brahma and bathe in the sacred waters. We were able to witness some of the many rituals that are so much a part of Hindu daily life. The normally peaceful streets of the village are lively and colorful during the festival. Here, visitors can get a henna tattoo or sample the local culinary favorites. Donna: It’s very interesting, I mean have everything from the temples up on top of the mountain to 80-90 foot sand dunes. The scenery is so exotic. It’s so ancient. You just don’t see this any place in the world. Female3: Its just beautiful country side, people, they're so warm and friendly. We've ridden horses through the desert. Absolutely magnificent. Male3: Bonnie’s family is part of the heroic Rajput warrior clans, who ruled this area for hundreds of years. The Rajputs are legendary horsemen, and many still work with specially bred Marwari horses. Bonnie takes visitors on riding expeditions throughout Rajasthan. Donna: Are they very strong horses? I find them most fascinating, especially because of their ears. But otherwise they're a bit strong war horse. Male3: The ancient Marwari breed was use for battle in the harsh desert environment. They need a tremendous endurance to carry a soldier wearing full armor in hand to hand combat. Their neck is dramatically arch and their ears set close together to enable the rider to brandish a sword without fear of injuring the horse. The survival of the Rajputs depended on these sturdy animals. Tony: At home, horseback riding to often is walking, maybe trotting, single file up some silly trail around in the circle. But here, in India, you fly through the air next to the turpent descendent of Rajput warrior on a horse whose ancestors may have fought elephants. Female: As the sun sets, we have one last look at the evening activity of the camel fair. And headed back to our camp.