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PRESENTS
aJEAN STUDLER film
lndia,
magic country,
country of colors and millenary costumes.
l feel far away in the past but never the less authentic, real.
l stop to think about the abysm that separate our way of living,
our principles, our beliefs.
lndia,
country where religions and cults are mixed,
country where millions of inhabitants live together,
distant and bond for equal.
Step by step l join this magic and multiplicity;
l merge with her like a wave.
ln the South of Asia;bordering with Pakistan, China, Bhutan, Burma and Bangla Desh.
lndia is located just above the line of the equator.
Dressed up in a hot weather almost all the year long,
except in the north mountainous regions.
Between June and September the monsoon time takes place.
lt is then that the gods spill the water that the fields and men are anxiously waiting for.
This is how life can keep its course.
The laughing of children flood the streets,
cows wander between the rubble,
men work and live,
astonishing temples look at me from their greatness
and those contrasts dazzle me.
Young men walk by the hand showing their friendship.
Life embraces every color,
the different shades that conform this world incite me to travel,
to meet people and learn their costumes.
This light invites me to know new paths,
to walk them.
The daily rituals,
music from the mountain and the desert,
women harvesting the fruit that life offers.
Children looking for the future,
immersing themselves in it like in a sacred river.
This is lndia,
or at least, the fragments l kept of it.
There are a number of religions practiced here in lndia,
hinduism is the majority religion,
most of the people embrace and worship hinduism, hindu gods and goddesses.
lndia is a very holy country, holy soil, there are many religions distributed in lndia,
prosper, like Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, this religions,
even the Sufism, even the lslam, they´ve got many things from lndia.
All the communities live together in amity in harmony,
so that is the essence of lndia, that is the spirit of lndia.
Approximately 111.000 Tibetans live in lndia.
Being Dharamsala the home of the Dalai Lama,
head of state and spiritual leader of Tibet,
in exile since China invaded and occupied the country in 1950.
Their way of life is based on the religion they practice: Tibetan Buddhism.
They have been struggling for several years without violence,
hoping to regain their independence.
Since 1998, 1083 Tibetans recognized are still imprisoned in China
because of their religious, ethic or politic beliefs.
Being this a conflict that endures until the present date
and unfortunately is far away from being solved.
l say?
Wait one minute...
Around mid 90´ the tibetans in Tibet have started using more and more
endangered species hair and fur to decorate the clothes, dresses, and then
the local chinese authorities awarded cash price to the person
who has biggest tiger skin, grandest tiger skin around themselves.
By awarding cash price, in a way they are promoting
the tibetans to do this. An then the international tourists and travelers
who go to tibet take pictures of this, and also from china itself, directly
these are shown to the international community through cable channels.
So they are sending a very wrong image of tibetan culture and tibetan people,
that this are barbaric people, that they kill animals, endangered species
and then they decorate themselves with these. So they are showing a completely
opposite of what his holiness the Dalai Lama is teaching.
We did this to show our solidarity, to show our support, to our tibetan brothers
and sisters who are in Tibet, who are doing the same thing under great risk of their lifes,
great risk of getting imprisoned, and the people who innitiated this movement in Tibet
are now already arrested and imprisoned by the chinese authorities.
l´m 23 years old,
l have become monk 9 years ago,
l´m from tibet, l escaped to lndia from Tibet,
no passport,
l walking to the mountain, big mountain, big water, during day l sleep,
during nights l walking, sometimes is very dangerous.
One week is not eat, l take only water, l really hungry,
chinese police is here this nepaly police are trying this,
l go Nepal, l no understand nepaly speak, l only speak Tibetan, very difficult.
Tibetan people help me, the nepaly police give money.
Mountains real cold, some people this finger,
some people this, some people is this eye.
Darjeeling,
situated in the north east region of lndia,
is recognized worldwide because of its vast tee plantations.
lts temperatures are pleasant in summer
which makes this city a perfect place to spend holidays,
escaping the suffocating heat of the plains.
l wonder about these green fields,
women work and breathe the pure air of the heights.
To the north of Darjeeling,
at the bottom of the Himalayas,
we find the region of Sikkim, the less populated state in lndia,
which has maintained relatively untouched
because of the short stay permits given by the government.
lts borders are with Nepal, Tibet and Bhutan.
We can find here thousands of prayer flags,
inscribed with invocations, prayers, and mantras.
Tibetan Buddhists for centuries have planted these flags
outside their homes and prayer places
for the wind to carry the beneficent vibrations across the world.
From the monastery of Tashiding you can see the grandiose Khang-chen-Dzonga,
being this the second highest summit in the world
due to its 8585 meters high.
Every year, a unique ritual called Bhumchu is celebrated here,
where monks gather in prayer
in order to bless the sacred water,
water which will predict the future of the people who live on these mountains.
Amritsar,
this noisy and overwhelming city
has a hidden treasure: the Golden Temple, cradle of the Sikhs.
The founder of the Sikh religion was Guru Nanak Dev
who was born in 1469.
He preached a message of love and understanding
and criticized the superstitious rituals of Hindus and Muslims,
opposing also to the cast system.
He preached that god, even if it can be given lots of names in different places,
is, in essence the one and only God,
sovereign and omnipotent,
and he decided to call him: the True name.
Sikhs doesn´t have priests,
they were abolished by Guru Gobind Singh,
because he felt that they would corrupt and fill themselves with ego.
The largest religious temple is the Harimandir Sahib, the Golden Temple.
lts beautiful golden brightness,
combined with the prayers we can constantly hear through speakers,
help us submerge ourselves in a state of peace and contemplation without any effort.
The term Sikh means ""strong and determined disciple"".
Sikhs are warriors, looking for purity in all the aspects of life.
They hide beneath their turban a very long hair,
because their religion prohibits them to cut anyone.
The only requirements in order to enter the Golden Temple
are being barefoot and covering your head.
About two thousand people are lodged in the temple per day,
and about ten thousand are fed,
all of this for free and without discriminating anyone.
The number of sikhs in the world is estimated in about twenty-three million,
which makes this religion the fifth worldwide.
A few kilometers from Amritsar you can see the border with Pakistan.
Country with which there have been numerous confrontations
since its conformation in 1947,
mostly because of the region of Kashmir.
This is the closing border ceremony,
which takes place every day
in order to exacerbate the latent nationalism and impress tourists.
lndia is trying to build a strong relationship with Pakistan,
and similarly Pakistan too,
and now what we are concept taking is between people to people contact,
people of lndia there are been given more visas to visit Pakistan,
similarly lndian government is also giving more visas to Pakistanis,
for the student community, to visit lndia,
to have a very stronger tie,
after all we belong to one family, before 1947 it was one country.
The region of Kashmir is known all over the world because of its silk,
its cotton, its mountains and mostly because
of its armed conflicts with his neighbour Pakistan.
Nowadays its landscape is visually contaminated
by thousands of military patrolling fields and cities,
tanks and all kind of weapons are spread through the villages like flowers would do.
This place, for many people considered as paradise on earth
has been overwhelmed by floods of bullets and bombs for too long.
lts vast mountains contrast with its blue lakes.
ln its capital, Srinagar, we can find the Dal lake,
where lots of house-boats have been built by the inhabitants of the city.
The population of Kashmir is in its majority Muslim.
Every rising sun and sunset you can hear the scream of a prayer flooding the sky.
Praying for the end of a war that has filled the population with insecurity
and has privated her from an important source of income: international tourism.
The situation of Kashmir it´s a little bit better,
10 year, 11 year it was regular war here,
there was nobody walking here,
there was everywhere here army coming round, day time, night time,
the army coming round, round, everywhere, and the petroleum you know.
The situation must be good you know, if Pakistan and lndia will be good friendship,
l think it can be better you know, there will be no any problem, no any fighting,
no any killing, but its not only here, but war it comes from different countries man,
l´m sure the time will come when America will be finish themselves,
really, because he make lot of trouble with many countries,
lot of trouble with many countries, he go always with
the muslim countries, muslim countries they didn´t done anything with them,
they are also human beings, but they don´t want, they want always war,
even they don´t listen for United Ntions also, you know,
and so many guns coming here also, ahh gun coming from different countries,
made in America, made in Russia, made in China
where did it come from? Because they want to sell this ammunition, you know,
the America, they want the dollar, they want to sell weapon to another country.
End world war will be from the water, you understand?
The time will come that people haven ´t got water, they will fight for the water,
not for petrol, not for money, they will fight for the only waters,
this is problem you know, my friend here, you know.
Thank you, very much.
lt´s a microphone.
You see, in the lifestyle in the village is more peaceful, more calm,
there is no fight, no jealousy in each other,
no competence in each other,
but in the city always everybody wants to compete with each other,
the environment is not so good,
basically village life is better than city life.
Here we see nature, mountain, surround of us,
birds in the sky and everywhere,
in the city like house, you know, building.
Many street, many people, l don´t like the city.
Like in village they have a natural life, they don´t have as much comfort
as compared to cities, but they have natural food,
they work hard, and their body health its also better than city people,
because city people they don´t work.
Well in village there is fresh air, in cities
you can see everywhere garbage and a lot of pollution.
They just want to running behind of money, in the city. That all the time.
But in the village people in the morning they just go to work
and in the evening they would come back, sit together with all of the family,
and in the village if we have 5 brother 6 brother they live together,
but in the city if they are two brothers they live separated.
City is not natural. Villages are natural, everything is natural.
When you get early in the morning at 5 o clock.
City is 9, 10, no fix time, city is late time working
12, 11, midnight, but villages 8, 9 o clock is all.
Cities are forward and villages are backward,
this is the biggest gap in lndia.
ln rural areas mainly the problem is of economy,
there are some regions in lndia which are still backward, economically,
but the government is trying its best to uplift it.
So we find that overall there is a good change,
qualitative change in the lifestyle of the people,
and income also has gone up, considerably
and lndia has got a very good strong agricultural base, they have surplus.
lf you go to the rural cities there is less infrastructure,
the roads may no be good,
the roads may not be good, there may not be electricity,
so this are the differences.
Hinduism is the original religion of lndia.
lt´s a religion based in myths, protagonised by many gods.
There is a belief that all of the gods are, in reality,
manifestations of a unique principle they call Brahman,
the Absolute from which everything emerges,
and in order to act in the cosmos it needs to take different shapes.
lt manifestates principally in a triad:
Brahma (creator of the world),
Vishnu (conservator)
and Shiva (destructor).
There are lots of sacred elements for the Hinduism.
The Ganga river is one of them,
especially in its crossing through Varanasi, also known as Benares,
the place where all of the Hindus should go at least once in their life
and where everyone would like to die,
so they can liberate themselves from the reincarnation cycle.
ln this river not only animals or ashes from dead people are thrown,
but they also take baths in order to purificate the body,
they drink the water or make laundry.
Well casts system there are about 4 varnas,
those who are in the top of the rang are know as Brahmans,
they use to do all this religious activities
and also imparting knowledge to the society,
and then there was "´vaisias´", vaisias where the traders,
they use to do the business,
and then the chatrias, chatrias are the warriors,
they use to join in the army or the police, you know, to maintain law and order,
and then the last one was dhasas, the shudras,
they use to do all the domestic work,
Now the young lndians are having to something different, the style, the costume,
the food habits, is changing, similarly the values too,
we do not hold the same values
as our fathers, our ancestors held.
Sadhus they do not have any attachment to the society, that is a great thing,
and perhaps this is the only religion, l mean the Hinduism where we, you know,
advocate that, for the sacrifice, for the, you know, introspection,
and l believe it´s a very tolerant society, and it´s absolutely democrative,
everybody is free to opine, to express its opinion, his or her opinion,
there is no restriction as such.
Well, holy cows, you know, this is also related to the Hindu mythology
and religion spiritualism,
and it is a cow who give us for every portion of her body is used for the welfare
of the mankind so we do not want to slaughter, l mean kill the cow,
its very sacred to us,
but Muslim do eat cow, so its admissible,
l mean, the beefs are admissible in lndia, there is no legal ban on it,
but there where attempts to stop it, and the decision of the people
to protect cows, and l find its legitimate.
lndia practice equality, there is gender equality
the problem is not of equality, the problem is of economy liberalization,
now our main aim is to make the women economically self reliant,
but otherwise, so far as the socially speaking it was always, their contribution
is always recognized,
and they are given really high places in the society.
Life in the village is simple and hard.
Relaxed and frugal.
Families live united and they usually spend sunset squatting and talking,
listening to pop music playing on the radio
or maybe watching the last bollywood movie on television.
Women, both in city or village usually wear colorful saris;
this is a piece of cloth of about 1 mtr height for 6 mtrs long,
wrapped around their bodies.
They usually have a great number of decorations on them,
rings, braceletes and earrings.
Weddings are usually big and cheerful parties,
where all the family attends to wish prosperity to the newly-weds.
ln general Hindus respect animals,
and some sects have prohibited the killing of any living creature.
This is one of the reasons why many Hindus are vegetarians.
ln Hindus houses there are altars with images
which prayers for gods are offered every day,
giving flowers and other products, lighting lamps and burning incense.
The cult is much more impressive in the temples,
because people from all over lndia are present,
there are more offerings and statues are bigger.
lt is believed that the divinity can enter the statue to receive the offerings of its followers
and thank them in the form of benedictions.
Time is the conditioning of mind,
if our mind is calm and peace
and we re more interested in doing such a certain job,
that time, one hour or one day just going like one minute,
and if you are not interested to do such a work,
that same one hour or maybe one day, you are feeling like ten days.
Time is most important for my life, because l have no time.
l want more progress in my life.
Time is just a passing phenomen, it comes and it goes, you can´t catch it.
We should not forget about the basic of the life and meaning of it,
like too much technique can stop you some times, its too much in your head,
you cant, you some times like just a normal person just to live like,
not go to much into this kind of thing, this is like, in the end you get lost from everything.
lt´s a requirement of today´s time, its good to follow western culture
because we are very behind of it, of western countries,
that´s why we have to do hard work, we have to do fast work,
its good sir, l think its good.
Technologies make us slaves, and we have to work for that technology.
What really time, for me, like
having a good time is to be within our selves, having a relaxed life.
lf l go to village, village is more quite, if l come to the city there are lots of car,
lots of buses, everything like fancy, fancy clothes, fancy dresses whatever you know,
but people from mountain they want to come in city town, when they come to city town
they look something special, so they want really stay in town, but they don´t think
my village town is very nice, better than town, better than city,
but they don"t think that, they think, ok city town is very nice,
but city town is not nice, village town is very nice.
But people they all like very much money, more than relation and more than friend,
they think that money its everything, money we need for food,
money we need for different things, but money we made it,
we made it the money, but money doesn´t make us.
At this time we can not see any humanity over here,
even the whole world there will be no humanity,
you see the world is coming totally changing for everything,
all everything is imitation. Until like the computer system you understand,
nobody do by the hands, for work or jobs, if the person will stay
in the computer they don´t have time to do anything,
even they don´t have time to speak with wife, even they don´t have time
to make love with wife, if he can go morning,
morning he goes job, evening time he will come,
and he wants to relax, he wants to sleep,
but wife she want love, but man doesn´t do, because he is tired already,
so how come you´re going to become more tired, so it´s a problem you know.
¿What do you think about death?
¿About what?
Dying
¿Dying?
Yes, death.
Like everybody have to die you know, once, so l don´t think about it,
like l think, if you do good you can get good, if you always do good with people
then you can get good.
l like some people they are worried about death, you know,
so l´m not worried about death it will come at the time.
Death is...
that point after which one can know the whole reality about what is life,
l think after death we can know what it´s all, what is this all about.
Die is...
necessary, the only change of life,
so this soul never die, only body dies, die is natural.
lf there will happen, when the person will come die and dead, its no problem,
its god wish they have to die, like if l´m a die so there will be no worry for the die,
nobody knows when, tomorrow, today, life is for a few minutes, few seconds,
nobody know what it will happen, what kind of disease they are going to get,
if its good person god l´m sure it can live long time, very nicely.
You see death is not ending of our life,
death is the beginning of a new life,
so we believe in reincarnation, before we are somebody else,
now l´m somebody else, and tomorrow l´ll be somebody else,
so after death l´ll be some other body, so death is not
a painful thing for us, al we do is we respect our deads,
because we have to give up this body and get new body.
Dying that´s the truth, one day that day will come,
so l never think for that, when it comes it comes.
Death its truth. One day, you and me not there.
But you and me thoughts always there.
Death, nothing, gods wish,
he has created you, he has the right to take you back.
lt has to happen one day, but it should be on the time. There is a time for everything.
You are born, you have to die.
Since l am alive, l enjoy.
When l die, l´m happy to die, l´m going to next life.
So when people die in Hindu religion,
four people from family body carry, house to here,
they singing religious mantra:
they say: "´rama nam sakta he´", means: god rama name truth.
First body deep in ganga river
it means last purification body
and all family relatives they give water in the mouth of dead body three times each person.
After that one member of the family go back to barber shop
shaving the hair, moustache, beard,
then this men take bath in Ganga, then family go to office
and make a registration of the body, come back to owner of the burning ghat,
there they have to pay for the place charge and for the fire charge,
which fire being burning more than 3000 thousand years continue,
time of Shiva wife Parvati died, until now.
Then working people they make a bed, then body put top
of the wood bed, top of the body they put more wood,
then it get little fire from the Shiva fire,
no matches, no gasoline, no quemical,
taking Shiva fire with a grass leave,
they go to near body, before they start fire, he must walk around 5 time,
because body is made by 5 different element,
they have to release the element. They start fire
from the leg side, leg always in the portion of river,
so when they light fire it takes a minimum 2 hours,
maximum 3 hours to burning body, after 3 hours
chest of the man, pelvic of the woman, doesn´t burn complete.
So the man who lighted fire,
he takes the body with a bamboo stick and drop in the Ganga river.
All family take bath in ganga river, to be purified,
then family go back home, the man who start fire
he could not touch anybody for 10 days,
last day all together family shaving the hair, moustache, beard, not the women.
Then Brahman speak mantra, family replay mantra, they making special food,
this food not for family,
they are for 5 different places: for cow, dog, bird, Ganga, earth.
Then family go house, they give a big party to the priest,
the person who died, what he had been used material things until life, family don´t use it,
they give to priest, then priest giving blessing,
one ear in family cannot be any special occasion,
no marriage, no party, no picnic, no ceremony, no worship, one ear for mourning.
Here burning complete 24 hours, 200, 300, 400 bodies per day.
ln Hindu religion some kind of dead body no burning,
sadhu holy man, no burning, because sadhu holy man already purified,
we don´t need to purify them, take a heavy stone, body wrapped with a rope
take one boat, go middle of river and sink.
Children bodies are not burning, because children are innocent,
under 13 year.
Lepra people not burning because leprosy is sign of the goddess mother,
if we burn the lepra people it means we burning the mother,
so coming from mother and going back to mother ganga to be purified the leprosy,
next life could be good life.
Women pregnant not burning because she carry innocent,
animals not burning, because animals symbol of god and goddess,
that also go to river. People bite with a cobra,
is necklace of Shiva, second cobra is a poison,
if somebody bite with cobra, body full poison
but is not real death, it just lost the senses because of the poison,
so family try to looking one of the spiritual man who have a cosmic energy,
if family very lucky they find such a spiritual person,
they call him, by the spiritual power they remove the poison from the body
to get him alive back so they can live with family again, but if family unlucky,
they could not find such a spiritual person in 24 hours, then family
bring body to the river, they could not burn, if they burn, by the smoke,
people get poison, if they sink in Ganga river
Ganga will get poison with the fish, dolphin, turtle,
if they buried all they get bacteria.
They take 3 big trees of banana, make like a boat,
body sit top, in the plastic paper they write a full address
and body just floating in the Ganga river.
Sometimes spiritual holy men sadhu, they look the body, they catch the body
with the power of cosmic energy, they remove the poison from the body,
if person die under 3 days, chance to get life back,
with the address of him they can send back to home again,
that happens but very rare, last 4 years ago,
one man was get life bitten by snake
and if its later 3 days died then is impossible to get life,
then just clean the poison, after dead body will sink on the Ganga river.
Long time ago, husband die, women jump on the fire,
but now is not any more,
that´s why the women family don´t come with the funeral, they stay in home,
last 8 years ago one happen, one women jump on the fire,
it still some happen some place, very rare, not often.
That is all process of this ceremony.
Life is a circle.
After dusk we always get to another dawn.
Where there is death, there is also life;
there will always be hope as long as there are children trying to laugh and being happy.
There are notions that words cannot express.
The light which makes this world possible is poetry,
time doesn´t stop,
we live surrounded by wonderful people and places that conform our existence,
maybe our best achievement in life is to learn how to know them
and in that mirror, be ourselves. �