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Junagarh Fort in Bikaner,
a dusty oasis town
Lalgarh Palace, which now
has several hotels
View of Bikaner from Bhand
Sagar, a Jain temple in the old part of town
Jainism is an Indian religion that prescribes a path of non-violence
towards all living beings
Prayer inside a small Jain
temple
Women working in Bikaner
There is a "moustache
competition" as part of the Camel Festival in Bikaner
The barriers are down,
train is coming, but people are still trying to get across
Cows have this special
status that India is famous for
Girls in Deshnoke near
Bikaner, where we went to visit the Karni Mata temple
Karni Mata temple, also
called the "Rat Temple", is protected with a net to stop birds
Rats in this temple are
treated with sincere devotion
Many people travel great
distances to pay their respects
Karni Mata was a female
Hindu sage born in the Charan caste as the incarnation of the goddess
Durga
According to Hindu
beliefs, all of her tribespeople are reborn as rats
Rats are well fed and
looked after
Shoes are not permitted
inside, but most tourists wear socks
There are about 20,000
rats, including 4 or 5 white ones, which are considered to be
especially holy
Sighting a white rat is a
special blessing. My wife did, or so she says :)
Taking a nap after lunch
Preparing prasad,
which is distributed amongst visitors
Prasad
is very sweet, we tried it without any consequences for our stomachs
Women cover their faces
out of respect
Eating food or drinking
water that previously has been sampled by a rat is considered to be a
supreme blessing
If someone accidentally
kills a rat, they replace it with a golden one
During the century of this
temple's existence, there has never been an outbreak of plague.
Miracle?
Back in Bikaner, we
decided to go for a camel ride
On the way, our guide
showed us a few interesting places
Seeing so many eagles and
vultures was the highlight of my day
He also took us to the
village where his family lives
His father showed us how
to tie a turban. He was very quick!
After taking a few photos
we wanted to show them to the kids
Girls looked through all
the photos on my camera, about 500 of them
I find this position
uncomfortable, but many local men seem to like it
One of our guides with his
camel
View of the desert. 3
hours of riding was enough. Later we even tried camel milk!