Tribal Orissa, India.

[Spagbag]

In February I went on a short guided tour of Orissa in India, mainly visiting tribal villages, markets, and some coastal areas. Orissa is the state in Eastern India situated directly south of West Bengal, and north of Andhra Pradesh.. Orissa is known as a tribal state, because of its 62 indigenous tribes. We saw people from 9 or so of its tribes (that we could identify with some level of certainty, anyway). Often I wasn't entirely sure if the people I was looking at were tribal or not, as traditional clothing is slowly being replaced by saris and more modern wear.

We reached the state by flying into Kolkata, and then taking an 8 hour train ride south, to the city of Bhubaneshwar. From there we wound around the main highways by bus to reach the tribal villages.

A colourful film poster at the roadside. On this road, one of the first things I saw was a beggar on his hands and knees, crawling across the central reservation into the fast lane of the highway (not exactly a "fast" lane, but anyway). I've been to India before, but it was still quite a shocking sight.
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On the way we passed a village of basket weavers. I liked the style of this house.
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They supplemented their living by cutting wood and taking it to the nearest town to sell. This old lady wanted to pose for the camera.
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The first tribal village we visited was of the Kutia Kondh tribe. They were mostly out working in the fields at that time, but their totems were interesting. All over the village there are totems like this commemorating where animal sacrifices took place. It's not very long since they ceased the practice of human sacrifice. Our local guide, after consuming a few beers, intimated that it may still be going on in tribes living in the remotest parts of the forest, as it is virtually impossible to police. Whether this is true or just hearsay to keep us tourists interested, I have no idea.
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A Kuthia Kondh lady. The women wear many earrings and have distinctive facial tattoos, although this practice is starting to die out among the younger females.
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A boy sits on top of a totem.
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A Kuthia Kondh man.
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Another Kuthia Kondh lady stands in front of her house.
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Working the rice paddies.
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When a beast is sacrified, its head is placed on the top of a long pole such as this one at the front of a house.
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The facial tattoos in close up.
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India is full of underwear adverts, hand painted on the sides of houses, walls, etc. I became a bit obsessed with spotting these.
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Girls in school uniform.
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The roads in Orissa need a lot of work done to them, and they use day labour on the building sites, much of which is female. This shows a typical day labour wage would be 55 rupees (less than $2) for a 7 hour day.http://www.smugmug.com/photos/280608865_2Zp7h-M.jpg

Dongariya Kondh women and baby. This was at a tribal market.
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The Dongariya Kondh women come down to the weekly market with their wares in baskets on their heads. Middlemen often grab those baskets from the women's heads and force a sale, even if the women are not entirely happy about it.
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Part of this market took place on/around a railway station, so people were crossing the tracks in large numbers.
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A village girl stands next to a rope cot.
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Water buffalo and a satellite dish!
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I liked this lady's face jewellery.
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I saw quite a few people wearing rosaries, and a number of Christian churches. Missionaries are still trying to convert the animist tribal people of Orissa, despite it being outlawed, and quite a bone of contention. This church looked colourful, anyway.
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Foot tattoo, from the Malia tribe, who are known as the gardener tribe. This lady had been standing knee-deep in murky river water, rinsing the grated root of a local plant, which they use for cooking.
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This fellow was trying to cadge a cigarette, which made a change from the children's requests for "Biss-quits! Chock-let!"
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This village had a tarmac road built by Unicef, running right through the village, and a vaccination programme, as indicated on this chart.
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This girl's clothing looked like a mini sari.
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Malia tribal houses.
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Very early one morning, while setting off from the town of Jeypore, we saw these charcoal makers heading out. It takes them 2 days, a 25 km round trip, and carrying a 50 kilo load, to make the charcoal. This will earn them 50 rupees.
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This is a lady from the Bonda tribe. They have shaved heads, and wear heavy metal necklaces and strings of coloured beads around their heads and covering their bare torsos. The men of the Bonda tribe are renowned for being very fierce, and walk around with bows and arrows, looking quite stern.
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A girl from the Bonda tribe.
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A Bonda man carries his bow and arrow, and alcohol made from palm fruits, to sell at market. I was told that these guys love their palm wine, and what they don't sell at market, they will drink on the way home.
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I think I have to do this in parts. How do you stay logged on when you are putting together a long post like this? :scratch

[Spagbag]

Continuing from where I left off...

This is another Gadaba lady. A group of ladies sat down in front of a pile of bricks and did a sing-song, back and forth with one of the men from the village. Those necklaces are HEAVY.
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An overloaded truck arrives at another market.
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Some haggling goes on at the skin market. I was unperturbed by the skins, but then I looked down at what I was walking over, and realised there were hairy severed tails lying everywhere!
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The potters have a great way of packing and carrying their wares.
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I loved the colourfully wrapped bundles of cauliflowers.
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This lady is from the Paraja tribe.
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More Paraja tribe ladies. The sari type garment is tied very differently here to in the rest of India. How do the women get their hands through those tiny bracelets?!
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A Paraja mother and baby. I wish the foot had come out more sharp, but never mind. :rolleyes
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We were having an uneventful lunch break on the top of a lookout tower when this bus came riding past.
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After that we were joined by a wedding party waiting a drive past by a groom. We didn't know when the groom would be due to arrive, until one of the party pulled out a huge conch shell and started blowing it, incredibly loudly.

This is the Kubhi tribe, who showed us their traditional dance. I was confronted with a moving wall of colour. :D
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A sign outside a school.
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This is a village of the Soara tribe, who we seemed to drop in on during wash day.
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A boy picks water lillies in a "tank"/pool.
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By now we were pretty much finished with the main tribal part of the tour, and headed for slightly different attractions.

This is Taptapani Hot Springs, which has a Hindu temple situated at the source of the spring. I think this depicts Hindu Goddess Kali, as she usually looks angry like this!
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A statue outside the Hindu temple situated on Chilika Lake, the largest lake in India.
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We took a boat trip on the lake, and when we saw this fishing party I thought we would stay far enough away so as not to disturb their fishing. But our boat captain had other ideas!
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This is an ancient style of irrigation system, in a rice paddy near Puri.
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I thought this was quite an optimistic claim, although the restaurant looked like it had closed down!
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Puri has some rather odd restaurant concepts. I had the strangest evening I have ever spent in India, in a futuristic themed restaurant in Puri, which had only been open a couple of months. The super-keen owner invited us for free food and told us all about his concept. The place was kitted out like the inside of a space shuttle, with video screens, glossy white furniture, and lots of buttons and lights. We were served fish and chips(!) by waiters who were so nervous that their hands shook. It was extra disconcerting if you consider how the street looked when we stepped back outside the restaurant.

A snack seller on the beach at Puri. I love how the cans are welded together to make this snack stand.
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An ashram in Puri.
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The main temple of Jagganath in Puri. Non-Hindus are not admitted into the temple, so tourists can get around this by climbing to the roof of a library situated opposite, thus getting a view over the huge temple complex.
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The busy bazaar area near the temple complex.
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A statue guarding one of the entrances to Jagganath temple. By one of these statues I saw one of the most glorious sights of the trip, but I wasn't able to photograph it: A beautiful police woman, her hair up in a chignon, dressed in full Indian police uniform, carrying a rifle to guard the temple entrace, but at the same time shoeless, with bells around each ankle. She looked stunning, but I didn't want to get arrested for pointing a camera anywhere near her!
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The intricately carved Sun Temple at Konarak.
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The overall shape of the temple is that of a chariot, hence the wheels.
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Slightly more modern in style, this is a small local temple to the Hindu monkey god, Hanuman.
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We had some free time, so we visited Nandankanan Animal Park in Bhubaneshwar. I wouldn't normally go to a zoo on holiday, but this place has a large number of white tigers, is huge, and the animals looked pretty well treated. We happened upon this one month-old bear when he waddled up to us with his keeper, and licked someone's toe.
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Colourful ice cream cones, outside the zoo.
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All too soon, it was time to board the train back to Kolkata. This carriage pictured has no glazed windows, but we travelled A/C class, which has the disadvantage that you can't always see out of the windows, because they are often covered in a dark film. It's a choice between a view and the dust/heat.
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To end the tour, we spent some time looking around Kolkata, which is noisy, chaotic, crazily over-populated, but totally fascinating at the same time. There is so much to see, my favourite place being the flower market next to Howrah bridge. If you try to stand still in this market, you are knocked over by a busy porter within seconds. I can't fathom where all these flowers get sold to. The market seems to be permanently ongoing, so that is a lot of flowers being sold every day.
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The home for the dying and destitute, run by the Missionaries of Charity (the most famous of whom was Mother Theresa). There are several places run by this order of nuns in Kolkata, and foreign tourists go to volunteer at these.
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Not me however, as I was heading off to another part of India...

That wraps up my Orissa tour.
Thanks for looking. :D

[cmr164]

Very interesting indeed.

[Chrissiebeez_NL]

wow... this must have been the biggest journey report to date here on dgrin :D

faboulous collection, and it looks like you were off the beaten track by miles! :bow:bow

thanks for sharing, i really enjoyed it! :thumb

[Awais Yaqub]

:clap Splendid set of photos :clap
Great trip thanks for sharing

[Spagbag]

faboulous collection, and it looks like you were off the beaten track by miles! :bow:bow

thanks for sharing, i really enjoyed it! :thumb

Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it. :D

Tourism there is still in its infancy, but we weren't that far off the beaten track. I'm pretty sure you can fly into Orissa if you want to, and we did bump in to 2 other groups of tourists while we were there (Italian and Dutch). The Italians were going into the forest to camp with the Bonda tribespeople for 3 nights. Before I got there, I had no idea that was even possible. I think it would be quite an experience.

Before we started the tour, and all the time during it, there were reports in the press of Naxalite Maoists marauding around the state, stealing weaponry and killing policemen. Fortunately we did not encounter any problems. The guides told us that the Naxalite issue is often amplified by the media and politicians, but it probably plays a part in keeping tourists away.

[summerz]

Wow amazing photos and commentary.:clap

[Joe M]

I never thought I would take the time to look at every photo, but I did.

[NeilL]

Stunning kaleidoscope! And nice work from the photographer. Thanks :clap:clap:clap

I have been to this area of India, not long ago. A lot of humanity with a different twist.

Neil

[schmoo]

:bow:bow Thank you so much for such a great collection of photos and taking the time to write all of that out. I would have been so lost without your commentary.

It looks like a trip of a lifetime. Wow. I have never even heard of these tribes before your post, but you have really educated me to the endless variety of cultures within a single nation.

[christulk]

Some beautiful work in a beautiful place. Well done:thumb

[Spagbag]

I have been to this area of India, not long ago. A lot of humanity with a different twist.
When were you there?
It's definitely a great place to people watch.

Thanks for the comments.

[Dogdots]

Your series of photos was an enjoyment to wonder through :D

[NeilL]

When were you there?
It's definitely a great place to people watch.

Thanks for the comments.

Hi, @ Xmas last.

Neil

[Chazman]

Awesome pictures! Thanks

[work2fish]

Thanks for taking the time to post all of your pics and commentary. Very nice work! India is a place I aspire to travel to someday, but haven't quite had the opportunity at this point. Your photos definitely whet my appetite and urge me to be more proactive about planning such a trip in the future.

Cheers,
Mike