Tribal woman

do enlarge to see her silver jewellery, embroidery, tattoos on hand and chest, embedded finger rings and her arm bangles (which formerly would have been made of ivory and cannot be removed)

Another day packed full of marvellous opportunities to take a wealth of photographs for it is a week long festival for Tribal People to visit the holy junction of 3 rivers at Baneshwar where they take ritual bathes in the waters and visit the Shiva temples. But like any festival it is accompanied by the league of sales people who set up stalls to sell their wares – everything from the horrid plastic toys from China to beautiful hand made items, flutes for the children, bed frames, cooking implements and pots, farming hand tools, bows and arrows (yes, they use them), ceremonial swords and knives and of course the silver jewellery, hair ornaments and trinkets for the women and on and on. The most fascinating for me were the stalls where family members were actually carving the bed legs for assembly at home, paddles for making ghee, spoons and ladles out of wood, weaving baskets and putting the finishing touches to arrows...  It was like nothing else I've ever been to for everyone was in new clothes, or their very best and so happy.  They came in parties, families and neighbours in trucks and jeeps, packed like sardines and during the day found a place on the river banks to set up an area where they could cook and eat together sitting on a cloth laid out over the pebbles.  Water from the holy rivers was collected for drinking
Afterwards dinner with Yusuf and his family – an exhausting and happy day and not another tourist to be seen anywhere!