The observant of you will have noticed that I now have a Kumbh Mela gallery on my site, I’ll be adding more images to this if all goes well.

Last Friday saw the first of the royal bathing days for the Kumbh mela, this one was called ‘Shivratri’ – the birthday of the Hindu god Shiva. On these sacred days thousands of naked and semi clad naga sadhus proceed to the ghats to bath in the Ganges. Naga sadhus or naga bubas are said to spend most of their lives with out even the most basic of possessions including clothes. In reality most have blankets and jewelery while  a few have mobile phones and some, get this, even have the luxury of  a TV in their tent, my hotel room didn’t even have a TV!! anyway I digress.

Its really is a spectacular sight to watch these ash coated warriors walk, run & dance to the ghats for bathing, although difficult to shoot as an estimated 2 million pilgrims were in town to watch the procession.

I’m now in Delhi, sorting out a few personal things, washing my laundry for one, before heading off to khajuraho for a traditional Indian dance festival. If all goes well I’ll share my images with you shortly.

As always I’d love your comments.

Tags: festival, Festivals, india, Kumbh mela, Kumbh mela