An April 12, 2012 Times of India article by Lemuel Lall, TNN, describes how the Baigas are protecting their forests. The tribal people stand with their bows drawn and arrows ready to fly, confronting Forest Department workers who are intent on cutting the trees.
The Baigas are a people in the Dindori district of Madhya Pradesh, living in the Ranjara jungles, where they have lived for countless generations, worshipping the trees as gods.
The village panchayat (leader) had been holding frequent meetings and lodging protests with the Forest Department against the felling of the trees. Finally, he had had enough, and he asked every man, woman, and child to stand armed with bow and arrow to defend the trees, not allowing a single one to be cut.
The Dindori Conservator of Forest, L.P. Tiwari explained that they were only cutting dead wood, and that it was necessary to do this to follow a government arrangement to provide some wood to other local people to be used as firewood. He said that not allowing any wood to be cut could lead to massive resistance and the start of illegal logging, as has happened in Uttarakhand, so they must stick to the agreement. He hopes an understanding can be reached with the Baigas.
The Baigas maintain that the trees are their gods and that cutting any of them is entirely unacceptable.
Though it’s easy to appreciate the logic of the Forest Department, who are probably doing their best in a difficult situation to prevent further destruction of the forests. Still one’s heart goes out to the Baigas. After all, a tree is a god, isn’t it? And if we all bravely defended the trees and never allowed a single one to be cut, wouldn’t the world be a different planet – where life and the sacred beings of nature are loved and respected — and where the animals’ homes are protected and preserved?
Katherine Routledge who lived for a while on Easter Island in 1919 recorded legends told to her by an old woman who said that the huge stone heads were moved into place by a magical technology called “mana” — an interesting word since the ancient Hebrews during their forty days in the wilderness were fed by “mana” that fell from heaven.
Twenty-five texts called rongorongo were found on the island. They contain an ancient script, which predates inscriptions made by the most recent inhabitants of the island. They were created by an earlier people, and are believed to be a form of writing, as yet undeciphered.
On stones at the tops of cliffs overhanging the ocean are petroglyphs — figures of birdmen carved into the rock. Their big beaks and big eyes are easy to make out. The name of their chief god was Makemake, who had created human beings and who had a link with the birdmen. The carved birdmen look as if they’re about to fly out over the cliff. They are a recurring theme in many cultures – a great many – like angels with wings.
In Sanatana Dharma (or Hinduism), the vehicle of Lord Vishnu is Garuda, who is a mighty, very wise being, part man and part eagle or kite, who carries Vishnu wherever he wishes to travel.
The birdmen are more recent than the great standing statues, the moai, and the birdmen petroglyphs are said to have appeared first around 1570 and to be essentially the same as some found in Hawaii, so the concept must have traveled from one island to another.
Petroglyphs also depict sea turtles and fish.
On Easter Sunday, 1722, the first European, Dutch captain Jacob Roggeveen, arrived on the south Pacific island. He stayed for a week or so. Due to a “misunderstanding”, he shot some of the island’s residents. Things went from bad to worse over the next couple of centuries with nearly all of the thousands of the islands’ inhabitants being killed or sold into slavery. Such are the hazards of being “discovered.”
In recent years the population has increased again to around 4,000, with about 60% of these being Rapanui, the native island people.
The giant stone figures, the moai, were in centuries past used during ceremonies. They stand with their backs to the sea. They were given eyes to wear during ceremonies, with the whites made of coral and the iris made of obsidian or red scoria, a type of volcanic rock filled with many holes.
The moai consist of heads along with their torsos. Only in one case was there a line of moai facing the sea. Radiocarbon dating has yielded a date of between 1100 and 1680 CE for when they were carved. In 2011 though, a large moai was dug up out of the ground, which indicates that they are both larger and older than previously believed.
They carry even today an extraordinary presence.
Thanks to the History Channel H2, which featured Easter Island in a recent program on April 8, 2012 and to Wikipedia for much of this information.
I think Oman would be an interesting place to visit. My internal image of it is like an old, magical Arabia – they have a Sultan, they have holidays where they all wear brightly colored, festive clothing and curved knives, they have gorgeous white buildings against an aqua Oceanside – and secretly, in my imagination, I think they must have genies, too! Villages have been found there that are 8,000 years old! They also have a really nice orchestra there that I like. Formed about 30 years ago because the Sultan really likes classical music, I think they put on a really impressive show! Click here.
Several didgeridoos
Steven Simon – The didgeridoo is a really interesting instrument. It kind of sounds like insects speaking to one another, but in a really intense, foreboding way. Almost like insects telling a prophecy. Or casting a spell. Or calling a gathering. The instrument is found in Australia, among the aboriginal people there. They’ve been playing it for more than a thousand years in both ceremony and festivity. And apparently – this is what I heard – in order to play it, you have to actually breathe in and out at the same time. (In through the nose, out through the mouth simultaneously.) So didgeridoo players never have to pause to take a breath! It’s quite fascinating to watch. Here’s a man named Steven Simon, a descendent of the Lama Lama Kuku Taipan tribes of Queensland, Australia, playing this fascinating instrument. Click here.
Playing a Thai drum
Carabao – Outside of Asia, not many people know about this band. But they’re extremely popular in Thailand and elsewhere. They’ve been around since the 1970s, and their front man is an outspoken, sometimes called “sharp-tongued” inspiration to a lot of youth. Their music touches on everything from politics to social justice to issues of personal philosophy and positivity. As I said, they’re not well-known outside of Asia, but they’re legendary in some countries, and while in many ways, they’ll remind you of rock bands that you’ll find anywhere, in some ways, they’re absolutely unique. Click here.
Top photo: Author: Sabihuddin.khan / Wikimedia Commons / Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license / Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque
Second photo: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. / Attribution: Nick carson at en.wikipedia / Wikimedia Commons / Various types of Didgeridoo
Third photo: Author: Tevaprapas Makklay / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain / Playing a Thai drum
Sometime around 1968, in the south of France, I remember looking up a hill as someone pointed out to me the remains of a Roman aqueduct, still there after 2,000 years – a high wall with arched openings and a stone channel on the top where water used to run. The Roman system of aqueducts carried water for irrigation and drinking across much of Europe, just as the Roman roads created a transportation web. Many modern expressways in Europe follow these same ancient paved highways, built by the Roman legionnaires.
What is not so well known is that the Romans did not themselves invent either aqueducts or the system of paved roads. It was actually the genius of the Etruscans that developed these and a number of other technical wonders. Etruscans had a high degree of technical knowledge. They developed the intricacies of water and sewage management, plumbing, irrigation, and architectural designs. Big bridges were originally built by Etruscans.
The Romans were warlike – Latian, native people from the region of Latia, and, as we know, they eventually conquered northern Italy, and the rest of the Roman Empire.
The Etruscans had great riches, including stone carvings and paintings, and they were fond of jewelry. Around 10,000 samples of their written language have been found on tablets. It is a script still not deciphered, though it is known to be non-Indo-European.
The Etruscan language
The Indo-European language group which extends from the east in India, all the way across Europe, first swept through Europe around 8,500 years ago, leaving untouched a swath of northern Italy, where later on, in Tuscany, the Etruscan language emerged – and another swath in the mountains of northern Spain, where the Basque language grew into being. Etruscan died out long ago, but Basque is still a living language. It is thought that Etruscan and Basque may be remnants of an older, earlier European language group, predating the Indo-European group. Also outside the Indo-European language group are around three dozen other European languages known as the Uralic languages, including Estonian and Finnish.
The alphabet of the Etruscan language evolved from an alphabet in use by the Greeks, and before that, it was used by the Phoenicians. From the Etruscans, it was borrowed by the Romans and became the “Roman” alphabet that we know today, used in English and most European languages. So, we have the Etruscans to thank for the letters we are reading.
Most authorities believe the Etruscans came by sea from West Turkey, North Africa, or Crete. They came from an advanced civilization, but their origin is not known for sure.
An Etruscan walled town
Like the Etruscans, the Minoans on Crete knew how to melt iron ore and make tools – but not weapons. Etruscan artisans made hinges, doors, locks, keys, and utensils for daily life – carved with dancers and animals. Much of their artwork is found in gravesites, depicting men and women dancing and eating at banquets together. They seem to depict social equality since the seating at banquets is equal for men and women.
Visiting gravesites with bright walls
A friend of mine, who we’ll call Abbie, since she prefers to remain anonymous, in 2002 went to Tuscany in the north of Italy and to Umbria which lies beyond Tuscany to the northeast. She returned once a year for four or five successive years, visiting numerous fields and archeological sites. She recalls that sometimes churches were built on what had once been sacred sites; sometimes there was a spring there. Nearly every town in these provinces has a museum with Etruscan artifacts.
Near Florence, going down some stairs into an underground room, where the ceilings were around five and a half feet high, Abbie found herself in a burial chamber. The people when they died had been buried in sarcophagi, carved with scenes from their lives. After that, she visited many other tombs, outside Siena, and near Lucca and other towns in Tuscany.
A Tuscany landscape west of Siena
The Etruscans founded the city of Lucca, which in 180 BC became a colony of Rome. Siena too was built on top of an Etruscan settlement. The Etruscans inhabited twelve regions or city-states. Apparently they did not have a single capital city; their governance was through a council of representatives.
As with gravesites all over the world, there was a lot of looting over the years. During one period, they cremated their dead, placing the ashes in smaller sarcophagi. Much of their lives was spent preparing for the after-life, and going by their paintings on the tomb walls, they must have envisioned the after-life as a joyous time, when they would be happy.
The underground tombs were square rooms, with stone benches along the side, originally lined with grave goods, such as jewelry, drinking vessels, and tools.
On the walls were painted friezes of very colorful, vibrant scenes, of banquets, dancing, and musicians. Down-to-earth people, they enjoyed hands-on work like metal-working. They seem settled and contended with their lives. The underground gravesites often opened out into several rooms.
There were no scenes of war or conflict, so they must have been a peaceful people until they were attacked by the advancing Romans.
Tarquinia, the Etruscan Tarchnal, was among the twelve Etruscan cities. In the sixth century, BC, the Tarquinians fought against the Romans, and though they are said to have fought well, the Romans won that battle. The wars for supremacy lasted over several centuries, and by 181 BC Tarquinia had become a municipality of the Roman Empire. The Etruscans had lost their independence.
The original site of the city of Tarquinia lies to the north of the current town on a plateau. The two towns co-existed through the Middle Ages, with the older town dwindling in size, and the newer town thriving and becoming a major city. In the old site of Tarquinia are cemeteries from the even older Etruscan times, consisting of many round buildings, with round roofs; the buildings being connected by passageways. They are large, with diameters of maybe 50 to 70 feet. Used as gravesites, they are all built of beautiful, precisely cut and shaped stones, perfectly fitted together. Seen from the outside the stones are gray. Inside, the brightly-painted walls were once lined with grave goods.
Where the people lived
When the Romans took over Etruscans lands and cities in the later centuries BC, they learned metalwork and weaponry from the people they had conquered.
As is generally the case for people whose lands are invaded, many of the people were killed, but not all, and for a few hundred years, they co-existed, while Latin gradually replaced the Etruscan language. The Romans also picked up many practical inventions like waterworks.
At Rosella, a site about an hour north of Rome, can be found the remains of an Etruscan settlement, where people lived in rectangular houses, with the individual houses all joined together, along narrow streets. There were no strong defenses, so the Romans had no difficulty in overrunning them. Artists and craftspeople, their social system was egalitarian, and their form of governance was a council system.
They were Bronze Age people, with their civilization extending from around 1200 to perhaps 100 BC.
In museum exhibits, can be found lots of sarcophagi with beautiful, very endearing carvings of people on the lid, men and women, sometimes with dogs. Their faces are realistically done, with some young and some old – “faces one can connect with,” as Abbie puts it.
An Etruscan pendant
Who were they?
Who were the Etruscans? To this day no one really knows. The two most accepted theories are either that they grew into a civilization exactly were they were – in the Tuscany region of northern Italy – or that they came from Asia Minor, perhaps from ancient Lydia. Some feel that they may be the ancient Sea Peoples, the Hyksos, who invaded Egypt round the thirteenth century BC.
The Greeks called them Tyrrhenian pirates, and the sea to the west of Italy is known as the Tyrrhenian Sea. Herodotus says the founder of their civilization was the son, Tyrrhenus, of a Lydian king. Could there be a connection with Tyre, in Lebanon, once a Phoenician city? We do not know. Only that they seem an engaging, lively people, inventive, creative, and peaceful.
Top photo: Author: Lucarelli / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain / An Etruscan bronze in the Archaeological museum in Florence / Chimera of Arezzo
Second photo: Photographer: rdesai / Wikimedia Commons / This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. / An Etruscan walled town on what used to be the main road leading south to Rome / Civita di Bagnoregio
Third photo: Photographer: Norbert Nagel, Mörfelden-Walldorf, Germany / Wikimedia Commons / This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. / Tuscany landscape west of Siena
Fourth photo: Artist: PHGCOM / Wikimedia Commons / This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license / An Etruscan pendant dating from 700 to 650 BCE
Odetta – The world lost a legendary singer in December, 2008. Odetta had one of the most powerful voices I’ve ever heard, and sang some of strongest, most blood-pumping American folk songs and spirituals. There really will never be another Odetta. After a lifetime of struggling against racism in her early life, her dearest wish was to sing at the inauguration of America’s first black president. President Obama invited her to sing at his inauguration, and she was planning to do so. Then tragically, she died of heart failure just before she could. She will certainly never be forgotten in American music. Here is a taste of what she sounded like in her prime. Click here.
Here she is, performing live, near the end of her life. Click here.
In honor of her, here are two singers who make me think of her:
India Arie
India.Arie – This is the singer I listen to whenever I drive a car. She’s bouncy enough to keep me awake, but she’s just brimming with positive messages. I own every album she’s made so far, and will probably own every one she makes in the future! There’s a powerful spirit in her music, and a hint of enlightenment in her lyrics that I think could have been born from a foundation laid out by Odetta’s legacy. Although, of course, she has a voice that’s all her own. Click here.
Ani DeFranco
Ani DiFranco – This is Ani DiFranco. To some women my age, she’s been one of the most important singers of our time. (I’m 40.) Many of us started listening to her in our 20s, when her music was highly political and angry. Back then, she always sounded like she was about to break the strings off her guitar. There was an Odetta-like fierceness and determination. We kept listening to her in our 30s, when her music became more full of personal angst and reflection. Although most of those songs alluded to existential struggles, there was a softness-over-a-strong-undercurrent that was not unlike an Odetta spiritual in some ways. And then, in what seemed like a great coincidence to me, after I’d spent decades following her music – she had a baby around the same time I did. And wrote this very simple, but poignant song. Click here.
In a resounding victory for the animals, the Bombay High Court has directed the State Government to end all bullock cart races in Maharashtra, the Sakaal Times reports in a March 18, 2012, article by Prasad Joshi, “Bullock Cart races brought to halt.”
This victory is the result of the determined efforts of a number of animal groups and individuals, going back over many years. The suit was brought by Gargi Gogai, a Mumbai animal advocate. Among many others who played a key role were Anil Kataria, President of the SPCA, Ahmednagar, as well as animal activists Ajay Marathe, and Manoj Oswal.
The Animal Welfare Board of India and senior advocate, Anjali Sharma, laid out the case for the animals with a letter to the authorities.
The judge’s recent ruling requires district officials and the police to enforce the ban on all bullock cart races in Maharashtra.
Despite thousands of years of revering the cow and the bull as sacred animals, and despite the reverence that most Indians today feel towards these animals, some public events have continued to be held which are distinctly cruel. One of these has been bullock cart racing, in which the bulls pull a cart, racing along in the heat of the day.
Animal races, like any animal-related sport, are never kind. There are unseen cruelties, hidden from public view. A quick look at any of several videos posted on Youtube of bullock cart races will show clearly that the animals are pushed and pulled this way and that and treated very roughly by their handlers.
But on top of this rough treatment, the bulls are also being tortured in ways hidden from the camera.
Bulls will not naturally run, they are not greyhounds or horses, they’re laid-back animals who really like standing around in fields, so to make them run, they must be made to feel pain by a variety of means. This is an extremely cruel sport, in which the animals suffer by being tormented.
After many years of hard work by animal advocates to have these races banned, there seems to be a light shining at the end of the tunnel.
Recently rescued bulls at Blue Cross.
Last summer saw a milestone reached with the landmark issuing of the Notification by the Ministry of the Environment and Forests on July 11, 2011, banning leopards, tigers, lions, bears, monkeys, and bulls, as performing animals.
However, everything then took a step backwards on September 11, 2011, when the Maharashtra State Government announced that actually the ban did not mean all bulls, and that neutered, castrated bulls weren’t really bulls and could still be used in races.
The Animal Welfare Board of India, on the other hand, endorsed the broad, inclusive meaning of “bulls” as designating all bulls, both neutered and non-neutered, maintaining that Bullock cart racing is entirely illegal.
The latest ruling, by the Bombay High Court, has cast aside the faulty distinction between neutered and non-neutered bulls.
The Bombay High court, in their decision signed by Chief Justice Ranjit More, J., has ruled that in fact all bulls really are bulls, whether neutered or not, and that the court order bans all bullock cart races, games, exhibits, and training of bulls. No bulls can be used as performing animals. Any bull owner who allows his bull to race in a bullock cart race is in violation of the provisions of the Animal Protection Act, 1960. The Court also requested that the State of Maharashtra increase the penalty, calling the current fine “miniscule,” so this is a major victory for the bulls. It definitively outlaws bullock cart racing in the State of Maharashtra and sets a precedent for similar events in the rest of India.
Rescued bulls.
This major ruling in Mumbai follows an earlier ban of bullock cart races in the State of Punjab.
Kila Raipur, in Punjab, is a well-known village where the three-day Rural Olympics take place every year. They include contests and tests of strength. Unfortunately, they have also included bullock cart racing.
This year though, the bullock court races were stopped in Punjab. Early in February 2012 as the Rural Olympics were about to get underway in Kila Raipur, the state authorities, pursuant to last year’s Notification banning bulls and five other species from being used as performing animals, halted the races, not allowing them to go forward.
A letter from the Animal Welfare Board of India was taken to Punjab to the Haryana High Court, Chandigarh, a day before the games were to start.
The Court then ordered the District Magistrate Ludhiana to issue a decision. Having reviewed the AWBI letter, the Government Notification banning use of bulls as performing animals, and the Expert Opinion of the Animal Husbandry Department, the District Magistrate ruled that bullock cart races are illegal, and so the case in Punjab was settled out of court.
On April 23, 2012, the Madurai bench, in Tamil Nadu, will hear the jallikattu case, and it is hoped that the bullock racing case will serve as a precedent. (Jalikattu is another cruel sport, in which bulls are pursued and tormented by crowds of young men.)
Years of work and perseverance on the part of the Indian animal movement are at last paying off, and the bulls are being freed from the suffering inherent in these kinds of brutal sports.
To view the March 18, 2012 Sakaal Times by Prasad Joshi, “Bullock Cart races brought to halt,” click here.
To visit the website of the Animal Welfare Board of India, click here.
Photos: Sharon St Joan / These particular bulls were not used in bullock cart races. They were recently rescued from illegal transport by Blue Cross of India.
Isis – Long ago in Egypt, the mother of all nature and magic was Isis. Her religion spread all the way to Greece and beyond. Compassionate and devoted to her family, she was frequently depicted with her son on her knee. Her most famous story involves putting her husband back together after he’s been torn to pieces by an enemy. There was sometimes both a sensual side to her worship (because of her role as a wife and partner) and an entreating side to her worship (because of her gentleness and compassion as a mother.) She had by far the strongest magical powers of all of the Egyptian deities, and was summoned the most often in people’s magic spells. Her temples from Egypt to Italy to Iraq continued to be places of worship well into the first several centuries AD. But in the end, decrees were put out to destroy them all, and a huge number of them met that fate. Here’s a portion of “The Song of Isis” by the incomparable David Heath. Click here.
Celtic mirror
Brigid – She’s been both a Celtic goddess and an Irish Catholic saint. The goddess named Brigid was a goddess of poetry, and a keeper of all things “high” (from high thoughts to high flames to high mountains.) When Celtic lands were converted to Catholicism, a Saint Brigid emerged who is thought by many to be a new version of the Goddess, Brigid. High priestesses tending sacred flames was a long-standing Celtic tradition. And today, Saint Brigid is often honored by the keeping of never-extinguished flames. In one spot in Ireland, nuns tend the flames of St. Brigid full-time. Here is a song to Brigid (pronounced “Breed” in Gaelic) by Beverly Frederick: Click here.
Kwan Yin
Kwan Yin – She’s either a Chinese goddess or a Buddhist boddhisatva or a Taoist Immortal, depending on your religious beliefs. No matter which she is, Kwan Yin (or Guanyin) represents compassion. She’s the one who “hears the cries of the world.” She feels for us all and has mercy. Her legend began in China, but today, she is also popular throughout East Asia. Because of her deep kindness, she is often associated with vegetarianism, and some think that she particularly looks after women and children. Here’s a nice song about her by the silky-voiced Lisa Thiel. Click here.
Top photo: Arrivée en bateau au temple de Philaé, Assouan, Égypte; arriving by boat at the Philae Temple, Aswan, Egypt. / Image taken by Gilles RENAULT /Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 France license. / Wikimedia Commons
Second photo: Fuzzypeg / Early Celtic La Tène style in Britain. Date: 50 BC – AD 50. 36 cm diameter. British Museum highlights /Wikimedia Commons / British Museum / Public Domain
Third photo: Statue of Kuan Yin, Ming Dynasty, by Chaozhong He, photographed by Mountain at the Shanghai Museum. / Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. / Wikimedia Commons
Hanuman,
