|
||
| This week finally brought rain. Although
I realize how important it is and I was
very happy for my neighbours-- the four days of
cold, miserable wet England-like
days were enough for me. My supervisor, Dr. Peter
Parkes was in Rawalpindi this
week. We met up with a German anthropologist who
very kindly allowed us to tag along
to an 'urs'. The role of pirs, or saints, took on
a whole new dimension as I watched
the ceremony and spoke to people around me about
how important some of these people
are. I also made it to the Anthropology Department at Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad. I spoke with Dr. Naveed-i-Rahat, the Head of the Department as well as Dr. Choudry Azam. I was well received and they offered to halp in any way they could. I asked about the possibility of presenting a paper during the spring and was told that this should be possible. I would like to have some feedback from Pakistani post-grads who may be working on similar projects (or at least in the same area). Kalyam Sharif. The 'urs' we went to was at Kalyam Sharif. We went to witness a ceremony revolcing around Sain Mira Baksh. Although I am not, as a rule, terrible comfortable with religious leaders (of any denomination), he was extremely nice and very tolerant of the multiple anthropologists poking around his ceremony. This was my introduction to live 'kawali' music. I have been hearing this on the radios and people's cassette players since my arrival in the village so it was nice to see a live performance. I was told later that we were fortunate enough to have two of the highest rated 'kawali' performers in Pakistan: Mir Ali and Sher Ali. The 'mela', or circus, on the fringe of the shrine was also worth seeing. Although it couldn't compare with the professional circuses of Europe and North America (Barnum and Bailey etc) it had a certain charm. I found it difficult to fall under the charm of the 'khusra's (transvestites/transexuals) they were certainly entertaining (I took some video of them but I'm not sure if it can pass a G rating so it may take it a while to make it onto the website). Although this was a busy week in terms of going to the shrine, I feel like it was a slow week for my doctoral research. Visitors are nice but they take away from time watching the people I'm here for. I think some visitors during the year will provide a welcome change of pace but I must be a little cautious about drifting too far away from the task at hand. |
||
Return to Home Page |