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NO TIME TO WASTE : The People Who Hugged the Trees

Source: http://www.glade.org/nttw_treehuggers.html#TOP%20OF%20PAGE

The People Who Hugged the Trees is a story about an event which took place in 1730. In a village in the deserts of Rajasthan, northern India, the Bishnoi sect lived in harmony with nature, electing to protect wild life and the forest of khejari trees which gave them shelter, food and good air.

Amrita and her family lived peacefully in the village and loved the trees and praised them. One day, the Maharaja of Jodhpur demanded wood and sent cutters to chop down the trees. The villagers, led by Amrita, resisted by hugging the trees to protect them. All the same, 363 Bishnois were hacked to death, the first being Amrita. The Maharaja was moved by the non-violent protest of the Bishnois and these events have become folklore. Since 1973, the Chipko Movement has worked towards preventing large scale tree felling and deforestation. Chipko means hug.

Tree-hugging that saved the landscape

Source: http://www.globalideasbank.org/socinv/SIC-85.HTML

Adapted from an item in 'Call to Women' (April '93; subs �3 from Margaret Curwen, 18 Oatlands Drive, Weybridge, Surrey KT13 9JL, tel 01932 222892) founded in 1963 to reflect the views of many women's peace groups'.

'Forests precede civilisation, and deserts follow it'

'Forests', it is said, 'precede civilisation, and deserts follow it.'

Two thousand years ago Rajasthan's Thar desert in North-West India was covered with trees. Those that survive today owe their existence to the courage of a remarkable Hindu sect. The Bishnoi faith was founded in 1485 by a guru who had survived a famine caused by deforestation. He forbade his followers to kill any animal or cut down any green tree.

In 1731, the Maharaja of Jodphur sent men to the Bishnoi village of Jalnadi to chop down wood to fuel his lime kilns. One woman, Amrita Devi, rushed to reason with the axemen, and, when she failed, hugged the first tree to be cut. 'A chopped head is cheaper than a felled tree,' she said as she was cut down. Her three daughters took her place, and were also killed.

People flocked in from 83 neighbouring Bishnoi villages. By the end of the day, 359 more people had been massacred. When the Maharaja heard, he promised that the Bishnoi would never again be called upon to provide timber. Their communities thrive to this day, green oases in a barren landscape.

Tree-hugging for good health

Adapted from an article in by Andrew Gliniecki, entitled 'Tree-huggers seek to harness the harmony of nature' in The Independent.

Somewhat adapted for the New Age, tree-hugging has reappeared in late twentieth century Britain. "Invented" by Rod Nicholson, who runs the Centre for Harmony in Gloucester, it is being promoted as a way of relieving stress.

Mr Nicholson runs 7-hour courses introducing 'tree healing', where hugging is practiced in conjunction with posture and breathing techniques similar to Yoga. This allows one to connect with a (specially selected) tree's "stillness, strength and centredness".

Nicholson claims that people who have tried it are more relaxed, sleeping better, and making better decisions at work (presumably none of his trainees have worked for timber companies). Given these benefits, and the fact that the British are already ardent nature-lovers, he predicts it is likely to become a common form of leisure exercise. "If we used it widely here, we could cut the National Health Service Bill in half."

Jodhpur & Bishnoi Villages

Prologue: 8 a.m. and no jeep to see. We wait until 8:30 to contact the Tourist Info Desk of the Ajit Bhawan Hotel by telephone, where we made our reservation for a trip to the Bishnoi villages. We ask for Mr. J.D. Singh... he isn't present for the moment, the lady at the phone knows nothing about a reservation from Belgium. Our first disappointment in Rajasthan. The desk clerk of our hotel had heard (by any change?) our conversation. He offered us the same trip we planned at an other travel agency. What else could we do? And about 9:30 a.m. an other jeep with driver and guide picked us up at the hotel. First we negotiate about the trip we want to do (we knew by advance what we wanted to see) and above all we have to negotiate about the price (as you should always do in Asia!): for the whole trip, jeep with driver and guide and we with 4 persons agree for 1.600 Rs. It is true we started one and a half hour too late, but from now on we believe again in the Indian Gods and Goddesses. Up to the Bishnoi villages... Bishnoi villages : the principles of the ecology were already thought of centuries ago by a survivor of a great famine which raged in 1485. His name: Jambeshwar or Jambhoji. He observed that the famine was the result of the deforestation in the region (already at that time!). He formulated a list of 29 rules, among other things don't kill any animals, don't cut down green trees, take from the fields only what you need, etc. These 29 rules (Bish-noi means '29' in the Hindi language) forms the base of the Bishnoi-philosophy. Of course they are vegetarians and therefore they have great respect for all living things. Sure they keep buffaloes, sheep and goats but only for the milk, the wool and the manure. The last one they use as fuel and as construction material for they houses. The Bishnoi people accordingly expect that the tourist respect their way of life, the nature... We visited various villages remarkably surrounded by green farming land and orchards (don't forget we are in the Thar desert!): Guda Bishnoi: we step out by one of the houses, a combination of huts with thatch roofs and a raw construction of braided roots, with separated kitchen area and adjacent stable with fence. In the village they mainly animals. Zhalamand: here they keep sheep, goats en dromedaries. You also can see working potters. Salawas: the traditional centre of the weaving mills. It takes about one month to weave a durrie of 1m20 by 80 cm. You pay about 1.000 Rs depending on the amount of the motives and the used colours. Although durries are mostly weave in cotton, they exist also in camel or goat hair. There's also a community of Moslems in Salawas. Women make chiefly hand woven clothes, tablecloths and coverlets. As motives they apply block printing. A medium sized tablecloth costs about 300 Rs. We bought it from a "mama" with her 3 (lovely) daughters. Kakani: here there are a lot of traditional potters working. The potter's slice is turned by hand. About 2 p.m.we're back in the hotel. We could wring out our clothes. After a quick refreshment we leave at 3:30 with 2 tuk-tuk's for the Meherangarh fort of Jodhpur. On our demand the tuk-tuk's will for us at the entrance of the fort. We visit the fort with a guide (of course you can also do it on your own with a good travel guide in the hand, but nevertheless our experience is that you miss a lot of details). Meherangarh Fort: there are a lot of big forts in Rajasthan, but only a few can compete with that one. It's about 5 km long and it's situated on a 125 m high hill. The majestic fort is quiet impressive! Although invisible from the outside, the fort has 4 entrances and can be reached only by a 5 km long, winding road. The four entrances are: Jayapol (main gate; pol = gate), the Fatehpol (Gate of victory), the Suraipol (Sun gate) and the Lahapol (Iron Gate). We entered by the last one. Besides that gate you can see handprints, the sati, of the widows of Maharaja Man Singh, who died by throwing themselves on the funeral pyre in 1843. In the fort are some beautiful palaces with magnificent carved panels and latticed windows. Most of the inner halls of the palaces have prosaic names such as Moti Mahal (Pearl Palace with ceiling of sandalwood and gilded pillars), the Phool Mahal (the Flower Palace: 1 artist worked about 10 years at the paintings; the ceiling is covered with 80 kg gold, etc.), the Sheesh Mahal (Palace of Pleasure), the Sileh Khana and the Daulat Khana. These palaces accommodate fabulous collection of jewellery from the Indian courts, with among other things paladins, elephant howdahs, miniatures paintings from different schools, music instruments, costumes and all kind of furniture. The fort is daily open from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. and from 2 until 5:30 p.m. Entrance fee 50 Rs/person, elevator (yes!) 10 Rs/person, still camera Rs 50, video camera RS 100, guide 150 Rs. We hurry up to the 500 m further down lying Jaswant Thanda Memorial: pity, it's closed! It's a chhatri (cenotaph) in white marble built in 1899 by Maharaja Jaswant Singh II. There are also some other chhatris for Jodhpur maharajas who deceased during this century. In the main memorial one can see several portraits of the different Jodhpur rulers. The cenotaphs of the earlier maharajas and maharanis are located in Mandore. Unfortunately we can only see the memorial from the outside (and at a distance). It lies at the Devakund river which contains crocodiles during the monsoon period (so look out!). We are invited by our friends for dinner in the Umaid Bhawan Palace. Umaid Bhawan Palace: the gigantic Umaid Bhawan Palace has one of the biggest private residences in the world. It has 347 rooms and the construction needed about 70.000 m� sandstone and marble. It's the only palace from the 20th century that was build as part of a food project for the local people. The construction took 16 years. The edifice is still now the residence for the actual rulers and part of it is now managed as a hotel. One as non-guest cannot visit it unless you pay 330 Rs. If you decide to eat and drink something in one of the bars or restaurants, the bill is then reduced with that amount. About 7:30 p.m. we drive with 2 tuk-tuks to the Palace (100 Rs for one tuk-tuk) and ask the drivers to come back between 10 and 10:30 to get us. In the restaurant we decide to make an Indian evening, that means we all take Indian food. But before the dinner we took some cocktails at the back of the hotel with splendid view on the garden. It's still sweltering heat! In the restaurant, accompanied by the music of a tabla- and sitar-player, we choose the following dishes: Mulligatawny (Indian soup, Nizami Sabzi, Subz Pari (potatoes with special stuffing), Hurach Malai Zafrani. In spite of our wish 'please, make it not too spicy!' we are soon on fire. But after all, most of the meals taste delightful and it became a pleasant evening.