Ancient traditions carried on - lady surveys her artist work creating a new floor from buffalo dung. A rural village is typical of thousands of other such rural villages throughout India where Snake Charming ‘clans’ still live in much the same way as their forefathers lived, steeped in the ancient traditions of the Indian Snake Charmer. Buffalo dung has many uses within these communities. It is often the ladies whose job it is to keep the family home and premises well maintain often with the use of buffalo dung. Walls, homes, courtyards all covered with dung, and looking neat and tidy.
One of the major attractions for tourists visiting India has been to see first hand India’s Snake Charmers performing their mystical craft. For generations, India’s snake charmers have been entertainers. Entertaining kings and emperors with their music and snakes, Snake Charmers are revered by millions of Hindus around the world. This is because Snake Charmers are considered to be direct descendants of Lord Shiva, the Hindu God with the Cobra coiled around his neck. The traditions of India’s Snake Charmers, or Saperas, as they are often referred to, have been handed down from their forefathers - father to son for millennia. India without Snake Charmers would be like India without the Taj Mahal – unbelievable. Unbelievable or not, India’s snake charmers can no longer perform their ancient craft, it has come to an end and now they have to seek alternate means to earn a living. This is due to the Indian Wildlife Protection Act (IWPA) introduced in 1972 in order to protect many of the nations rapidly depleting species of wildlife, including reptiles. But this act was not rigorously imposed regards Snake Charmers until about ten years ago. In the eyes of a wildlife conservationist, a snake in a snake charmer’s custody means it has no chance of surviving in the wild. “Once captured, it will die in the hands of the snake charmer,” "Snakes are the best rodent controllers. They are the best hunters of rats in a wheat or rice field. We say that snakes are the best friends of the farmer; hence, removing snakes would be an ecological disaster.” But the Snake Charming community insist that they would never harm a snake, "They are like a god to us."
Size: 2592px × 3872px
Location: India, State of Haryana
Photo credit: © Adrian Page / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: blue, brown, buffalo, courtyard, dog, dung, floor, green, house, lady, pattern, trees, turquoise
