And the cosmopolitan character of the city is emphasized by the odd mix of Christian churches, and Hindu shrines which populate the whitewashed stucco streets. Though, I am told, most of the shrines are a fairly recent development: when the Holy Inquisition sent their missionaries to ensure the eternal welfare of the Hindi natives in the sixteenth century, many of the faithful risked torture to smuggle their idols to a safe haven about fifteen miles away in the town of Ponda.
I suppose I should really have followed tradition and offered a prayer of thanks for safe conduct in the cathedral of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, but I was more concerned with finding someone to continue my education on the subject of traditional Indian music. Guitars seem to be ubiquitous, but as evening drew on I managed to find a duetting pair adding their music to the lilt of the breeze across the marshes on the edge of the city. In all probability I will never know for certain whether they were father and son as I supposed, the elder improvising hypnotic arabesques on a sarangi, and the younger playing the melody of an evening raag on a bamboo flute.
References
Maps of the region, in PDF (not much help to a timetraveller!)
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3 comments:
omg.. the other day.. I put up a link.. to the "possible" lost years of Christ.. being in India.. they called him Issa.. and folks flipped out. So, I removed the link.. but.. I personally find it fascinating.. and who knows where he was??
http://reluctant-messenger.com/issa.htm
The Lost Years of Jesus:The Life of Saint Issa
# Ancient scrolls reveal that Jesus spent seventeen years in India and Tibet
# From age thirteen to age twenty-nine, he was both a student and teacher of Buddhist and Hindu holy men
# The story of his journey from Jerusalem to Benares was recorded by Brahman historians
# Today they still know him and love him as St. Issa. Their 'buddha'
Himis Convent Notovitch learned, while he was there, that there existed ancient records of the life of Jesus Christ. In the course of his visit at the great convent, he located a Tibetan translation of the legend and carefully noted in his carnet de voyage over two hundred verses from the curious document known as "The Life of St. Issa."
That's the link I'd put up. Enjoy reading!
I remember a book called the Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ which made the rounds during my hippie days. It was supposedly channeled by a Civil War chaplain, and had Jesus in India for much of the "lost years."
This was written a loooooooong time before modern man.
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