In Northern India
live a nomadic people
made of dancers and musicians
Their name means « those who love snakes »
They are the most emblematic tribe of the Rajasthan Gypsies
the Kalbeliya
My name is Raphael Treza, I'm a musician and filmmaker
I'm going to spend the next 3 months with the Gypsies of Rajasthan
My Journey begins in Mumbai
With a 15 hour train trip in a second class sleeper
I arrive in Rajasthan and the Thaar desert
An arid land on the border of pakistan
Punctuated by oasis, with generous and fertile land
Pushkar will be my basecamp
a holy city
appreciated by the travelers for its hippie atmosphere
They come in order to discover Indian culture like the Bollywood dance
On the road, I meet Biram, a kalbeliya gypsy
He agrees to introduce me to his people, and will be my translator
Biram's family is setting up a camp in their new workplace
They're going to make charcoal
Biram has settled here with his children
and wife Santos
In order to make charcoal they use the Kata tree,
A shrub that is prevalent around the fields, and whose long thorns can burst tires.
Its branches are mostly used to build walls
In order to protect the village from wild animals, like panthers
The tractor's stuck
Straw has to be placed under the sand in order to remove the trailer from the fields
Krishma is a sedentary Kalbeliya
She makes henna for a living, she sells it to the tourists
She's part of the first generation of gypsies who goes to school
She also teaches kalbeliya dance to travelers
who come from all over the world to improve their technic
Like Luna a Mexican dancer
Krishna's family performs shows in hotels
Krishma's cousin, Sadu, is a horse trainer
I'm on my way to discover the nomad Kalbeliya's camps
Kalbeliyas are nomadic agricultural workers
They're also sheppards
they are hindus and were considered untouchable until this discriminatory practice was abolished in 1950
Biram invites me to a Kalbeliya music concert
It is the day of Holi, celebrated in the name of Krishna
Before entering any village, the way is blocked by locals who are asking for a fee in order to continue.
Two days a year, castes don't matter, the whole country lives in a joyful anarchy.
Holi is also a celebration of colors
Hindus of all ages are getting involved in water and colored pigment battles
The youth then discovers night parties and sometimes alcohol
A police car comes and everybody escapes
Kalbeliyas are quite astonished when they discover my presence
I'll come to understand later that they have never met a foreigner before
The musicians are on the way to rock the audience until sunrise
On the way back, we stop to drink chai
Tea with milk and spices
Biram wants to show me pets in a gipsy village
There's a rabbit
And a cobra
They assure me that its venom is often extracted,
but its bite remains dangerous
When it's handled, cobra adopts a peaceful behavior
Kalbelyas gypsies have it as a symbol
dancers learned since childhood how to handle it while dancing
Biram's father in law Surumnat, is a sedentary Kalbelya,
he sometimes catches cobras and exhibits them in the villages around, in order to make money
We leave with his son, johornat
They're going to show me their way to catch a cobra
Surumnat glimpsed at something
A Nil Gai , or "Blue Cow" an Asian antelope
Once considered a nuisance because of their appetite for farming products
some gipsy castes were then in charge of hunting them
Prohibition of hunting in India in 1972 ended this habit
Surumnat finds a sleeping little python
He also finds a sand snake, the bogi , quite common in Rajashan
Potentially dangerous snakes often cross the village
Biram finds a cobra's molt
And his father in law finds a nest
He catches a monitor lizard
Its bite can start septicemia, a life threating infection
Being too small to have its skin used as a drum, he'll be freed
These reptiles can reach a surprising speed
relatives of Biram are going to show me the most dangerous lizard from Thaar's desert
Its Venom is said to be as powerful as a Cobra's
Scientists only recently discovered that poison glands exist in some lizards
Yet not one Indian lizard species has been indexed as poisonous
This animal, the fucan looks like a Bengali's monitor lizard
But it produces a blow as strong as a Cobras
This gives credit to the Kalbaliya's belief that these lizards are dangerous
On the way back, we meet women in a haircut session
And others who are digging a well
A part of the team leaves to mourn around graves
in contrast to other hindus
the kalbeliya don't cremate their deads
With the Kalbeliyas, funerals are celebrated with music and dancing
the most appreciated dancers receive bills
Kalbeliyas may be at the origin of castagnets
the kartals , simple pieces of wood or stones
Second day looking for cobras with Rakesh, another son of Surumnat
Cobras' tracks can be seen in the sand
A nest and leftovers from a meal
A Turtle
And a swarm of very aggressive wild bees
In Rajasthan, bees are all over the place
At every water spot where they bear the presence of other species
On buildings' walls
In temples
Rumal lives in a nomad Kalbeliya camp and takes me honey hunting
For safety reasons, children under ten years old are not allowed
Rumal founded a swarm in a tree
He’s gonna try to smoke them out with a bidi, a eucalyptus cigarette
Bees believe that a fire begins and start adopting an escape behavior
Back on the hunt for Cobras with Rakesh and his young son
More tracks in the sand
We meet a shepherdess
Rakesh finds a hedgehog
and after an entire day of walking we give up hope of finding a cobra
In Biram's camp, after bringing wood, we need to chop it to pieces
After stacking the wood, we have a charcoal pile
that needs to be covered with cloth
Then with soil
however, Kalbeliyas mainly wish for daughters
because their dancing shows are the most lucrative and valorised activity
Couples are often arranged from childhood
starting at the age of five
and Kalbeliyas couples stay together for their entire lives.
The Wedding occurs during adolescence
Women are preparing a paste with flour and spices
The future groom is covered with it
His mother is performing ritual gestures
Gifts are offered to the family
Men of the family play gabu gabu, an instrument made with lizard's skin
The young man is dressed with a rupee necklace
A mobile DJ has been hired, and brings guests to the bride's house
On this day, two weddings will be celebrated
The girls are blessed by the families
and the intended spouses finally meet
There are several nomadic tribes in Rajasthan
One of those is composed of travelling musicians
The Bhopas and their violins with so called sympathetic strings , the rawanhattal
And the Bagriya
nomadic seasonal workers who have an extremely close relationship with their camels
Bagriyas were a tribe of hunters until this practice was forbidden
They have a peculiar practice amongst the gypsies
Binu, a Kalbeliya gypsy will help by translating for me
However, Bagrias do not smell bad
Extreme worship practices are widespread and respected in India
The kids have untied their camels and are letting them graze for too long
Raj and his little brother have to go search for them
Raj found his camel
On the way, we meet their mother
who didn't appreciate that the animals were left without a watch
Night falls on Surumnat's village
The family is watching TV when screams start to be heard
A snake is going across the village, Kalbeliyas are called in order to catch it
It's a cobra
Surumnat puts a cloth into its mouth, in order to avoid being bitten while putting him into the basket
Dawn approaches the village
During the night, puppies were born
We're on our way to release the cobra, far from the village
The cobra must absorb sun's heat in order to move
Kalbeliyas also sell cobra's venom for a living
It's used in ayurvedic medicine in order to prevent sight problems
Kanipav Natji, their main god, is pictured using this venom
This practice is confirmed to me by an Indian doctor
I accept that he applies dried venom on my eyes
It burns during a couple seconds, then the pain blurs
At Biram camp, it's time to start burning the charcoal piles
The minimum oxygen content helps the partial combustion of the wood that turns it into coal
Three days later, the charcoal piles have lost half of their bulk
we can then open them
European Gypsies would come from rajasthan
thousands of Indians composed of castes of artisans and mysterious musicians
were deported in the middle ages by the persian then the ottoman army
nomadic indian tribes might also have migrated voluntarily
into the country now known as Turkey, then Romania.
After being Enlisted in the Egyptian army
they came back to Europe introducing themselves as Egyptians
where the word "gypsy" takes its origins
The family then sells its production to a wholesaler, who will sell the charcoal on the market
Mira, Biram's sister, is getting ready for the biggest Kalbeliya festival of the year
Four days of celebrations, with concerts and dancing gathering about 2000 gypsies
Festivals are the occasion to unveil your style
Kalbeliyas are very careful about the uniqueness of their clothing
they design it themselves and have it made by local tailors
They have developed a unique fashion which is perpetually evolving
Every evening, families join eachother for a concert
During the night, youths engage in dance battles
Once again, the audience gives bills to their favorite dancer
In the morning's cold, every family lights a fire
chai is offered to me
Utensils are washed with ashes
In June the temperature can reach 50 degrees Celsius or 120 degrees farenheit
the central tent is air-conditioned with humid cloths
The day proceeds in the tempo of dancing shows
Young girls invite me to join a makeup session
The Time has come for me to leave the Kalbeliyas
People for whom art is a lifestyle
their knowledge of desert, their peculiar style, their history,
and their worldwide influence towards music makes them a unique people
India might lose part of its culture on the way to development
but i believe in the Kalbeliyas' future
they will adapt, and improvise
as they always have