"The Pilgrims of Sehwan Sharif"

From all over Sind's glaring deserts, villagers of every kind put their few rupees together to rent buses. Their destination is Sehwan Sharif, a Muslim pilgrimage center on the banks of the Indus River. Sometimes crowding together in impossibly dangerous conditions, they come for a chance to pray at the tomb of the Sufi saint Hazrat Lal...
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"The Pilgrims of Sehwan Sharif"

From all over Sind's glaring deserts, villagers of every kind put their few rupees together to rent buses. Their destination is Sehwan Sharif, a Muslim pilgrimage center on the banks of the Indus River. Sometimes crowding together in impossibly dangerous conditions, they come for a chance to pray at the tomb of the Sufi saint Hazrat Lal Qalander. As it has done for centuries, the shrine rises proudly up from hundreds of dusty brown buildings around it with a triumphant glittering gold dome, the minarets surrounding it balancing blue tile and silver trim with an ascetic grace.

From dawn till dusk, in the hard light streaming through great high doors, beggars and mendicants, fakirs and supplicants, women with deformed babies, children leading blind parents, the dirty and the desperate beseech this said last descendant of the prophet Mohammed for miracles, mercy, forgiveness, or just a change of luck.

More at www.jaydunn.com
Humanitarian Issues & Cultural Tradition Worldwide

Look for the anthologies
"Ritual and Romance in Asia" and "Agadez to Accra: from the deserts of Niger to the Gulf of Guinea" at

www.ritualandromance.com
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