Safari &Tribal Village Experience

You will experience the village life of the communities that you will be visiting. You will visit the communities of our volunteers. These communities are:

Bishnoi - They are desert farmers and cattlers. Bishnoi in Rajasthani language means "twenty-nine", as they follow 29 principles, set forth to facilitate their life in the desert. Some of these principles are: never cut a tree, never kill any animal (this also means that they are vegentarian), man is a symbol of simplicity so they have simple clothe and woman is a symbol of growth so they wear colorful clothes. They speak Bishnoi, a dialect of Rajasthani. Unlike other ethnic groups in Rajasthan, all Bishnoi speak the same language and not other local languages.

Bishnoi village tour

This is a half a day introductory tour to the daily life, traditions and cast system organization of a Bishnoi village close to Jodhpur. You will also have the chance to see some wild life around Jodhpur like antelopes, wild cows, peacocks, vultures’, etc. We will show you how the village work is organized among the casts; have a tradition Rajasthani lunch in the village. We pick you at 8am in Jodhpur and will be back in the afternoon, around 3 or 4pm.

Raika - They are a semi nomadic people, moving cattle around Northern India. They used to have their own specific routes in the past. Their life is based on a certain village, which is used only a couple of months a year. The rest of the year they are in constant migration with their families. Migration determines their whole life, children are born in forests and they have ancient astronomical knowledge which they use to guide their migrations. They dresses are very distinct, mean wear a big red turban and women wear colorful clothes with ivory and silver jewelry.

Manganiar - Their main activity is music and singing throughout the Indian subcontinent. They make their living out of singing traditional songs in the villages where they live. They have their own instruments and their own songs. Some follow Hinduism, some follow Islam. They live mostly in the desert, both in India and Pakistan. In desert villages, other people do not consider their own lives as complete if the Manganiar are not around. Their daily life is full of music, which accompanies all their life events (births, rains, guests arriving, migration of cattle, travelling in the desert, etc.

Bhopa - They constitute a different kind of musicians. They spend their lives in a camel cart, going from village to village. They have their own music and dancing style. Originally they were the soldier of Pabuji, an important landlord and warrior. He ruled over a small province in the desert on the 12th century, and he fighter the Mongols to save the cows and Brahmans. Pabuji died in that war and when he was dying he told the Bhopa to spread out the message to save their nation, and they decided to use music as the means to do so. So they started to sing and move from place to place. Once a year most Bhopa go to the temple of Pabuji in a Kolu village close to Jaisalmer.

Bheel - Bheel tribes are located both on the desert and on the hills. They are very good hunters and their main activity used to be hunting. Presently the live mostly out of catting although they still hunt. In the past they used to be volunteer soldiers for the Mewar province of Rajasthan. In 1562 they played a major role in the battle between Maharana Partab, the king of Mewar, and Akbar, the emperor of the Mughal empire of Delhi. More than 80% of the Mewar army was Bheel soldiers. They were specilly talented for guerrilla warfare. Some Bheel are also very good healers and known for their artisanal wine, which is now their main source income source.

Garasia, Koly, Gameti - They are ancient hunting tribes in Asia and currently live in the hilly areas of south Rajasthan. They use to arrange marriages only once a year in big communal fairs. They have very strict community rules. They sort out every problem within their community according to their own rules and very rarely they resort to local authorities. Their clothing is very different from all the rest of the ethnic groups. Garasia, Koly and Gameti are quite similar among them but live in different hilly areas and do not mix among themselves.

Menna - They used to live in the hills. Their main income source in the past came from stealing from other neighboring communities. They would steal cattle, jewlery, etc. Some of them also used to be soldiers for kings. The armies of the Roopnagar province used to be 90% Menna.

Rajput - Originally Rajput were soldiers (some 3000 or 4000 years ago). They are very patriotic, having their culture are rules, never mixing with each other. They speak Marwari and they are known across Rajasthan to be the ones who speak it in the softest way. Rajput hospitality is traditionally known across all India since ancient times. The Marwar land is also known as the land of death, mainly because of Rajput, since they would give their lives with generosity to national causes. They are bravery, hospitality and soft language is part of their blood.

We organize tours for any number of days, from one day (and night) up to one month. During that time, you will live with the communities of your choice sharing the daily life with them, learning their way of life, history and traditions. This means, that you can design your own cultural itinerary through these villages. We recommend a minimum stay of two days for each community. Just use your imagination and cultural wishes to design your routes. For instance, here you are some proposals:

Nomadic Tribes Experience: 6 days, 3 days with the Raika nomadic cattlers and 3 days with the Bhopa nomadic musicians.

Desert Village Life Experience: 10 days sharing the life of the different ethnic groups of the same neighbouring villages in the desert, including the Bishnoi naturalist, the Rajput, the Manganiar musician and Bhil hunters.

Ancient Soldiers Experience -10 days living among the Rajputs, Menna and Bheel both in the Rajasthani desert and hills. Please note that I the communities that you wish to visit are very far appart you should take into account the time to travel among them. In general you can foresee to spend about half a day to move between any two communities. Crossing Rajasthan from north to south takes about one day. Note that tours to meet the Bhopa must be organized at least with one month in advance, as we need to find them. All village life tours may start and finish in the mayor Rajasthan towns (Jaipur, Jodhpur, Bikaner, Siroi, Jaisalmer and Udaipur).

Safaris

Camel safari

We organize camel safaris throughout the Thaj desert for any number of days (minimum one day and one night). We go deep in the desert away fom touristic routes and big towns (Jaisalmer, Jodhpur and Bikaner), as the network of volunteers working for Nitigat live in many villages throughout the desert. We will travel from desert village to desert village, seeing and sharing their way of life, etc. Village people will welcome you genuinely, as their lives do not depend on tourism. We will sleep outside on the dunes, in tents or under the stars if you prefer. If you want you will also have the chance to learn how to ride a camel yourself. Our guides are professional camel riders, who used to serve in the army training their camels.

Horse safari

We organize horse safaris starting the horse ride from the city of Jodhpur. Safaris last between one day (leave in the morning and come in the evening) and 5 days. During the ride you will have the chance to visit the rural areas around Jodhpur, monuments and cultural sites.