Rathayatra – the Pageant of Chariots: Yearly in June or July individuals pull enormous embellished chariots via the streets of London. The primary pageant right here befell in 1969 however such chariot festivals have taken place in India since 1150 CE.
In 1968 three American {couples} got here from San Francisco and organised London’s first Rathayatra pageant, on July 27, 1969. The deities Jagannatha, Baladeva, and Subhadra made for this are nonetheless worshipped in London.
Worldwide Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) or Hare Krishna, a Gaudiya Vaishnava Hindu spiritual motion based in New York in 1966 turned nicely jknown within the UK significantly as a result of the Beatles had visited India in 1967 and so they turned buddies of thye Hare Krishnas with George Harrison significantly selling them.
He persuaded Apple Data to launch a single “Hare Krishna Mantra” launched in August 1969, and funds from this enabled them to arrange a temple in London. They outgrew this and in 1973 Harrison purchased a manor home with in depth grounds in Radlett, Hertfordshire which he gave to them as was renamed Bhaktivedanta Manor.
The primary event I photographed the procession was on twentieth June 2004 once I adopted the procession from Hyde Park to a pageant in Trafalgar Sq.. Right here I’ll reproduce (with corrections to case & spelling) what I wrote again then, together with a couple of of the photographs I took.
“Sunday the streets of London have been alive to the sound of ‘Hare Khrisna, Hare Krishna , Krsna Krishna , Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare….’ as a number of thousand supporters pulled three 40ft tall embellished wood chariots from Hyde park to Trafalgar sq. to have fun the Indian pageant of Rathayatra – the Carnival of Chariots.
An extension from Hinduism, Krishna Consciousness isn’t my factor, involving abstinence from alcohol, espresso, meat, onions, mushrooms and intercourse aside from the needs of procreation.
The motion has come a great distance from its roots in New York’s Decrease East Facet within the flower-power years, however nonetheless appears part of these instances.
All respect to the sincerity, honesty and friendliness of those individuals, and it was a terrific present, the largest in London but, however a couple of hours of being variety and good and aiming for perfection was sufficient to final me the 12 months.
I additionally photographed the pageant in a number of later 12 months and put accounts and footage on-line.
You will discover extra footage from twentieth June 2004 on My London Diary.
Flickr – Fb – My London Diary – Hull Images – Lea Valley – Paris
London’s Industrial Heritage – London Images
All images on this web page are copyright © Peter Marshall.
Contact me to purchase prints or licence to breed.
Tags: Baladeva, Beatles, Chariot Pageant, chariots, devotees, flower energy, George Harrison, big chariots, Hare Hare, Hare Krishna, Hare Rama, Hindu, Hindu spiritual motion, India, ISKCON, Jagannatha, juggernauts, Krishna Consciousness, London, London Images, mantra, peter Marshall, Rathayatra, Subhadra
You possibly can depart a response, or trackback from your individual website.
