Scalding winds burn through the Thar desert, the empty, hostile land of Rajasthan, India’s largest state known as the Land of Kings.

It’s a place where Sikh maharajas with handlebar moustaches lived in desert fortresses to defeat raiders and protect their fiefdoms.

A place where children marriage between families cemented alliances and placated enemies.

While most of the maharajas have disappeared, their cultural traditions remain.

Opium, whose tea was consumed in the royal court, continues to be part of a culture and men still wear thick, waxed moustaches.

Walk down a street and you’ll see women dressed in ornately embroidered clothes with gold chains connecting their nose and ears.

Ian Flemming (the author of James Bond) was tipped off and Octapussy was filmed in a former Maharaja’s palace, now luxurious Taj Hotel.

It’s a place where myth and dreams collide into a sweltering desert oasis.

 

In Jaisalmer’s desert fortress, a stone city perched on a rocky hill surrounded by scorched sand, traditional Rajastani turbans dry on a stairwell.
In Jaisalmer’s desert fortress, a stone city perched on a rocky hill surrounded by scorched sand, traditional Rajastani turbans dry on a stairwell.
A Rajasthani women visiting a desert fortress in Jodhpur, Rajasthan
A Rajasthani women visiting a desert fortress in Jodhpur, Rajasthan

 

In Bikaner, an often underappreciated desert town, empty seats await passengers at the open air bus station.
In Bikaner, an often underappreciated desert town, empty seats await passengers at the open air bus station.

 

Holy rats? Drinking milk? In a Hindu temple? All true at the Karni Mata, or Rat Temple in a village 30 km south of Bikaner where nearly 20,000 rats live.According to legend the stepson of Karni Mata, a 14th century incarnation of Durga, asked Yama, the god of death to revive her just-drowned son. Yama initially refused, but eventually relented allowing her son and all of Karni Mata’s male children to be reincarnated as rats.
Holy rats? Milk? A Hindu temple? All part of the Karni Mata, or Rat Temple in a village 30 km south of Bikaner where nearly 20,000 rats live.
According to legend the stepson of Karni Mata, a 14th century incarnation of Durga, asked Yama, the god of death, to revive her just-drowned son. Yama initially refused, but eventually relented allowing her son and all of Karni Mata’s male children to be reincarnated as rats.

 

A magnificent fortress glows in the desert sun in Jodhpur. Within the Mehrangarh Fortress’s crenelated walls, beautifully ornate rooms like the above hall of public audience greeted visitors and travelers to the Rajah’s ornate home. A guard watches over the room, which like the fortress was built in 1459.
A magnificent fortress glows in the desert sun in Jodhpur. Within the Mehrangarh Fortress’s crenelated walls, beautifully ornate rooms like the above hall of public audience, greeted visitors and travelers to the Rajah’s ornate home.
A guard watches over the room, which like the fortress, was built in 1459.

 

 


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