Women carrying water

It is common to see women carrying water on their head in places where potable water is not available.

Art Festival

This picture was taken at the World Performing Arts festival at the fortress stadium in November, Artists from all over the world participated. Art and Music is highly appreciated by a majority of people in Pakistan, but sadly events like these even with high security are the targets by subversive elements of society who deem art as an evil anti islamic activity. This particular festival had a bombing in its last few days, fortunately no lives were lost but it was enough to discourage people from attending.

Hafiz Sahib

Since I started Lahore Daily I have been showing buildings and sights from lahore but not showcasing people of the city, the main reason is that people are reluctant to be photographed. I will try to show more people from the city in the future, This is Hafiz Sahib, Hafiz being a sort of title/qualification because he has memorized the Quran. Hafiz Sahib is an auto mechanic.

Tomb

This is the tomb of one of the most powerful advisors and the most powerful inister of the Mughal court Asaf Khan, The Taj Mahal was built in honor of his Daughter. Sadly the building is crumbling and plants growing all over the walls because of lack of care and maintanance.

Birds

Two birds sitting on top of a tree right infront of my terrace.

Lovely Blue Sky

The sky looked lovely with scattered clouds all over when I took this photograph.

Minar

This is one of the Minar s or Minaret at the Badshahi Mosque in Lahore, the lighting at night makes it even more beautiful.

Its a Bugger

A squirrel at the Farm, I'm still away from the city and it took me 20 mins. to upload this re sized image of 115 KB. I will try my best to keep uploading pictures everyday but it will be hard. Thanks for visiting and your patience with my sporadic postings.

Shahi Majid

This is another one of the Badshahi Mosque Also known as the Shahi Masjid, Taken prom the main entrance this captures the whole courtyard and the mosque structure.

Closeup Badshahi Mosque

Another picture of the Badshahi Mosque taken from the courtyard.

Badshahi Mosque

This is the view of the badshahi mosque taken from the Lahore fort right before sunset, Tomorrow I'll post a closeup taken from the courtyard of the mosque.

Fresco Closeup

A  Mughal era floral fresco at the Badshahi Mosque.

Minar-e-Pakistan

This is the Photograph of one of the most famous monuments of Pakistan taken from the Lahore Fort, It is called Minar-e-Pakistan literally the pillar of Pakistan. It is built on the site where on 23 March 1940, seven years before the formation of Pakistan the Muslim league a political party passed the "Lahore Resolution" demanding the creation of Pakistan as a separate state for the Muslim minority of the Indian sub continent.

On another note, today was a bad day for Lahore, A series of bomb blasts shook the city starting a couple of hours earlier (aprox. 21:30 local time) till now we have had reports of at least 5 maybe 6 low intensity blasts, reports of casualties are said to be low but unconfirmed. Security Agencies and Police are telling people to be vigilant as more bomb blasts are possible.

Zuljana Shab-e-Ashour

Today was the 9th of Muharram (9th and 10 being National Holidays) the eve before Imam Hussain's Martrydom. Tonight processions known here as Jalous could be seen all over the city with thousands of devotees taking part in them. This Particular picture shows a decorated horse. It is known as the "Zuljana" and is part of almost every procession that takes to the street tonight or tomorrow afternoon. The Zuljana is a representation of Imam Hussain's loyal horse which the Imam rode all his life and during the Battle of Karbala, The Imam had inherited the horse from Prophet Muhammed.

Matam

This and the following few posts will be a series of educational posts, about something many of you have probably never heard of and will give you an insight into a people very emotional and devoted to what they believe in you can click the links in the post for further details.

Today is the 8th of Muharram the first month of the Islamic calander, Muharram is a very importnat month for Shia Muslims because on the 10 of Muharram Imam Hussain the grandson and family (consisting of 72 people) of the Prophet Muhammed were killed by an army of between 20,000-30,000 at the Battle of Karbala on the orders of Yazid because Hussain did not accept him as Caliph and was not willing to take the oath of allegiance. The next few days I intend to post pictures from Lahore which will show how the Shia mourn their Imam and his death, a celebration of justice over evil.

This picture shows devotees doing Matam.

I agree with wikipedia's description of Matam which is "Many of the male participants congregate together in public for ceremonial chest beating (matam) as a display of their devotion to Imam Husayn and in remembrance of his suffering. In some Shi'a societies, such as those in Bahrain, Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, Lebanon and Iraq, some male participants incorprate knives or razors swung upon chains into their matam. This practice is permissible by major Usooli Ayatollah such as Muhammad Shirazi and Sistani, however some major scholars such as Khameini have banned it in Iran temporarily, while others such as Fadlallah deem it permanently impermissible. In general however, the act is controversial."

Badshahi Mosque Entrance

This is the grand entrance leading into the courtyard of the Badshahi Masjid (Emporor's Mosque) , The whole entrance and a lot of the interior of the mosque is decorated with beautiful floral frescos. Built by Mughal Emperor Aurengzeb in 1673 The badshahi Masjid can accomodate 55,000 worshippers and is the second largest mosque in Pakistan.

Note: For some reason most of Pakistani's are facing blogger issues for several days, Once you open a blogger page, it does not refresh for several days, in essence I can not view the latest posts on most of the blogger based blogs most of the time. I have tried clearing my cache, histories and even flushing my DNS, It could be Blogger or it could be the ISP storing pages on its servers, and serving them stale, if any of you know a solution to such an issue please let me know.

Samadhi (Shrine) of Maharaja Ranjit Sing

This is the picture of the Samadhi (Shrine) of the great Sikh ruler of Punjab Maharaja Ranjit Singh.

Allama Iqbal's Mausoleum

This is the mausoleum of Allama Sir Muhammed Iqbal who provided the vision of Pakistan as a separate state for the Muslims of the Indian sub continent. Famous all over the world as the poet of the East his works have been translated into several languages and are studied and taught all over the world. The mausoleum is located in a courtyard between the Lahore fort and the Shahi Masjid in Lahore.

If freedom depends on belief's bargain,
In any such deal not an iota you gain,

The soul and the body here face a great clash,
Modern culture has made of us beats most rash. 

Mughal Fountain

One of the hundreds of fountains that are located inside the Lahore Fort. Now defunct these fountains would have been beautiful in their time. The fountain is carved out of white marble used extensively in Mughal architecture.

Lahore Fort

This is the "Alamgir Gate" the main entrance to the Lahore Fort, also known as the Shahi Qilla. This fort was built during the reign of Emperor Akbar between 1556 and 1605.