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.

Shame-e-Ghariban

(Click to enlarge for better detail)

Today is the 10th of Muharram, Sham-e-Ghariban or literraly the evening of desolation is observed. The grandon of the Prophet Muhammed and his small but brave band of 72 followers fought a much larger (20,000-30,000) army of the tyrant Yazid. Water was denied to Imam Hussain's caravan which included small children and women on the 7th of Muharram on the orders of Yazid even though they were camped on the banks of the river Euphrates. The camp now had no supply of water and the enemy hoped to force Husayn to surrender on account of thirst.

This photograph is of a private imambargah setup in a house during the month of Muharram, it displays representations of Imam Hussain's Army's standard known as the "Alam". The standard bearer of the Imam's Army was Hazrat Abbas. Hazrat Abbas could not bear the outcry from the chidren and finally got the permission to get water keeping in mind that he was not to engage in combat of any sort.Abbas ibn Ali alone marched towards the Euphrates river in broad daylight. He succeeded in filling his water skin but on his way back, he was struck from behind and one of his arm was amputated then he was again struck and his second arm was amputated, he was the water bag in his mouth but an arrow struck the water bag and water poured out of it. The water blockade continued up to the end of the battle on Muharram 10 nigh.

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.

Back Again

Happy New year everyone, I have been away from Lahore daily photo for quite some time. The reason is that I started farming full time and rural areas in Pakistan do not have very good internet connections. My GPRS was not letting me upload pictures. I will try my best to post everyday but it will be close to impossible so bear with me for a while.

Update

I would like to apologise to my regular readers for my sudden dissapering act, for those who wrote to check on me, thanks for your concerns and wishes. I had some problems I had to deal with and then my internet connection died for the past one week. I hope to get back as soon as I can, hopefully within a couple of days.

Poverty

There is so much poverty that children from different households spend all day following harvesters around, after the harvest they go through the field collecting stalks of wheat which might have fallen from the harvester, in all probability they would collect less then a KG of wheat each a day through the 10-15 days of harvest, but they keep at it to feed themselves at night.

Carrying Water

Some Gypsy families lived in a camp some distance from my farm, they did not have access to any water so women used to come to the farm throughout the day to pump water from the hand pump and carry it back on their heads.

Transportation

A common transportation in the urban areas is this three wheel vehicle, with the front of a motorcycle and the back of a rickshaw, powered by a "Peter Engine" it is capable of carrying heavy loads.

Sunset

City life in Pakistan is very crowded, with buildings all over, dust and smog and you don't get so see much of nature's colors, this bright orange sky was thus a treat at the village, almost the same colors everyday.

Sunny Fields

A warm welcome to my fellow readers from the fields of "Tilwandi Bhindran" a small village 70 km from Lahore. Thank you all for visiting and commenting on the posts in my absence, blogger worked perfectly on draft mode only I overstayed my visit to the farm so missed a couple days of posts. The next week I will post pictures from the farm and the village with stories to give you all an insight into rural life in Pakistan. Even though we own land and farm in the area this was my longest stay at the farm so a lot of things were eye opening for me too. For now Enjoy this picture of a field of sunflowers, planted for its seeds which are used to make edible sunflower oil.