Sufi

Turkistan – A Journey to Turkistan

A pilgrimage to the holy land of Trkistanrkistan The holy journey to the holy land The train departed from Almaty 1 train station after I had a little incident with station police. I was just informed that taking photos in a train station was extremely prohibited. I was taking photos of the train, passengers, and security officers, and then suddenly a man called me to follow him to a special room. Here I was interrogated by the woman who was the head of the police. I explained that I was just a tourist and I was interested by the Russian train. They let me go after I deleted the photos. Many passengers of the train were students. The way going to Turkistan passes Shymkent, the important southern town bordering with Uzbekistan. Most of the passengers, compared to northbound train routes, were mostly Asians. Southern part of Kazakhstan was dominated by native Kazakh and Uzbek. The holy man The train journey was long. But as here, most passengers were Kazakh and Uzbek, comparatively they [read more]

December 12, 2006 // 0 Comments

Uch Sharif – The Saint City

May 5, 2006 Half Left Bahawalpur is the gate to the saint city of Uch Sharif, where some of the most holy men of Islam and Sufi were putting their roots here. Uch Sharif is said to had the second oldest university, after Rome. Where in Rome, the universities were already left their medieval time, replaced by cableless internet connection equipped classrooms, the religious schools in Uch Sharif were still looked wrapped by the time of their heydays. Uch Sharrif is about 100 kms away from Bahawalpur. The bus had to change in a nearby city, Ahmedpur, which was 20 kms away from Uch. The bus conductors, as in other places in Pakistan, would admit everybody even when they were sure that the bus wouldnt take the passenger to the destination. I departed early to avoid the summer heat (reach almost 45 now), but still I spent too much time on road because the bus going to other direction insisted to take me anyway. And as result of this friendly and helpful ticket seller, I was lost in the [read more]

May 5, 2006 // 1 Comment

Lahore – Sufism

Regale Internet Inn 150 Rs Berputar… berputar… berputar… Bagi kita, sufisme mungkin sudah tidak asing lagi. Kisah-kisah tentang Syeikh Siti Jenar sudah sering kita dengar berkali-kali. Dan penggabungan antara mistisme dengan religiusme Islam sudah bukan merupakan hal baru lagi di Indonesia, di mana Islam berbaur kental dengan hembusan nafas kehidupan Pra-Islam (Hinduisme, Buddhisme, dan animisme). Lagu adalah bagian dari spiritualisme kaum Sufi Menari demi sang Kekasih tercinta Di Pakistan pun sufisme merupakan bagian dari kehidupan Islamnya. Setiap hari Kamis siang, pemusik-pemusik sufi berkumpul di Masjid untuk memainkan musik-musik yang membius hati. Tak kurang dari 40 grup musik dari penjuru-penjuru desa datang ke sini, dan setiap grup menampilkan pertunjukan dari 5 hingga 7 menit. Alunan akordion dan gambus seakan merupakan ekstasi bagi sebagian penonton, yang tak hentinya menggelengkan kepala dengan cepat mengikuti alunan musik, bahkan ada pula yang [read more]

December 15, 2005 // 1 Comment