“No foreigner has even been there,” said Gangaram, the president of Jhilimili who will be our guide. Another guy who frequented this region. told us, “The tribal people in Jhilimili eat burnt rats on a stick.” “I’ve seen the elephant gangs crush cars and homes and just last week they killed a man.” “Make sure to clap wherever you go to scare off the cobras.”
We’ve been invited to do a Hearts of the World workshop with the tribal communities in Jhilimili, Jangal Mahal, India by our friend Asis.
Up until recently it was in conflict as Maoists fought the government against new imminent domain laws which is one of the reasons Jhilimili remains greatly untouched by outside influence.
Our Tata jeep pulls up in front of the dusty tribal village and we get out. Men sit on a ledge playing cards, goats lounge lazily in the road. The women and children stare at us with dark eyes, deep as wells, filled with skepticism and uncertainty.
I pull out a little set of pigments and metal stamps that I bought in Varanasi. I show the kids, stamping my hand with colorful patterns. They are intrigued and soon after all of them are playing with me, getting stamps and stamping me back. The ice is broken and we are all smiles. We begin the workshop and the whole village comes to watch. Everybody has time here.
The kids paint what they know and love, the trees, fields, houses, cows and goats, water pumps, flowers, peacocks, the sun… their little world is full of abundance. They have everything they need in their autonomous village. They pick their fruit from the trees growing around their house, get their milk from the cows in their courtyard, draw fresh, cold water from a pump in their yard, build their own houses from mud and branches from the jungle. They have family, community and love all around them. They are rich.
In the last year, a new road has been paved to Jhilimili, allowing the outside world in. I hope that despite this road, they continue to value and protect their culture and community above the dazzle and desires of the capitalist world. I feel very honored and grateful to be able to have visited them.
They are perfect and they’ve taught me so much.
